Adverse Possession (The Anna Albertini Files #3) - Rebecca Zanetti Page 0,89
They were the only furniture, along with a card table and bed, that had been delivered the other day. “What?”
He looked up. “We use a series of companies, LLCs, and dummy corporations to buy our personal homes so they can’t be traced to us. Just in case.”
Just in case a bomber came looking for him. Right. That’s the world he lived in. “I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry,” I murmured. I dug for my phone, which Aiden had reclaimed from my cottage that morning. Why hadn’t he taken some clothes or makeup for me? Men. Just men. “You could’ve grabbed my toiletry bag this morning,” I grumbled.
He folded huckleberries into the batter. “Oh. Sorry. Do you need, ah, products?”
I coughed out a laugh. “No, I don’t need tampons, Aiden. I was thinking maybe some makeup.”
He grinned. “You’re gorgeous without makeup. I didn’t even think of getting any.”
I shook my head. “You didn’t bring me panties, either.”
“That was deliberate.” He started pouring batter into a pan and they sizzled instantly. Knowing Aiden, he might be telling the truth about that one.
I sent a quick text to Clark letting him know I wasn’t coming to the office today. Then I hopped off the stool. “Bathroom.” I wandered to the powder room by the front door and then returned.
Aiden’s cabin had three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a large great room, and a spacious kitchen with a round breakfast nook. He still didn’t have any furniture in the living room, but the bar stools were a decent beginning. I wandered into the smallest bedroom, and it was still vacant. The master bedroom at least had a bed if nothing else. The third room had already been set up as an office with a card table in the middle. I stepped inside.
Aiden caught me snooping. “What’s up?” The smell of pancakes filled the air behind him.
I stared at the large board hung on the side wall. A picture of Barensky was in the middle. “Just checking out your murder board.”
“Case board,” he corrected. “We don’t call them murder boards. It helps to have everything in one place.”
“I know,” I said. I kept a murder board in my laundry room, and I liked thinking of it as a murder board even though I didn’t deal in murders. It was more interesting. And I liked to kill it in court, so maybe it fit. At least in my mind it did.
His board was neater. Above Barensky was a blank head and a question mark with the word ‘client’ written next to it. Below that was Sasha’s face as well as the faces of the two guys I’d seen meeting at the Lordes apartment building. Then Bev and Kay, and next to that my picture with a question mark.
I turned to the two guys. “Did you ever figure out the real names of the Barensky representatives?”
“Not yet.”
“What all happened when you met with them?” While I understood that he liked to keep his cases private, I had a right to know.
“A lot of double-talk,” he muttered. “They used euphemisms for delivery of product and all of that, so they didn’t say anything criminal. They talked money to deliver their gifts to Seattle. Five gifts and a hundred k for each. That’s it. I hated letting them go, and we tailed them, but they lost the tail. That normally happens in real life—it’s not like the movies.”
Nothing was like the movies. “How are you going to find out who they really are?”
“We have them on video. Facial rec might help us out, but so far, nothing. It takes a while, though.” He secured my hand in his warmer one. “You need to eat.”
I studied the board one more time and then went with him toward the kitchen. “I’m surprised you’re at home making me pancakes. Don’t you have work to do?”
“Yep.” He led me back to my bar stool. “I already looked through what remained of the apartment buildings to examine what I could of the devices, and my unit is collecting all of the evidence to send to the lab. We also have BOLOs out on everyone I need to find. I can take the morning off and make sure you’re okay before going back to work.”
I sat. His ultra-efficient and calm demeanor was starting to throw me off balance, although I appreciated being his priority right now with so much going on. My heart might’ve twittered a couple of times.