Harlequin Intrigue April 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 by Carol Ericson (beginner reading books for adults .txt) 📗

she wouldn’t want to hear anything about McAllister—nothing good, anyway. And she hadn’t.

She toyed with her straw. “I will be waiting with bated breath for Two Shots Fired.”

He coughed and wiped his eyes. “Don’t wait too long. Tito could be a grandpa by then, all his muscles shriveled and sagging.”

Her mouth quirked up on one side, her snappy comeback stalled on her lips as she took in the sight of an attractive young woman on her phone at another table. The woman looked up as a man on his phone approached, but she kept talking, smiling and laughing. When the man reached the table, she ended the call, as did he. They’d obviously been talking to each other.

He leaned forward, kissed her on the cheek and took the chair next to hers, not across, but next to.

“Hey, you.” Jake tapped her plastic cup with his finger. “What’s so fascinating over there when you have the screenwriter for Shots Fired sitting in front of you?”

“I was watching that couple at the table right next to the sidewalk.” As Jake shifted his head, she said, “Don’t be obvious.”

“I’m a detective.” He moved his chair, scraping it on the concrete. “Yeah? What about them?”

“Rachel told me that call girls work this block.”

“They do.”

“We, Rachel and I, were wondering about the woman found at the Malibu fire. You haven’t ID’d her yet, right? No missing persons reports match her description?”

“I wouldn’t say that. This is LA. It’s a vast area and a lot of people go missing here—some on purpose, just like Marilyn Lake.”

Her head snapped back. “Don’t say that name in public.”

“Sorry.” He drew a line across his mouth with his fingertip. “We did consider the idea that the third victim—or she would’ve been the first victim—was a sex worker, but I don’t think he’s targeting prostitutes. If he swept her up in his net, it wasn’t because he picked her up for business.”

“No, but it could’ve been because she’d been frequenting this area. We already have one of the women tied to Melrose Avenue and the killer himself because of Rachel’s phone.”

“We’ll ID her. Billy will.” He took a sip of coffee. “I had the queen of diamonds fingerprinted and—just like her sister, the queen of hearts—it’s clean. I also looked at the footage of the street in front of the station, taken yesterday when your car was parked there. A big, fat nothing again. If you had been in the lot, we would’ve gotten a look at the person who dropped that card next to your car. Couldn’t catch anything on the street.”

“I can guarantee you, if I’d parked my car in the lot there wouldn’t have been any card. Give the guy some credit.”

“You’re probably right.” Jake caught a bead of moisture running down the outside of his cup and smeared it away. He picked up the cup and studied the blue logo on the side. “Uncommon Grounds. I’ve seen a lot of these popping up.”

“I think it started in Portland. There are already a few in Santa Monica and once they get a foothold in Santa Monica and West Hollywood, you know they’re going to take off.”

He brought the cup closer to his face and traced over the zigzag on the logo that looked like mountains. “I’ve seen this before.”

“Yeah, it’s right behind you.” She pointed over his shoulder at the same logo painted on the window of the store they’d just left.

“No, I mean I’ve seen this before.” He grabbed the satchel at his feet and hauled it onto the table.

He unzipped it and dragged out a stack of files.

Kyra’s heart skipped a beat. “You’re not going to look at crime scene photos in the middle of a sidewalk patio, are you?”

“Not quite crime scene, but crime related.” He glanced up. “Don’t worry, nothing gruesome.”

Her leg jiggled up and down, rocking the table. “What is it?”

“The car.” He abandoned one file for another. “Pictures of the inside of Marissa’s car.”

Kyra hopped from her chair to the one next to Jake’s and hovered over the open file on the table.

He flipped through the photos quickly until he stopped at one of a red compact. “This is Marissa’s car. Just like with Kelsey’s car, we found her phone and purse inside. Also, like Kelsey’s car, there was no video of what occurred there when she was forced to abandon it.”

He thumbed through the next few photos and snatched one from the pile. He stabbed his finger at the picture, and Kyra leaned in closer for a better view.

She jerked up her head. “It’s a coffee cup—a coffee cup from Uncommon Grounds.”

“You know how we were just discussing connections to this area?” His lids fell over his hazel eyes half-mast, and he seemed to be studying every face coming and going on the sidewalk from beneath them. “Looks like we might be right in the middle of his hunting ground.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Kyra craned her neck around to look at the coffee place behind them. “You think Marissa got her coffee at this Uncommon Grounds?”

“I know it could’ve been any of the other stores, but it’s interesting, isn’t it? Kelsey gets her nose pierced on this street. Rachel has her phone lifted on this street, most likely from Uncommon Grounds, and now Marissa is tied to this same area with an empty coffee cup in her car from the same place. It’s a long shot, but we have to start somewhere and this seems like a good place to do that.”

“I agree. What next?”

“As long as I’m here and as long as I have Marissa’s picture with me, I’m going to ask that manager if she remembers Marissa. They must have their regulars.”

“Should I go with you?”

“I’ll go in alone.” He rapped his knuckles on the table. “Save our spot.”

Kyra’s face fell just a little. As invaluable as she was to have on this task force, he already had a partner and he still didn’t trust Kyra completely.

Jake returned to Uncommon Grounds