He didn’t bother waiting for Reese, knowing the man would smooth the waters with the detective. Reese was good at that, maintaining balance and not ruffling feathers. It was just one of the many things Brantley loved about him.
While Reese did that, Brantley stepped out of the building, dialed JJ’s number.
“Yes, boss?”
“Got anything?”
“We’re diggin’ in now. Trey and Evan just got to the ME’s office. Allison and Baz are at the investment company.”
“Have them talk to the secretary who reported Cedric Hawkins missing,” he instructed. “It looks as though the wife’s erected a wall of lawyers. We’re gonna have to get creative to get information.”
“I like creative,” she said with a soft laugh. “And I’ll let them know.”
“We’re gonna head to the Hawkins’s residence,” he informed her as he walked to his truck, then stopped in front of it. “See if we can sweet-talk our way into a conversation with the wife.”
“If anyone can do it, you can.”
Actually, Brantley knew Reese was the sweet-talker between them. He had the softer edges where Brantley’s were still rough and unrefined. They made a damn good team because of it.
“Hold on a minute, boss,” JJ said.
With the phone on speaker, Brantley glanced up to see Reese and Tesha strolling out of the building. Before joining him, Reese made a detour to a grassy area, clearly giving Tesha time to do her business.
“JJ’s got me on hold,” he explained when Reese looked confused as to the mumbling on the other end of the phone.
They listened while JJ and Luca spoke in what sounded like a different language. Of course, he was fairly certain it was English, but perhaps it was in code. A computer hacker code of some sort. Hell, they were using words he’d never heard before, all pertaining to information they were digging for online.
“You understand a word they’re sayin’?”
“Not a one,” Reese said with an amused grunt.
“Maybe you could loop us laypeople in, JJ. Translate, please,” Brantley suggested, hating to break up their little party.
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 … found on 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.”
“Agree.”
They were back in the truck a few minutes later, pulling out of the parking lot.
“Mathis gonna give us any problems?” Brantley asked.
“No. I told him we’d keep him looped in and asked him to do the same.”
“You think he will?”
“I do. I think it’s fair to say we blindsided him this mornin’, so he reacted accordingly. He wants these cases closed, and he knows the more eyes the better.”
“True.” Brantley glanced at Reese. “Which way am I goin’?”
“They live on the golf course.”
“Of course they do.” Brantley took a right at the next light. “You know anything more about Cedric Hawkins?”
“Luca sent me some details. Let’s just say, money doesn’t buy happiness.”
“No, but it buys you a fuckin’ nice house,” he muttered as they weaved their way through the land of the wealthy.
“That it does. It also gets you a wife, two ex-wives, three kids, three vacation houses, six cars, and a couple of girlfriends.”
The last part had Brantley glancing his way again. “Girlfriends?”