Chapter 6

The morning was filled with people coming in and out of the basement office. She smirked each time Detective Merritt had gotten up to close the door; he really wasn’t a people person.

Usually random surfing, about anything would help her think, come up with something. But it wasn’t working today, and she was so tired of the flashing ads on every page she opened. If she saw one more dating ad, she was going to—

She snapped her eyes back to the screen. Still looking at it, she pushed her chair back and slid halfway to the center table. Jumping out of the chair, she quickly opened one of the women’s folders.

She scanned down the credit card statement with her finger. Holding her finger on the one statement, she flipped through the pages in the next file. Quickly going down the pages bouncing back and forth, she felt her heart pick up; she might have something, the first six numbers were different, but the last five were the same.

An arm came around behind her and flipped open the next file, turning quickly to the credit card statement. Standing there with a finger on one printout, she scanned down the list, doing the same comparison. “It’s the same.”

Brent came over and looked at the pages under her hands.

Jac was almost bouncing. “If the last file…” She stopped as Brent flipped it open and tossed the credit card statement in front of her. She looked up at the men for a moment and then grabbed a pen and began circling the entry on each of the four statements. She set the pen down and looked up at Detective Merritt. “How do we find out what those charges are for?” She chewed her lip. “The amounts aren’t the same, but the last of the numbers are.”

She paced over to the computer. “I think the first parts are membership numbers.”

Brent was already holding the phone.

Detective Merritt followed her and looked at her monitor over the top of her head. “Membership to what?”

Jac turned and looked up at him. “I think, maybe internet dating.” He gave her a questioning look. She shrugged. “They were all single…”

Brent smirked at his partner. “Some people want to be in a relationship.” He turned towards the table, ignoring the scowl from his partner, and grabbed the first credit card statement.

Reid put his hands in his pockets. If he had looked for a year, he probably wouldn’t have come up with that. He knew at some point he was going to have to admit that having her help was a good thing, but he still wasn’t ready to say it out loud. Shrugging, he grinned down at her. “I don’t care where this leads, if they’re even closely connected, I’m buying dinner.”

Brent put his hand over the mouthpiece of the phone and laughed. “Now he’s impressed.”

***

Reid read over it again. He was expecting, well, he had no idea what, but not this. Jacinda’s name only came up once in any database he searched. Apparently, she’d discovered a smuggling ring, with antiques. He shook his head. What was with this woman and furniture?

He read the last part once more. Jacinda Brown-Straton assisted in the location and apprehension of— The names were irrelevant. The part that kept snagging his attention was her last name. Why did she only use Brown when her last name was clearly hyphenated? Had she been married? Nothing came up in the registrar. Why would she relocate to the other side of the country? Abusive boyfriend? How did he find out?

“Your turn to go get coffee.”

Reid looked up at Brent’s smirk. He glanced at the clock and sighed. “I guess it is.” He stood up and glanced over at the woman half slumped on the desk clicking through one site after the other. He walked over and looked down at her. She looked bored. “How many hits?”

She sighed and looked up at him. “Over four hundred million.”

“Ouch.” He smirked. “Why don’t you give it up until we have a name at least?” He turned. “Want anything from the lunchroom?”

She sat back and sighed again. “Tea, black, please.”

He nodded and walked out.

Jac paced around the office as they waited for the call from whomever Brent had phoned for the information. She was so nervous. What if these turned out to be completely different and didn’t link anything together? She walked over and looked out the tiny basement window, then glanced over at Brent, who sat calmly at his desk waiting for the coffee. “Why are the two of you hidden in the basement?”

He grinned. “I like to think it’s because we’re important we get a big space to ourselves, but I think it’s to keep us out of the captain’s space.”

She smirked. “Are cases like this the only ones you two do?”

He shook his head. “We really don’t work for any one area of the department.” He grinned, showing her his teeth. “We get the cases that no one else can figure out.”

She was impressed. Obviously, they were both very good at this. “Oh.” Turning, she wandered back over to the window for the umpteenth time.

Reid walked back into the office and stopped as soon as he’d seen the expression on Jacinda’s face. She was standing behind his desk. He hadn’t closed the file on his desktop.

Brent walked over to him, wincing, and quickly took the one mug from him. “I’ll, uh—be back.”

He watched him almost run from the room. Coward, he thought with a smirk.

“I’m researching, trying to find a lead—for you, and you’re researching my past?”

Okay, so it sounded bad when she put it like that. “I like to know who I’m working with.” He set the cups on the table, safely away from the angry woman. She was definitely angry, no guarding that emotion from showing.

