“Girl, you are rolling in it, as you should be with that fine full-figured sexy body.” Charlie snapped her fingers and gave Addison a high-five.
“You are such an inspiration to women everywhere, hermana,” Liliana added.
“Thanks, sprite.” Addison winked at Liliana.
Liliana rolled her eyes and grinned. Sprite was a running nickname for Liliana because she was only five foot three. The smallest of us all. The woman was like a gorgeous Spanish doll. Perfect Latina features with her short curly dark hair, pointed chin, plump lips, rounded cheekbones, and skin the color of a pristine sandy beach made of crushed light brown coral.
“Speaking of work…” Addison stood, and her upper body sagged. “I have a photoshoot scheduled for the next few days in New York. I have to go pack. I’m leaving tonight.”
Her having to go to work had all of our attention, even Jonah’s, who had sidled up next to me with his ass to the arm of the chair, his hand warmly resting on my shoulder. As he listened to her statement, he gripped me tighter.
She held her hands out. “No worries, the client secured a bodyguard to pick me up, drive me to and from the job and the airport, and to make sure I’m safely back in my hotel each night. Plus side, I’ll be out of state.”
Jonah crossed his arms. “It’s not perfect, but we understand that you all need to live your lives. Please provide Simone with the information for the bodyguard and a detailed report of your schedule.”
Addy nodded, grabbed her purse from the table, and laid a kiss to Rory’s head. Each one of us stood and accepted hugs. By the time she got to me I held her tight. “Be insanely careful. I’m talking, looking over your shoulder, never going out unattended, and don’t drink much. I know you need to put on a show for all the glamorous people you work with, but more than anything, you need to be on the lookout at all times. Okay?”
She held me tight, then kissed my cheek. “Scout’s honor,” she giggled.
“You weren’t in the Girl Scouts!” I whined.
“I’ll check in. Don’t worry.” Addison flipped her long brown hair. “Love you guys!”
After a round of love you’s from all of us, Addy took her leave, Jonah entering as she exited.
“We have some more information that I’d like to share, but it’s not for little ears.” He smiled at Rory who had her tongue sticking out while she was coloring Elsa’s skin brown.
Genesis looked over her daughter’s head at the picture. “Sweet Pea, you know that Elsa is white, right?”
Blessing stretched her body over to look at the page and grinned smugly.
Rory frowned and looked over her shoulder at her mama. “Auntie Bless says princesses are black too.”
Blessing snickered. “And it looks to me you have one fine African American princess there. Just. Like. You.” She tapped her nose and Rory giggled.
Genesis shook her head and smiled. “And she is perfect. Great job, Sweet Pea.”
Rory beamed and then yawned and rubbed at her eyes with her small fists.
“I think it’s past time for someone’s nap. How about Grammy sets up a movie and watches a little with you?” Mama Kerri suggested.
Rory nodded enthusiastically.
“Wave to your aunties and your mama, baby,” she instructed.
“Love you!” She waved and took her grandmother’s hand, entering the back hall that led to the three separate bedrooms.
“That child owns my soul.” Blessing tsked.
“Right?” Charlie agreed.
“One hundred percent,” Liliana added.
“Absolutely. You’ve done such a good job with her, Gen. She’s so smart and bright, even though her daddy is overseas on deployment and you two aren’t together, she seems super well-adjusted and happy. It’s gotta be hard doing it all on your own, though.”
Genesis nodded. “Some days are harder than others. I have Mama Kerri so at the very least she gets family time every other day, but it is hard. And of course, I have all of you.”
“We need to do better about allowing you some personal time. Once this is all over with, we should trade off. One of us taking her for a night every couple weeks. Give you an evening every so often so you can go out, let your hair down…”
“Meet a man.” Charlie’s tone was thick with innuendo. “When was the last time you went on a date?”
Genesis sighed and shifted her pretty amber gaze to my guy. “Don’t you have an update for us, Jonah?”
Jonah stayed where he was and cleared his throat. “The preliminary autopsy results have come back. Helen was strangled as we suspected. Only the coroner found, uh, something really strange.” He rubbed the back of his neck and a long breath shuddered through him. Talking about Helen had to be difficult on a good day. Talking about her body being autopsied, far worse.
“It’s okay, baby, take your time.” I ran my hand down his thigh.
He covered my hand with his and held it. He inhaled a long, slow breath while staring into my face. I smiled softly and held his hand pouring all the strength I had into it.
He swallowed and licked his lips. “Turns out there was a folded-up piece of paper lodged in her throat.”
“Excuse me?” Sonia said, her tone wary.
“Yeah, it, uh, looks as though it was placed postmortem.” He winced.
Blessing and Charlie both made a stink face while Liliana put both of her hands in prayer position at her chest.
Genesis just stared at Jonah with a compassionate expression.
“There was a series of numbers and a letter on the paper.”
“Can you share it with us? Or is that confidential?” I asked.
“No, Ryan and the Director think it’s some type of clue to where he is or perhaps it connects to a past or future victim. We wanted to see if the numbers made any sense to you. Keep in mind this is all extremely confidential. The FBI doesn’t make a habit of sharing case details with civilians but in all honesty, we’re at a dead end. This is pretty much all we have until we get her toxicology report and I doubt they’ll find anything but alcohol since we know she was at the pool hall.”
I shrugged. “Lay it on us.”
Jonah pulled out his phone and read the number. “A121094.”
“That’s it?” Blessing asked. “No dashes or spaces? The numbers ran all together like that?”
“Yeah. We’re thinking maybe it’s an address or an ID of some kind. We’ve already checked drivers’ licenses and license plates and have a list of addresses that have variations of the numbers. Boots are on the ground knocking on doors now, but I don’t think he’d be so obvious as to give us an address or a license number. My gut says this is a clue to the next victim or someone he already has.”
Liliana closed her eyes and started praying under her breath in Spanish.
“That’s whack, leaving numbers on a sheet of paper in a dead woman’s mouth.” Blessing gagged and covered her mouth breathing deeply through her nose.
“Since this guy is obsessed with you and Simone, that number has to relate somehow,” Charlie said. She reached for a crayon and a blank coloring page on Rory’s book. “What’s the number again?”