“Impress me because I’m better than all of youElliot?” Bree asks.
“Took the last piece of garlic breadElliot?” Marcus scowls. Guess he’s not over that one yet. Bree pats his arm.
I roll my eyes. “He’s not that bad.”
“No, he’s perfectly nice,” Cami says sincerely, with a smileand everything.
“And also a guy,” Bree adds.
“And Itotallycalled it,” Sloan claims.
Bullshit.“You didn't call shit,” I dismiss her.
“How could you have possibly known he was into men?” Matt asks, sounding offended. A pang of guilt hits me right in the chest. I really should have talked to him about it more clearly.
“I mean, isn't everyone a little bit bi?” Sloan says matter-of-factly.
And all the curious minds in the room find a new target. “That's such a bi thing to say,” Bree points out. Because yeah…
“Sloan, areyoua little bit bi?” I ask carefully.
She waves me off. “Don’t worry about it. Did Meena update you about the body we found in the forest?” she asks, transparently changing the topic. Huh, do I need to explore that? Or should I give her time to figure it out?
“Oh yeah, it was brought in the next day,” Marcus chimes in before I can decide whether I need to poke Sloan more. Guess her distraction game is solid. “Apparently, a forest ranger found the body before the Bureau agents could get to it.”
“That checks out. It would have been surprising if the Bureau had reached there in time,” Bree sighs.
“Sucks, though,” Sloan says.
It really does, but what can we do? “I’m sure it’s being investigated,” I say. Or at least it’s in the never-ending pipeline. “We have our own case to solve.”
Everyone scrambles to get back to work. We have a serial killer to find before my friends’ brains melt trying to understand my beautiful, sophisticated boards.
“So we’re currently trying to figure out where our killer is getting the drugs from. We’re compiling a list of suppliers, clinics, stores, and hospitals that keep Valmeron and Myocardiner to see if we can find some pattern,” I explain.
“We didn’t find a single person who might have known all the vics?” Sloan asks, squinting at the boards.
“No,” I point to the board. “There are only a couple ofconnections between them, and most of them are kind of a stretch. They don’t go to the same gym, hang out in the same places, share a workplace, or even run in similar circles. It almost seems like a random murder spree, other than the fact that they’re all suspects of murders in the Bureau records,” I explain.
“Not in human records,” Matt raises an eyebrow that reminds me weirdly of Elliot.
I shake my head. “Their alleged victims' deaths were ruled as animal attack in all the cases.”
“Huh. So, it can be someone who has access to Bureau records? Maybe it’s their way of lightening our workload?” Sloan suggests.
“I did think of that. So, I checked every officer who was in the city around the time of the murders. Not a single one was here for all of them.”
“So maybe human police?” Marcus suggests.
“Thought about that, too. You know, when anyone checks a case file, it goes on the records, right? I checked who accessed the files of the alleged victims ofourvictims, no pattern. Some of them weren’t even opened around the time of the murders,” I explain.
Camilla nods. “I guess we’re looking at the list then.”
I nod. “We’re looking at the list.”
Chapter Nine
Mission Briefs, Masked Feelings, and Mandatory Meals
