“He must have changed his schedule since you broke up, because over the past few months, I’ve seen them in here once or twice a week. And always around this time.”
“Is it just them?” I asked. “Or does anyone else meet them?”
“Sometimes there are a few other guys with them. Not always the same guys at the same time though.”
“Do you know any of their names?” I asked, shifting in my chair to get a surreptitious look at them. They were leaning across the table, in an intense conversation.
“Brad and Keith are the regulars, but I think one of them is named Roger.”
Roger. I went through a mental list of detectives and landed on Roger Nelson. “Can I borrow your phone?”
He looked suspicious. “Why?”
“I don’t have a smart phone, and I want to look someone up.”
He reluctantly handed over his phone. I pulled up his browser and searched for Roger Nelson, then handed the phone back to him. “This him?”
Bobby took it and lifted it closer. “This guy looks a few years younger, but yeah. That’s him.”
I nodded, then heard a familiar voice behind me.
“You flirtin’ with the customers, Bobby? That’s not like you.”
I tried not to tense up when Keith walked up to the bar and stood right next to me. Thankfully my hair was partially covering my cheek. Score one for long hair.
“She’s an old family friend,” Bobby said smoothly as he locked his screen and tucked his phone in his pants pocket. “You boys need a refill already?”
“Been a rough week,” Keith said, resting a hand on the counter. He turned slightly toward me. “You gonna introduce me to your family friend?”
“Amber,” I said, pitching up my voice slightly and adding a southern drawl. I kept my focus on the back wall as though I couldn’t be bothered with him. “And I have a boyfriend, so you’re wastin’ our time.”
Bobby chuckled. “I’ll bring your drinks over to your table.”
Keith stayed in place, and I could feel his gaze burning into me. “You sure you don’t want some company? I love blonds with long hair.” He picked up a strand and fingered it.
“Asshole,” I said, keeping my drawl, but barely. I struggled to hide my shock. He was acting nothing like the man I’d known and dated. “If you don’t get away from me in the next three seconds, I’ll call the police.”
“And what do you think they’ll charge me with?” he asked with a laugh. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “It’s not a crime to hit on a woman.”
“Maybe it should be.” Then, because my temper got the better of me, I elbowed him hard in the solar plexus.
He doubled over, and I was pleased to see I’d effectively knocked the wind out of him. I set a twenty on the counter and started to walk out the door, but then, because he was already bent over, and it was far too tempting, I planted my foot on his ass and shoved hard enough that he fell to his hands and knees.
“Put your hands on me again, and this will feel like foreplay.”
Then I walked out the door, Keith still trying to catch his breath, while Bobby burst out laughing.
When the cool night air hit my face, I realized that had been incredibly stupid. Brad could have come over and arrested me for assault or at least made my life hell for a good fifteen to twenty minutes.
Actually, it was interesting that he hadn’t. Was it because he didn’t want anyone with the department to know about their late-night meetings at a high-end bar?
Or maybe my imagination was trying to find issues where there weren’t any. Just because they were meeting for drinks didn’t mean they were up to something nefarious, present behavior excluded. Cops met for drinks after work all the time. But this wasn’t the bar they usually frequented. And I had never known him to go out this late. It was definitely suspicious.
I drove the car back to the hotel and parked in the garage, then took the elevator up to our room.
James still hadn’t texted or called, and I told myself to stop worrying. Desperate for a distraction, I grabbed my laptop. Carter had emailed me an arrest report for Joshua Nixon with the message, “Could this be him?”
Joshua Nixon was thirty-five. His black hair was longer than Emily had described, but that didn’t mean anything. His lower face was covered in stubble, and it grew in a scruffy pattern on his jaws. But it was the dark, deadly look in his eyes that convinced me this was the guy she’d met.
