Kent closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “No, I am not saying that at all. Come on, man, give me some credit. I’m only saying you should have been more forward about your involvement with both Maya and reporting the other cases. You thought the cops really wouldn’t find out?”
Jordan cursed under his breath.
“And another thing,” Kent continued, “Stop acting like you’re king of the world. You’re not. Thomas is right—there are others that can do your job. You are replaceable. Just because he’s your uncle doesn’t mean you’re invincible. You’re lucky to be walking around now and not rotting in jail.”
Kent set his beer down, retrieved the ball from Gary and began dribbling. He tossed it in the air. The ball bounced off the rim and rolled back toward Jordan, who snatched the ball from the ground. He spun it on the tip of his index finger with a sneer.
“Man, you’re a bad basketball player,” he told Kent with a shake of his head.
“No kidding,” Gary chuckled.
“I’m a cameraman,” Kent replied with a shrug. “Not a ballplayer.”
Jordan shot it in the air. It hit the rim, slowly falling into the net. He turned to his friends with a sigh.
“You really think I have my head in the clouds?”
“Maybe not the clouds,” Kent told him. “More like the trees.”
Jordan laughed at him.
“I’m going to go,” Kent said. “Unlike you, I do have work in the morning. So this is where Kent Ory signs off.”
Kent bowed his head with a smile and Jordan shook his hand.
“Thanks, man. I’ll call you. I’ll probably take Thomas’ advice and take a trip out of town. I want to stay under that Agent O’Reilly’s radar at least a few days.”
“See you later, then.”
“Yeah, I should go too,” Gary said. “The wife's having company later and I need to clean up a bit.”
He slapped Jordan on the shoulder and headed toward the cars.
As Jordan watched his friends walk away, he thought about what they had said. Maybe everyone was right. Maybe he did put himself on a pedestal. However, he was one of the top reporters in the southeastern states.
And why was that?
Because he was good looking, young, and he did whatever it took to report the news.
Was he disheartened because a hot woman he knew personally was dead?
Sure.
He liked her and was shocked when he learned the victim was Maya. But did that mean he needed to change his ways?
Not for a second.
Jordan dribbled the basketball as he ran across the court. He jumped in the air and slammed the ball into the hoop.
35
While Shaun checked Maya’s vehicle, Aidan examined Jane’s. The total number miles on Jane’s odometer read a hundred and eight thousand. Pressing the trip button, he saw it was set at fifty-six miles.
Aidan wrote the figures in his pad and made a mental note to ask her husband when Jane usually set her trip meter.
He was thinking it was possible to guesstimate where the car had been since last night. If they were lucky, conferring their victim’s vehicles, they may be able to narrow down possible locations of the offender’s home base.
When Aidan finished, he climbed out of the car and shut the door.
“What did you find?” he asked Shaun.
He recited the numbers, which were slightly higher than what Aidan had come up with. But now they both had something more to work with.
Something Aidan was sure the killer hadn’t even considered.
On the way back to the office, Shaun called Maya’s husband, then Jane’s. After Aidan pulled into the parking lot of the federal office, Shaun said Maya would reset the trip after she had an oil change, which she did a week before she was murdered. Jane had gotten gas two days ago, and she reset the trip then. Both husbands also relayed the places they knew their wives had driven.
It was getting late, so after they informed Monroe of what they found, Shaun and Aidan finished and went their separate ways.
When Aidan pulled into the garage, he went into the house and found Cheyenne pulling a roast out of the oven.
“Hey,” she said. “How was your day?”
“Well, we may have found something useful for finding where the offender’s been operating.”
“That’s good,” she said.
Cheyenne stirred the green beans and asked Aidan to get two plates from the cabinet.
As he did so, he watched her carefully. She took in a deep breath and pushed it out as she dumped the beans in a container and brought it over to the table.
“What did you do today?” Aidan set the silverware next to the plates.
She shrugged as she finished gathering their supper. “Not much. Laura called today.”
“How is she?”
“Good,” Cheyenne replied as they ate. Then she laughed. “She met a guy at the hospital.”
Aidan raised his eyebrow. Laura was known to pick up men and throw herself into a serious relationship. Her longest romances usually lasted less than two months. It was enough time for her to have her usual fling while in Florida.
“Really?”
“His name’s Michael and he’s a heart surgeon.”
“Wow,” Aidan said. “Very prestigious.”
Cheyenne gathered a forkful of mashed potatoes and stuffed it in her mouth. Aidan finished off his green beans before taking two sips of his drink.
“She says he may be ‘the one,’” she said, using air quotes.
“Well, you never know,” Aidan replied, “Your sister’s at the age where she might want to settle down.”
Cheyenne rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. She’s got too much of our mother in her. At least she doesn’t marry so she can get divorced five times—yet.”
Aidan finished his roast and potatoes as she stabbed the rest of
