Okay, he didn’t hate it.
Not even a little.
“Basically,” Luca began, “we’ve learned that the only things the members of the country club have more of than money are secrets.” He laughed. “And maybe exes. Let’s just say, the sanctity of marriage is lost on these people. And I’m only halfway through the membership roster.”
Brantley rolled his eyes. “Anyone hidin’ their second job as murder-for-hire? Or maybe have a hobby of kidnappin’?”
“Not yet. But it’s still early.”
Technically, it was no longer early, but Brantley didn’t bother to relay that detail. He had missed breakfast, and they were quickly moving toward lunchtime, and he was beginning to feel it. Food was definitely on the agenda for the very near future.
“I’ve been lookin’ into some of the hate mail we … uh …foundon the HJW servers,” JJ informed him, “and there are definitely some people who’re pissed off about the retail/office space.”
“Anyone more so than others?”
“I was lookin’ at that initially, but I’ve shifted directions.” She took a breath. “I know Trey and Evan are gonna do more diggin’, but we got the ME’s findings from the autopsies on the dead guys. I’m not an expert on medical coding, but it doesn’t sound like a passionate crime to me. One was suffocated, the other poisoned.”
“What does passion have to do with anything?” Luca asked.
“If someone’s driven to kill because of a retail store goin’ in, and they were angry about it, you’d think it would show some sort of emotion behind it,” Brantley informed him. “Gun, knife. In the moment. Not premeditated.”
“Ah. Got it. Crime of passion.”
“And it makes more sense to assume that the more I read,” JJ went on. “These people aren’t writin’ love notes, that’s for sure. Their frustration comes off the page.”
Luca’s voice came through the speaker. “You don’t think suffocation’s a crime of passion? Seems a little up close and personal to me.”
“Agree,” JJ stated. “But it’s also intimate.”
That had Brantley curious. “Intimate?”
“Yes. Whoever’s gonna resort to that has to come face-to-face with the person, right? If you’re pissed at someone you don’t know, do you really want to look them in the eye right before you shut off their lights forever?”
She had an interesting way of seeing things, he had to admit.
“So not your first choice when planning a murder?” Luca asked.
“I like the poison better,” she told him. “It’s cold and calculated.”
“And cleaner,” Brantley noted.
“Yes, definitely cleaner. That’s what this feels like to me. Not the spur-of-the-moment, I’m-so-pissed-at-you-I-take-you-out but more planning. Intentional. Someone close to them.” JJ paused to take another breath. “I’m gonna have to call Detective Mathis. See who else they’ve talked to. Who they might’ve marked off their list.”
“That doesn’t mean we can cross off the offended residents’ angle,” Brantley told her.
“Of course not, but I’d like to expand our options.”
“Just out of curiosity,” Luca said, “I thought we were lookin’ for the missin’ guy. That not the case?”
“It is,” JJ confirmed. “But I think in this case, if we narrow down who’s responsible for the murders, we’ll find our kidnapper.”
“Good work, JJ. Keep us updated,” Brantley told her. “We’ll talk to you in a bit.”
“Will do,” she said.
Brantley hooked the phone back on his belt, looked at Reese. “You good?”
“I don’t think we learned much there, but I think talkin’ to the wife’s still the right way to go.”
