“Hey, when will we know about the movie?” Mason called out as Ash headed toward the exit.
He pushed open the door before looking over his shoulder. “We’re still in research mode. But I’ll let you know if I have any more questions.”
Chapter Six
Remi climbed into the expensive car, barely pulling on her seat belt before Ash was settled behind the steering wheel and starting the engine.
She hadn’t minded remaining in the background as he’d questioned Angel’s friends. Ash was a trained detective. He knew exactly what questions to ask and how to ask them. Plus, it’d been obvious that the young Dana had been eager to impress Ash.
She cast a covert glance at Ash’s perfectly chiseled profile, suppressing a sigh. He wasn’t exactly handsome. None of the Marcel boys were. But there was a compelling strength in their features and an irresistible charm in their smiles. Women had been tripping over their feet to capture their attention as long as she’d known them.
It had been inevitable that she would be attracted to Ash. But it wasn’t until she’d actually gotten to know him that she tumbled head over heels in love. It was his heart and soul that made him special.
Aching regret clenched her heart as they pulled away from the curb and headed out of town. If only things had been different . . .
Remi clenched her teeth, forcing away her futile thoughts. There was no way to change the past. All she could do was make certain that she didn’t allow Ash’s return to Chicago to create even more pain.
“So what’s our next step?” he said as they pulled onto the interstate. His voice was low, and she suspected he was speaking more to himself than her.
“You sound just like my dad,” she told him, her lips curving into a wistful smile. “He’d sit next to me while I was doing my homework and say ‘Well, Remi girl, what’s the next step?’”
“Everything I know as a cop I learned from Gage Walsh,” he admitted. “I couldn’t have had a better teacher.”
Remi forced herself to concentrate on the happy times with her father. It was too easy to fall into the vast grief that lurked in every memory.
“He said you were the most stubborn, relentless, brilliant detective he’d ever met,” she told Ash. “He was certain you were going to end up as a Chief of Detectives one day.”
“I wanted him to be proud of me.”
“Me too.”
Ash’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel, his gaze locked on the road. “We need to do better,” he breathed.
Remi winced. She knew exactly what Ash meant. Her father had expected great things from both of them. He would be deeply disappointed to know that his death had caused Ash to walk away from the force, and that she had lost the glorious confidence that she was going to change the world.
“Yeah, we do.” They shared a sad smile, then Remi gave a shake of her head. Enough of the past. They needed to concentrate on tracking down the killer. “Okay. What’s the next step?”
“We need to know who offered Angel her fabulous opportunity in Chicago, and how they found her,” Ash said. “It doesn’t sound like she’d recently traveled to the city.”
“Maybe she met him when she was living in Los Angeles.”
“I suppose it’s possible.”
Remi sensed he wasn’t willing to jump to any conclusions. Her father had told her that a detective had to keep his mind open to several possibilities, even when the solution to a case seemed obvious. She gave a mental shrug. They had to start somewhere.
Laying her head against the buttery leather of the seat, she closed her eyes and tried to imagine how a killer might have crossed paths with a convenience store worker in Bailey. She couldn’t think like a detective. Or even a killer. But she did know young girls who were willing to do anything to attract attention. “If our theory is right and the killer is using some mysterious offer to lure women, he might be using social media to find them,” she suggested.
Ash sucked in an audible breath. “Shit. I never thought about that.”
“I deal with teens who can barely look away from their phone long enough to do their homework,” she said, reaching into her purse to pull out her own phone. With a couple of swipes across the screen, she was logged into Facebook and searching for Angel’s page. “I found her,” she finally announced.
Turning the steering wheel, Ash had the car smoothly zooming off the nearest exit. He took another turn, pulling into the lot of a large truck stop before he put the engine in Park and swiveled in his seat.
“Let me see.”
Remi handed over her phone, prepared as Ash’s eyes widened as he scrolled down her page. Angel Conway had made a habit of posting provocative pictures of herself. Plus, she had listed “actress” as her occupation. Any lunatic could have seen her profile and known exactly how to bait the perfect trap.
“Christ,” Ash muttered, handing back the phone. “It would have been easy to target her.”
Remi nodded, scrolling down the updates. “Here.” She stopped to read the post out loud. “The first of October she says she has exciting news that she’s going to announce in a few weeks.”
Ash leaned toward her, the crisp smell of his warm male skin teasing at her nose.
“What’s the last date she posted on her page?” he asked.
“Six weeks ago. She put up a picture of the Chicago skyline with a heart emoji.”
Ash was silent as he considered the various possibilities.
“So either someone else posted for her, or she didn’t feel in any danger after she arrived in the city,” he finally said.
Remi read through the various reactions to Angel’s post. They were mostly “yay” and “you go, girl.” Then over the past couple of days were questions about when the announcement was coming, but no demands to know if she was okay. “It doesn’t look like any of her friends were worried about her.”
“Jax will be able to get a warrant to look into her social media accounts,” Ash said. “If someone contacted her with the fabulous offer, he should be able to track the IP address. I also need to tell him about the cash. If it was delivered by mail, Angel might have kept the envelope it came in.”
“Along with the nondisclosure contract,” Remi added, a shiver racing through her as she considered just how simple it would be for a killer to lure an eager woman into his grasp, and even ensure that she didn’t tell a soul about him.
“True,” Ash said, his expression distracted.
Remi lowered her phone and studied him with a curious gaze. “What is it?”
“Let’s go over what we think might have happened.”
“Okay. You start.”
“Angel Conway is a frustrated actress and drug user who feels trapped in her small town,” Ash said. “She regularly posts half-naked pictures of herself in a desperate hope of finding fame.”
“She catches the attention of the Butcher, who contacts her through her Facebook page and offers her an opportunity to travel to Chicago.”
He nodded. “We still need to figure out how she got to the city, but once she was there, she has surgery to make her look more like you.”