Gilded Craving - Olivia Jaymes Page 0,71

meal. They'd all pitched in to clean up the mess, stuffing the leftovers into the refrigerator and the dirty plates and silverware into the dishwasher.

"Isla, Caroline, and Theo," Ryan replied as they all settled on the couch. "I'm hoping one of them knew about Brad's gambling."

"Caroline and Danny were quite forthcoming when you met with them," Mariah replied. "If she knew about it, I think she would have said something already."

"I've thought about that too, but I need to ask anyway. Maybe she didn't think it was an issue at the time."

"If anyone knows it will be his best buddy," Knox said. "Guys don't always tell their girls everything, but their best friend always knows the dirty details."

"Then why didn't Theo tell me when we talked before?" Ryan asked.

Knox grinned. "Bro code, dude. You don't rat on your best bro when they're doing something that others might not approve of."

"Even if Theo thought that Brad might be in over his head?"

"We don't have any evidence of that," Knox pointed out. "If he knew Brad was gambling, and I bet that he did, he may not have realized how much Brad was gambling a day. Or he may have known but didn't think it was a big deal since Brad's own daddy wasn't worried about the money. No alarm bells were going off anywhere and no one thought this was a problem."

That was the truth. Not one person had been concerned about Brad. Everyone said that he'd been acting normally. Nothing was off.

Then he'd walked into a bar and never walked out. Disappeared for over ten years. And he wasn't giving up his secrets easily either.

"I know I just got here," Knox continued. "But how about we start from the beginning? Go over the whole case again. That's what Jared would tell us to do."

Knox had worked for Jared as a deputy years ago.

Jason and Logan would have agreed with Jared, too.

"Okay, let's do that," Ryan agreed, levering up to grab a couple more beers from the refrigerator, but then he remembered that this wasn't his damn apartment and that Mariah might die of boredom listening to them talk shop. "We can go back to my place to do it. I don't want to take over your evening, Mariah."

"Are you kidding? I want to hear you two work. I promise I'll be as quiet as a mouse and just watch, but please stay here."

Ryan shook his head. "If we stay, I want you to speak up. You were there that night at the bar and you were also there when I talked to Caroline and Danny. You're in this as much as I am."

She looked unsure but Knox was nodding in agreement.

"He's right," Knox said. "You were there. You were Brad's friend. You have insights that I don't have."

"So you're unbiased," Mariah replied. "That's a really good thing."

"True," he agreed. "But we need all the brain power we can get here."

They gathered around the kitchen island, Ryan's case file spread out on the granite.

"So let's start at the beginning," he said. "We were all at the bar that night. The camera at the front door caught each one of us arriving and leaving. Except for Brad. The camera never shows him leaving. Yet, his body was found in the lot next door, so clearly he did exit the building."

"But not necessarily on his own power," Knox replied. "He may have been carried out at a later time."

Mariah grimaced. "You mean that he was hidden in that bar for some length of time? Ick."

"Sorry, gruesome shit doesn't gross me out anymore," Knox said. "But yes, that is what I'm saying. They could have hidden him in a crawl space, a basement, or even the attic. Then when the cameras were off or no one was there, they moved his body."

Ryan tapped his finger on one of the evidence photos - the one of the metal pipe that had been lying next to Brad's body. "But we know from the autopsy that Brad was likely killed by a blow to the head with this pipe. A pipe from the construction site next door. That has me leaning that he was alive and at the site."

"That site was under construction for months," Mariah said. "Anyone could have taken that pipe from there."

Ryan scratched at his chin. "They could have brought it inside but I'm still leaning toward him being attacked outside. Inside a crowded bar is no place for a deadly fight that no