I inhaled and held my breath, trying to keep the stench of the garbage from entering my nose. Using a couple of wooden crates that were nearby, I stacked and used them to stand on to look over into the dumpster. No way in hell was I about to stick any part of my body inside. Who the hell knew how many used syringes and all types of bodily fluid floated around in that chemical cesspool.
Luck must’ve been on my side, because I didn’t need to do much digging, anyway. Using the stem of my flashlight, I moved a few bags around, and one broke. First, dark brown hair was revealed. I turned the flashlight to discover it wasn’t dark brown hair, but blond hair stained by blood.
Slowly, I got down off of the crates and looked between Manny and the new guy. “We just found Nathan Lane,” I declared, frowning and feeling disgusted by the fact it wasn’t me who put the bullet in his head.
“Police?” Manny questioned.
Sighing, I nodded. “We may need them to get forensics and shit.”
“What do we tell them?”
I gave Manny a story to tell the police so they wouldn’t know the real reason we were out there. He called from the truck as the three of us disposed of the leather gloves and guns in the truck’s compartments. We spent hours there, conveying the information we could find back to Sy and Bass at the office. We still had work to do. Though we knew Nathan Lane’s name and where he’d been living for the past few months, we didn’t know a lot about his background. His juvenile records had been sealed. Bass and Sy were working on getting those uncovered. It took a little more time to dig into the history of someone whose juvie files were sealed.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Did you get the records yet?” I questioned, looking over my shoulder to make sure Jodi was still out of the room.
“Yeah, finally. You got time now, or do you want to wait until tomorrow when you’re down at the office?”
I shook my head. “Tell me now,” I said, holding the phone between my head and my shoulder and pushing the door closed. Jodi and I had gotten in from a run on the trails, and she was taking a shower. “Talk fast.”
“Nathan Lane. Born in Arlington. Spent his life there until the age of five. Then his parents were killed in a car accident. He was put in foster care since he didn’t have any relatives willing to take him in. Apparently, he was a troublemaker even as a little kid. He moved around from home to home. Ran away a ton, got into fights and trouble at school. At sixteen, he was made to stay in a group home when no foster parent wanted to take him in any longer. Later that same year, he got arrested for beating a kid so badly, he suffered lifelong brain damage.”
Sy paused. I heard the heaviness in his voice.
“You need someone else to do this?”
“No, it’s fine. I got it. Spent the next three years in juvie. Got out, and it looks like Nathan lived a life of crime. Hotels like the one where you found his body is where he stayed off and on for the past few years.”
“Any jobs? Employment history?”
“Short stints, it looks like he took on to appease his PO, but nothing that lasted longer than a year.”
“Known associates?”
“That’s one of the main hiccups. Known associates are limited. Every one of them that we can find from his adulthood is either dead or in jail.”
“Right, so it has to be a connection to someone from his earlier years.”
“We’re on it. We got his juvie records opened, but it’s going to take some time and deeper investigation to pull up all the names of foster homes he was in and who he came into contact with.”
“I’m aware. Have Manny and Bass assist you with the investigation. If we have to take a trip up to Arlington to speak to his former foster parents, let’s book it. I’ve got a feeling that whoever set him up to break into Jodi’s home is someone from deep in his past.”
Aside from the bid Nathan did in juvie, most of his offenses were nonviolent. He had a slew of burglaries, grand theft auto, and a few drug possession charges, but nothing like murder or even attempted murder.
My best guess was that whoever had gotten him to attack Jodi as she slept was someone he was willing to put his neck on the line for. When I considered my own life, I knew the only people I’d have that kind of loyalty for were Gabe, Ace, and my father.
“Who was that?”
I peered up from the cell phone in my hand to see Jodi entering the room, a towel wrapped around her waist. I allowed my eyes to zero in on the droplets of water that lingered on her shoulders. My mouth watered to lick her dry.
“Sy,” I responded, my voice tight. As soon as I replied, I got an idea that I needed to text Sy about.
“This case or a different one?” she asked as she began using the lotion she’d brought in from the bathroom to moisturize.
“Different one,” I lied.
Somehow, I managed to pull my gaze away from her and began texting Sy.
