Chapter 10

• 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 the 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 print out, 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 over 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 on 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 whom ever 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.