grieving to me. In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd say they were three single ladies enjoying a couple of cocktails and some sun, as laughter erupted from the group at some private joke.
"I got the impression that you and Gia were close?" Ava asked.
Jada nodded. "I guess so. I mean, Gia was kind of a hard person to really get close to. But we were roommates when we first started out." Her eyes took on a faraway look, as if she was remembering happier times.
"When was that?" I asked.
"A couple years ago, I guess." She blinked her attention back to the present. "We were both new at Smart Models."
"Hughie Smart is your agent too?" Ava asked.
Jada nodded. "I introduced Gia to him. I introduced her to Carl, too." She frowned, and I wondered if she was feeling some ill-placed guilt—as if somehow that introduction had led to her friend's demise.
"Carl Costello?" I clarified.
"Yes," she said on another deep sigh. "Hughie had booked me for a photo shoot, and one of the other models didn't show. I called Gia to see if she could fill in. The rest, as they say, is history."
I wondered if there was some jealously on Jada's part that she'd been Costello's model first but Gia had become his star.
As if reading my mind, Jada added, "Turns out, Gia had the perfect look for Carl's esthetic. She closed all his shows."
"It sounds like you all worked together a lot."
"Mm-hmm," she said. She shielded her eyes from the sun as she turned to me. "Why is it you want to know about Gia?"
"Actually, we were wondering if Gia ever mentioned someone to you," Ava said, shifting on the lounger. "Someone who might have been getting a little too close to her for comfort."
Jada frowned, her line-free forehead pulling her eyebrows down. "What do you mean?"
"Did Gia ever mention anything about a guy following her? Or giving her maybe too much attention?" I asked.
"Gia was beautiful. Lots of guys gave her attention."
"We were thinking more along the lines of stalker type attention," Ava said.
"Stalker?" Jada's face registered surprise.
I nodded. "We noticed the same guy hanging around in the background in quite a few pictures of her."
Ava grabbed her phone from her purse, pulling up one of the photos from Gia's social media pages that we'd found earlier. She zoomed in on Baseball Cap Guy and turned the screen to face Jada.
Jada leaned forward, eyes scanning the picture. "I-I don't know. I mean, Gia never mentioned anything like that to me." She squinted at the man. "Hard to see his face."
"I know," Ava said. "He's kind of hidden in all of them." She scrolled through two more photos, but Jada just shook her head.
"Sorry. I don't recognize him."
"You sure Gia never mentioned anything about someone following her or maybe being a little overly friendly?" I pressed.
"If this guy really was stalking her, she didn't mention it to me." She lifted her eyes from the phone, gaze going from Ava to me. "You don't think this guy had anything to do with her death, do you?"
"It's possible," I admitted. "We know he was at the fashion show."
"Are you sure?" she asked.
"Positive." I pulled up one of the photos from backstage. "I took this just before the show."
As Jada glanced at the picture, something flashed behind her eyes, though I couldn't quite read the emotion before it was just as quickly gone. If I had to guess, though, I'd say it was fear. The idea of a man stalking models backstage at a fashion show wasn't exactly a comforting one.
"This was taken with your camera?" she asked me.
I nodded. "I didn't notice him at the time. It was just when we were scrolling through some photos for publicity shots today that we found this."
"You didn't see him backstage?" Ava pressed.
Jada licked her lips, a frown of concern still on her face. "No. But, I mean, everything was kind of hectic. It always is before a show. Lots of people involved and close quarters."
"What about after the show?" I asked. "Did you and Gia leave the runway together?"
She pried her eyes from the image of Baseball Cap Guy on my phone and leaned back in her lounger again. "No. I mean, yes, we all exited the stage at the same time, but Gia had her own dressing room." She paused. "As I guess you know. Anyway, she went straight to it and closed the door. The rest of us changed in