She stepped around his desk. “Then ask!” she hissed at him.

She stood there glaring at him with her hands on her hips, almost daring him to push her further. And the part he had trouble swallowing was that she looked so appealing he wanted to go over and hug her. His own thoughts jolted him into action. He walked with long strides behind his desk. Appealing? Where had that insane thought come from? She looked like she was going to rip his head off and hand it to him. “Why did you move away?”

She flung a hand towards this computer monitor. “Can’t you read? I’d helped convict the son of a very powerful man and didn’t want to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder.”

He frowned at the article on his screen and then looked over at her. Asking was making her angrier. “Is that why you changed your last name?”

She put her hands back on her hips and dropped her head down to look at the floor. “Partially, Brown is a very common name and looks much neater on a business card than Brown-Straton.”

Every word she spoke came out in a clipped, controlled voice. He was sinking here. “Why do you avoid people?” Her head popped up, and brown eyes burned into him.

“I do what?”

“Avoid people; you walk through a room making sure you’re close to no one.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Do you like being close to strangers, detective?”

He jammed both hands into his pockets and shook his head.

“Are we finished?” When he nodded, she spun and grabbed her purse, heading towards the door. Brent was just stepping through it. “I’m going to get some air.” She snapped as she moved past him.

Brent rolled his head towards his stupefied-looking partner. “That went well.”

Reid blew out a breath. “Yeah.”

Brent looked back out the door she’d stormed through. “Maybe, you should go try to fix it?”

Reid shrugged.

Brent grinned and walked over to stand in front of him. “Okay, setting aside that whole pride thing, which you seem to have gotten more than anyone’s share of, she has gotten us further with this case in two days than we’ve gotten in a month.” Reid just stood there and looked at him. “And the captain will hit the ceiling if she walks out when the chief, mayor, and all those other big guys find out she quit because you’re an ass.”

Reid grinned at that. “Well, they all know that, so that shouldn’t be too shocking.” He let out a deep breath. “I’ll go talk to her.” He unclipped his gun and set it on the desk.

Brent smirked. “Is that so you don’t shoot her or so she doesn’t beat you with it?” Reid gave him an annoyed look and walked out. “Bit of both,” he mumbled to himself.

Jac stood there leaning against the wall with her hands tucked in her pockets. That’s wonderful. Having a little tantrum. Stupid man. The part that would bother her the most would be that she’d lied again. Okay, there was truth in her answers, but she was so tired of having to lie to hide what she could do.

She remembered the strange looks people gave her when they realized it. They ranged from complete disbelief to looking at her like she was some sort of mutated monster. She almost preferred those that thought she was insane and needed to be medicated.

She sighed and pulled her phone from her pocket. Times like this called for one thing. She quickly sent a message to her favorite head doctor and waited for a reply. She grinned as the message came immediately. ‘session with an unorthodox method of alcoholic beverages, tonight, my place’

Where would she be without Sandy?

Reid strolled to the side of the building; hoping she was still close by. An apology would be harder if he had to chase her down. Apology? That was something he didn’t often do. Why had he been in such an off mood lately? Was it the endless dead ends in the case? No, cases didn’t affect him like this. He stopped walking suddenly. It started from the moment he walked into her office to see her surfing on a chair. He smirked, watching her twist and wiggle her curvy little body hadn’t been too difficult to take. Things turned rocky the moment she opened her mouth to speak. Since when did a female affect him like this? Shaking his head, he walked to the corner of the building.

She was leaning against the back corner smiling at her phone. He hoped this was a good sign he wouldn’t get kicked when he invaded her moment. It was hard to tell with most women though, so he approached her with caution.

Stuffing the phone in her pocket, she watched him walk towards her with a cautious look on her face.

When he got close enough, she straightened. “Don’t apologize, please.” He slowed his pace and studied her. “I know you’d somehow turn it around to blaming your profession and make me appear like an overreacting twit, so an apology you don’t mean is just going to upset the balance more.”

He stopped and looked down at her. “Technically, it does lead back to my profession, not to mention how rare, if not strange it is, to have someone without a list of degrees a mile long tacked onto their name working so closely with us.”

She smirked. “I’m almost positive you’d check out the degree holders’ backgrounds too.” He offered her a shrug. “I’m really trying not to invade your space, detective.” She took her phone back out of her pocket and looked at it before putting it back. “This is just as far out of my comfort zone as it is yours.”

