Exactly.
“This person is desperately trying to stay ahead by making this look ritualistic, but doesn’t know enough aboutcases like this to pull it off. It’s red flags for us, but not for them. To this person, they’re nailing it.”
Oh, boy.
“So Jaden gets stuck in something he shouldn’t, gets killed, and then it goes through two people who solve crimes. So, they get grabbed, tortured for information to see what they know, and then dumped.”
He nodded.
“It makes sense, Gene. How do you want to work it?”
This was the tricky part.
“We’re being watched. I’d bet on it. Someone is curious to see if we’ll pull this off. I think we need to just move along, working this, but keep focused on one thing.”
Ethan waited.
“Why Esmeralda? That’s what doesn’t fit for me. They went out of their way to point this at her, and I doubt it’s random. I bet if we scratch around her, we might find someone tied to her that is involved in this.”
That worked for him.
“So stop researching anywhere else and focus on the priestess with the bar?”
Gene went there.
“Someone picked her for a reason, and I’m willing to bet if we find the small threads, we’ll get the big one to tug on. What did she do at Jaden’s place?” he asked.
Ethan knew.
“She was a waitress and bartender. Why?”
He knew what was bothering him.
“Then how the hell did she afford to buy a church, renovate it, and make the kind of money she’s making? Someone doesn’t like her, and that someone might be our killer. They put the bullseye on her next.”
Oh, boy.
“So we’re definitely going there and skipping Jaden’s once restaurant?”
He nodded.
And for one major reason.
Gene didn’t want the killer seeing them snooping around the same scene that kicked this off. They’d do this low-key behind this killer’s back in order to out them.
“That’s on our plans for date night,” he said. “We’ll go there and have a few drinks, look around, and do it on the DL. If she’s innocent, and not part of this, I don’t want to go in with badges out and fuck her business—or alert this killer that we’re onto them. For all we know, that’s this idiot’s plan. It might be how he’s keeping tabs on us. He laid the clues, so he knows if we’re following them.”
Ethan agreed there.
That was a possibility.
“If everyone has moved on from the original victim’s business, there’s no point wasting time there. Let the killer think we’re behind and incompetent. We’ll focus onDark Spiritsfirst, because I’m telling you…there’s a reason.”
Ethan was down with that.
Honestly, he trusted his partner.
“Let’s look at the clues that don’t fit. There’s the woman likely being framed, and then there’s the big one. What the hell is the sugar with the sand in it? We said it’s likely not some boardwalk festivities, so…?”
