Page 153 of Tenderfoot

I laid it out. “Odds are, Jinx or one of the other girls has a cop client, or two.”

Everyone’s eyes lit.

“Now, they might not be comfortable pumping them for information, but they might be into it. We should ask,” I concluded.

“On that,” Raye said, pulling out her phone and setting aside her Cane’s to get up and move away from the couch.

“Right, so, at this point, even though we don’t have a lot, aren’t we supposed to throw around theories?” Shanti asked.

“If you got something, go for it, sister,” Jessie invited.

Shanti nodded.

“Sexual harassment at work. Dating app scam. Making a play for his friend’s fiancée, like she’d be into that shit,” Shanti outlined it. “His exes hate him. This guy is an all-around asshole, but it seems a lot of his assholery has a target. And that’s women.”

“Mm-hmm,” Luna hummed, coming to rest one butt cheek on the back of the couch by Willow.

“And someone is pretty damned determined to find something, what with the state of Trev’s place, Harlow’s place getting hit, and whoever this is thinking they can butt up against the Nightingale men and force a play,” Shanti went on. “So that either means they got someone big backing them, or whatever they’re looking for, they’re desperate to find.”

“Oh my God,” I whispered as what she was leading to dawned on me.

“He’s getting regular payments of a lot of money,” Shanti didn’t quit. “Which could be blackmail, because this guy isn’t on anyone’s books as having a job.”

“He’s got something incriminating on someone who got tired of making payments,” Jessie guessed.

“No, with Trev, it’s something embarrassing,” I put in.

“Yup,” Shanti agreed. “Do you have any crime scene photos of his bedroom?”

Luna moved back to the computer.

The photos came up and she cycled through them.

It just looked like a mess, though, it was obvious even to my inexperienced eye, the mess was a mess made on top of the mess that Trev lived in.

This meant someone searched that room…thoroughly.

“How about the evidence logs?” Shanti inquired. “Did they log any cameras or recording equipment in his bedroom?”

“No,” Luna told her. “Though, they might not have found it.”

“We need to go back to Trev’s place,” Shanti said.

“We need to go back to Trev’s place,” Jessie and I parroted.

Luna came back and rested a butt cheek on the side of the desk. “Right, I’m gonna call Tex and see if he’s up for another search. Willow needs to stay safe, so not out on this operation. Raye, Jessie and Lolo have dudes, so they need to go home and get themselves some. That means you and me, Shanti, will go tonight and hit Trev’s again.”

“What about our bodyguards?” Shanti asked.

“They can come with,” Luna said breezily. “They don’t like it, they can lump it.”

“The guys may have found this already,” Willow pointed out.

“Maybe, maybe not. I have nothing on tonight,” Luna replied. “So why not check it out?”

Shanti bit into a fry, chewed, swallowed, smiled and said, “Why not?”

Raye returned. “Jinx says she doesn’t do cops. Occupational hazard. But some of the other girls do. She’s going to ask.”

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