Gene shook his head.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said. “I’m sure it wasn’t all bad times.”
She smiled at him next.
“Well, I’m really good at great times…”
He ended that there and then.
“Honey, barking up the wrong tree. He’s an ass man, and I’m a dick man. We play for the same team.”
She got it.
Only, that didn’t stop her.
“I’m rich.”
That made Gene laugh.
“Lean into that, but also go with your sense of humor, Mrs. Padilla. You’re really funny.”
She patted his arm.
“Can I go in? I don’t want to look at him anymore. He’s making me so angry I could kick the hell out of a corpse.”
Yeah, well, the ME wouldn’t like that.
Now would he?
“Go ahead,” they offered, and she did.
When she was gone, Gene was curious.
“Do you think she could have killed him?”
Ethan shook his head.
“The dude is a good three hundred pounds of rich-man fat. She couldn’t carry him. This is going to have to be someone strong enough. There areNOdrag marks from the car to where he was dumped.”
Yeah, he was likely right.
“This person clearly ambushed him while he was out, likely in his car. What concerns me the most is he was at the same bar that we’re thinking of hitting due to ties to this case. Esmeralda Barada is all over this case.”
Yes, yes, she was.
Still, Gene grinned.
And took the opportunity to bust his ass.
“People don’t look in the back seat like they should,” he joked.
AGAIN.
“Still?” he asked. “We’re going to ride my ass over that still?”
Gene laughed.
“I mean, I like riding that ass,” he said. “And I’m definitely an ass man too.”
