Drained (Edgars Family #6) - Suzanne Ferrell Page 0,103
the tense stillness of his features he wasn’t ready to talk yet. In the years she’d gotten to know him, she’d seen this expression when he worked a tough case. A man of intense emotions and deep-seated honor, he believed it was his duty to find this killer and get justice for the dead and their families. He couldn’t do that until he had his emotions under control and could think clearly. Despite how much she wanted to help him, it was a private matter for him. So staying quiet was her only option.
They passed the gas station on Cedar where they’d talked with the night manager. A group of people were sitting outside against the abandoned building behind it. Aaron pulled into the lot a moment and studied the group.
“He’s not here,” he said, sounding a little more in control again.
“Hondo?” she asked. She knew he was searching for the older man with the scraggly grey beard they’d talked to last night before the storm rolled through.
“Yeah. I want to show him a picture of Kyle and see if he identifies him as Steroid Kyle, just to be sure.”
“Could there be more than one former football player named Kyle that’s homeless on the streets?”
He gave a shrug as he pulled out of the parking lot and headed north on Fifty-fifth street, back in the direction where they talked to Hondo. “It’s protocol. I’m dotting my I’s and crossing my T’s on this one. I don’t want this bastard getting off because of a technicality. Besides, I’m hoping the picture of our third victim will trigger Hondo to give us a better description of the journalist he saw with Art.”
It took another hour of slowly driving up one side street and then another, but finally the spotted Hondo and his friends huddled by a wall in an abandoned lot across from a metal processing business. Aaron parked the SUV beneath the lone streetlamp on the block and hit the lock button once they were outside. They strolled the few yards up the road to where the group sat huddled against the back wall of an abandoned building, complete with half the windows panes knocked out.
“You’re back,” Hondo said, struggling to his feet.
“Afraid so,” Aaron said, shaking hands with the man. He pulled Kyle Dandridge’s college photo from his pocket as Hondo’s friends Yancy and Carmen stood, too. “I was hoping you could take a look at a picture for me and tell me if this is Steroid Kyle?”
Hondo took the picture and squinted at it in the dim lamplight. “Kinda hard to see him.”
“Here, let me help.” Brianna quickly pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket and hit the flashlight button, shining it over the picture.
“That’s mighty handy,” Yancy said, then all three of them took turns holding the picture under the light.
“That’s Steroid Kyle, alright,” Yancy said.
“Looks like a kid though,” Carmen said. “Steroid Kyle is a lot older.”
“It’s the drugs,” Hondo said, handing the photo back to Aaron with a nod of his head. “Ages a person. But it’s him.”
Aaron slipped the photo back into his coat pocket. “I don’t suppose you’ve remembered anything more about that journalist you saw talking with both Art and Kyle?”
The trio all exchanged blank looks and shook their heads.
“The problem was, he was just average looking,” Hondo said.
Carmen nodded. “Average tall, average size. Weren’t ugly, at least not as ugly as that cap he wore.”
“What kind of cap?” Aaron asked.
“You know a blue and yellow striped hat, like the colors of the team up north,” Hondo said.
Then Carmen smiled at Aaron. “He weren’t pretty like you, neither.”
Aaron actually blinked at the complement from the homeless woman.
Brianna bit down on her upper lip to keep from smiling and managed to keep a straight face as they bid the others goodbye.
“Don’t you dare laugh,” Aaron said as they climbed into the SUV.
She managed to contain her laughter until they’d cleared the downtown area and were nearer to her townhouse.
“He weren’t pretty like you,” she said, then doubled forward against her seatbelt, laughing.
“Well, he wasn’t ugly, either,” Aaron said, sounding a little miffed, but as she wiped the tears from her cheeks and glanced his way, she could see the corner of his mouth twitching to keep from grinning.
Finally, he pulled into her garage. She didn’t have to ask if he was staying. He simply walked inside with her.