He frowned. That was it right there. His comfort zone. He actually felt uncomfortable and awkward in her presence. He ran a hand over his scruffy face and then looked down at her somberly. “I am sorry I dredged up your past.” He let out a long breath. “I get why you’re upset by it.” He held up a hand when she started to speak. “But in self-defense, people in my profession end up dead if they’re not suspicious of others.”

She bit her lip, giving him a thoughtful moment. “I’m sorry I flipped out.” She looked in his eyes. “I’ve had to do a lot of explaining and defending my every step, and you happened to hit a real sore spot.”

He pulled the phone from his pocket when it buzzed but didn’t answer it. “I really didn’t intend to stir anything up.” He watched a breeze blow the dark hair she’d freed across her face. He completely forgot what he was planning to say next as he watched her pull the long hair to one side and look back up at him. He grinned. “So, are we good now?”

She smiled. “You’re still buying dinner.”

He laughed.

“Don’t either of you answer your phones?”

Both turned to look at an exasperated Brent.

He waved a piece of paper at them. “We’ve got the name.” He stopped and looked at Jac then grinned at his partner. “And dinner is on you.”

Jac grabbed the page from his hand. “I was right?” She looked at them. “I was right. Internet dating site, Love Quest Dating.” She smirked.

Reid dropped a hand down on her shoulder. “Keep this up, and the captain is going to be giving you a badge.”

She stepped back and grinned. “Or your job.” With that, she quickly headed back toward the front of the building.

Brent pursed his lips together and turned to him. “Ha!” He started walking in the direction she’d gone. “She just keeps getting better all the time.”

Despite the smile on his face, Reid growled at the other man. “Shut up. We have work to do.”

When the two men entered the office, a look of surprise crossed both of their faces when they saw the captain standing there talking to her. Their superior turned and smiled at them. “It seems to be heading somewhere now.” He gave Detective Merritt a brief look. “And just in the nick of time too, I’ve run out of things to tell the mayor and stall the reporters.”

Brent walked over to the fax machine and held up a few pages. “Financial info is starting to arrive.”

Jacinda almost held her breath. “Whose and what does it say?”

Brent handed a few pages to his partner and then looked up at the captain. “Jac’s theories are right on the money, literally.” He scanned the second page and then looked over at her. “Grab the marker.” She jolted but did it and stood in front of the map board waiting. “Theresa Woodward transferred six thousand dollars a day before she died.” She wrote minus six thousand under victim two’s information. He looked at the next page and sighed. “Eight thousand transferred by Desi Sloan the day of her death.” He held the pages out to the captain and turned towards Reid.

Detective Merritt looked up from the pages and then over to where Jac was standing. “Miss Azaire transferred nine thousand the day of.” He watched her falter for a moment, but then she turned and wrote it down. He glanced at the fax machine. “We’re still waiting for the last statements to arrive.”

Walking over, Detective Merritt took the marker from her as she stood there looking at the board. He wrote ‘LQ’ above each of the amounts she had put on the board. He turned and looked at her when he was finished.

She realized then that they were all looking at her. “Sorry, it’s just, well, my first thought is these women are dead for a few thousand dollars.”

He didn’t seem surprised by this, as she was sure he’d witnessed even more pitiful excuses for crimes. “And with your work, we’ll find out who and put a stop to it.” His voice was softer.

She took a deep breath and then nodded. “Right.” Without looking at the others, she walked over to the computer and sat down. “Let’s see what Love Quest dating is all about.” She typed in the web address and hit enter. She almost rolled her eyes when the page opened to pink hearts and scrolling testimonies of cuddling couples. Oh please, was her only thought.

The detective looked over her monitor. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

The captain and Brent walked over to look. Brent grinned at him. “Just the kind of place you’ll be most comfortable investigating.”

Jac looked up at them and rolled her eyes. “Just give me a little time and I’ll be able to explain the system.” She jumped up and went over to the table and grabbed the credit card receipts. She turned around and then stopped when she realized the three men were watching her.

The captain cleared his throat. “I’ll get out of your way.” He walked towards the door. “Make sure I get regular updates.”

Brent nodded. Turning toward his partner, he grinned. “Guess we’d better start trying to find out where that money went.”

Brent’s large partner just nodded and walked back over to pick up the faxed statements. “I’m going to try to find a registered owner for that site first.” Brent was already at his desk typing data into his computer.

He glanced over at the woman who was flying through pages on the web. “Am I buying takeout, working through kind of dinner?” He knew Brent and he would stay in the office and not want to leave now that they had some leads.

She paused and looked at him. “Pizza works for me.”

Brent chuckled. “Better all the time.”