“Nope.” The girl shook her head. “The pay isn’t great, so it’s a revolving door of students. I work only during my college breaks, but I rarely see the same people.”
“These necklaces.” Bel held up the shell. “Are they popular?”
“Oh, for sure. We sell hundreds.”
“So it wouldn’t stand out if someone bought this?”
“I’ve sold fifteen today alone.”
Bel nodded her thanks and pulled her partner aside. “A cashier’s small talk would be the perfect cover to learn if potential victims were from Bajka or not, but if this shop is a revolving door of student employees, it ruins that theory.”
“Well, we’ve seen just how charming Erik can be with the younger female crowd,” Olivia said. “A good-looking guy doesn’t need a song and dance. Girls will flirt with him simply because he smiled at them… maybe the necklace was part of the flirting.”
“How do you mean?”
“Prince & Sons does the aquarium’s signs, but that doesn’t allow Erik time to watch for girls buying necklaces. So what if that isn’t how he picks them? What if that’s how he signals he’s chosen them? His way of getting close enough to follow the girls.”
“He doesn’t choose women who bought a necklace. He gives it to the ones he wants,” Bel said, catching on.
“Ariella didn’t fit his M.O., but perhaps she got the necklace by accident. Most girlfriends who spot jewelry among their man’s belongings would assume it’s for them. He’d have to hand it over to keep her from digging.”
“Eamon left this by my hospital bed, and I never take it off.” Bel pinched the chain around her neck and offered her partner a view of the book pendant. “I didn’t even know him then, and I still assumed it was mine. Ariella would’ve probably reacted the same.”
“Turns out, the necklace marked her as a victim, anyway.”
“Before we question Erik, we should talk to Ondine again.” Bel couldn’t help but stare at the looming whale above their heads as they exited the aquarium. “She’s pissed enough to give her boyfriend the silent treatment, so maybe we can play that angle to get her to spill his secrets. She fake-dated him, and she knew Ariella wore that nautilus necklace. She’d recognize it on another woman. It’s time we drove a wedge between a couple.”
“We thought she was with Erik,”Ondine’s mother said when Bel and Olivia knocked on her door looking for her daughter. “She left her car here.” The woman pointed to the modest vehicle parked in the driveway. “That usually means he picked her up.”
“We’ll check with him,” Bel said, hiding the fact that twenty-four hours ago, Erik had no idea where his new girlfriend was. “But if she comes home, can you ask her to call us?” She handed the mother her card. “We have some questions for her.”
“Yes, of course.” Mrs. Mar tucked the card into her jeans pocket.
“Thanks.” Bel smiled. “Oh, and one more thing. How well do you know Erik?”
The mother shrugged. “As well as any parent can know their kid’s college boyfriend.”
“Were you aware that he dated Ariella before she was murdered?”
“I am.” Mrs. Mar sobered. “It’s odd, I admit, but trauma bonds people. Ondine likes him.”
“Okay, thanks. Have a good…” Bel trailed off. The woman had called Erik a college boyfriend. She didn’t know the truthabout who her daughter spent her days with, but did Bel have the right to break the trust between mother and daughter?
“You coming?” Olivia asked, and Bel decided. Murderers didn’t deserve her protection.
“Were you aware that Erik wasn’t in college?” Bel turned back to Mrs. Mar as her husband finally joined them at the front door. “He’s really twenty-eight, and Ondine is the second teenage girlfriend he’s had this summer.”
“I thoughtOndine’s father was going to punch you,” Olivia said as the duo sat in Bel’s SUV outside Erik’s residence. On the improbable chance that Ondine had spent the night here, the detectives had left her home and driven the short distance to Erik’s, but upon finding her expectantly absent, they wondered if following the young Mr. Prince would lead them to her. So far, the impromptu stakeout had been uneventful.
“I survived kidnappings, IEDs, and shootings only to be taken out by an angry dad.” Bel’s smirk didn’t reach her eyes. “Erik better hope we arrest him before his girlfriend’s father finds him.”
“Both of his girlfriends,” Olivia said.
“Yeah, Mr. Triton’s reaction wasn’t all that different.”
“My dad would’ve had the same reaction when I was nineteen.”
“Same,” Bel said. “He had a similar response to Eamon, and I’m in my thirties. Girl dads do not play when it comes to their babies.”
