Page 65 of Mastered By Desire

“Where did this happen?” Wentz asks.

“In downtown San Esteban,” she says. “A parking lot behind a club.”

“Which club?”

“Vice.”

“Mm.” He looks thoughtful. “Valet?”

“No, private parking.”

“I didn’t think the club had parking.”

“I was there as a guest of one of the owners.”

“Interesting.” He clears his throat. “But unfortunate. Had it been valet, it would be easier to track down witnesses. I’ll get in touch with the club and find out if they have any videosurveillance in the parking lot. Or perhaps you can ask your friend.”

I don’t like this guy’s tone of voice, or the way he’s looking at Leah, like he’s trying to find flaws in her story.

A gray-haired officer with a deep tan starts walking through the busy room. He’s the officer who handled Leah’s report about her car. When he sees us, he changes course and stops at Wentz’s desk. Nodding at Leah, he says, “Hello, Miss Shreve.”

“Officer Coulenta,” Leah says. “Hi. There’ve been some new problems.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” His focus turns to me. “I recognize you from Miss Shreve’s first report. I forgot your name, however, Mr….”

“Montrose,” I say. “Dmitri.”

“Right. Montrose, you say?”

I nod, internally wincing. If they put together who my maternal family is, it’ll send them in the wrong direction. Whatever’s going on with Leah has nothing to do with my family, and everything to do with Shitstain Mick.

Once Wentz gets Coulenta up to speed, Coulenta looks at Leah’s phone to read the text. “This could fit with some of the things we found about Rabanoir. He was spending a lot of money, with no sign where it came from. My theory is a network of underground loan sharks, Wentz, and this adds credence to that. ‘Pay up.’ That’s what the text says.”

“I’m aware of what the text says.” Wentz frowns. “How about you let me do my investigation?”

“Sure.” Coulenta hands Leah her phone. “Didn’t mean to overstep.”

Wentz waits to speak until Coulenta wanders off again. I don’t like that there was a pissing match right in front of us. Seems pretty fucking unprofessional. And Coulenta brought upinformation Wentz didn’t seem to find important enough to mention to Leah.

I go over it in my head after we finish with Wentz.

So, Mick was spending a lot. As far as I know, he didn’t have a real job.

Like Coulenta said, he had to get the money from somewhere.

Loan sharks.

Loan sharks would absolutely go after him. They usually don’t kill a person because it’s hard to get cash from a dead man. But if Mick said something about Leah having the money, that would explain a lot.

None of this has to do with me. But the fucking SEPD isn’t fixing things, either.

I need to talk to my grandfather.

18

Leah

“Look, I know you don’t owe me anything.” I fiddle with my phone, flipping it over and over in my lap.