Page 20 of Caged

“Yes, Jaden, I do. But unlike you, I’d like to find Wendy sooner rather than later.”

He didn’t have to say it; the fuck you was written all over his face.

Accusing him like that wasn’t fair, but at least it put an end to his bullshit.

“Did you at least find anything useful?” he asked.

“No, but I have a list of recurring numbers from her call log that aren’t in her contacts. Could you look them up when you get a chance?”

He walked over and held out his hand. “Sure.”

He looked up the numbers as soon as he sat down.

“Dead end. They belong to restaurants.”

“Hmm.” It made sense for the outgoing calls but not so much for the incoming ones. Unless she knew someone who worked there.

But if that were the case, wouldn’t they use their cell phone? How often did a restaurant call to confirm an order or a reservation?

I rarely ate out so Ihad no idea.

I gave up trying to guess Wendy’s laptop password and messaged Doug, asking him to help us when he got back to the office.

“Let’s piece together a timeline,” I said standing and walking to the large whiteboard I’d hung on the wall. Jaden had made some snarky comments about joining the twenty-first century when he first moved into the office, but seeing things mapped out helped me, so I’d kept it.

I drew a time line along the top and started filling it in while I waited for Jaden to gather his sloppy notes.How he gets anything done, I’ll never know.

I left room at the far left for anything on social media that predated the texts. “Can you start with the oldest, please?”

“Ten weeks ago she posted from a party she was single again.”

That coincided with the information we had about her break up with Bill.

“The following week, Wednesday, she posted, and I quote, “I met the most amazing man. Not only is he gorgeous but he’s charming and sophisticated. She didn’t use his name, and she never mentions him again.”

It wasn’t much, but the words charming and sophisticated were pretty telling when being used by a teenaged waitress.

“Did you happen to look into her last boyfriend?” I asked. It wasn’t necessarily something a new PI would think to do because Bill wasn’t a person of interest.

“I did. He’s a college freshman living the frat-boy dream. His posts are mostly about parties, and after a few posts about getting dumped he started playing the field.”

“So neither charming nor sophisticated.”

“No.” He laughed. “I found a picture that might be Mr. R.” The picture he handed me wasn’t the best quality.

“I asked Doug to clean it up.”

“Good,” I said absentmindedly while sticking the picture to the white board with a magnet.

It looked like they were at a college party, based on the decor and few guests I could see. Wendy and the unidentified man were in the background of the image. She faced the camera, but he was looking to the side. We had more than a profile but less than a full face. The image was too dark and grainy to get a read on his expression, but his body seemed stiff. Wendy, on the other hand, looked relaxed. Probably a combination of the party being held by her friends and a healthy dose of alcohol. They both held beer bottles.

If Doug could clean it up, we might get some hits with facial recognition.

I crossed my arms as I stared at the picture. “He fits the profile, scant as it is. Suit, gold watch, slicked back hair, stiff demeanor,” I mumbled to myself.

“What was that?”

Lost in the puzzle, I’d forgotten Jaden was standing there. “Sorry, just thinking out loud.” I repeated what I’d said, filling in the gaps so he’d know the character profile I was building.

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