in case we missed some glaring detail,” she said, taking out her phone to snap some pics of the bar. “Maybe we’ll see something that makes the trip out here make sense.”
Mason circled the bar parking lot so Laila could take pictures of all sides, then they backtracked their earlier route, taking pictures of all the possible destinations. None appeared more likely than the bar.
“Ransom and I will come back here tonight around closing time,” Mason promised Laila. “We’ll double-check with the bartender that the posted closing time is the real one.”
“Thank you,” she said, but she couldn’t feign much enthusiasm—not that Mason blamed her. They had driven here in high hope of finding a smoking gun…and they hadn’t found one.
Chapter Thirty-One
Mason watched Laila from the passthrough. He was making dinner again, and she was going over something on her computer, occasionally running her teeth over her fully healed lower lip in a way that made him want to go over there and do it for her. But he didn’t want to disrupt her focus.
A little over a week had passed since their excursion to the Stag and Stars. They’d contacted Detective Silano to ‘suggest’ they look at traffic cameras in the general vicinity of the bar on the night in question.
After acting on the tip, the good detective called them back. “How the hell did you know Joseph Dubey’s vehicle was in that neighborhood?” she asked point-blank in a conference call with him and Laila.
Laila had tried to hedge, but Mason decided that, in this case, the truth would not serve justice. He’d told the detective the girls had heard the rumor from a fellow student who’d heard it from a friend of a friend. “I wouldn’t be surprised if that original ‘friend’ were in the frat. I hear the rats are leaving that particular sinking ship.”
Despite being officially into the summer session, Alpha Omega was quietly put on probation until the case on Jasmine Elliot’s death was closed. Despite there being no legal charges in the works, a cloud of suspicion hung over the fraternity, one that wouldn’t be cleared until the exact timeline was nailed down. However, Laila was cynical that anything would come of it.
“I bet they won’t even lose their charter. The Dubeys aren’t the only wealthy patrons. There is a whole slew of elite and upper-class families on their alumni rolls,” Laila shared in a depressed tone, curling into his arms after the call with the detective. “Unless Joe or Bryce suddenly break down and confess, I predict the school will hush everything up again in the fall. Jasmine’s death will be nothing but a cautionary tale or reduced to a mere rumor. “
Mason hated to agree with her, but he’d been around the monied class long enough to learn how the world worked. He didn’t offer platitudes. Instead, he offered her the only thing he could—himself.
Whenever he wasn’t at work, he was with Laila, spoiling her whenever he could. He cooked their every meal, bought her treats, and generally made sure she didn’t have to lift a finger. He didn’t even let her load the dishwasher. Her sweet bewilderment at being taken care of only made him love her more.
“You know you shouldn’t be getting me so many little presents,” Laila told him laughingly as he forced more gourmet chocolate on her as they sat together on the couch. “It never pays to set the bar so high so early in a relationship, at least that’s what my stepmother used to say—usually when my father forgot to bring her flowers on their anniversary. But at least he never forgot her birthday,” she added with a grin.
“Well, I’m very good with dates thanks to Google calendar,” he said, putting an arm around her.
“Are you seriously never going to let me back in the kitchen?” she asked, gesturing to the coffee table, which held the remnants of their steak dinner.
“Well, if you feel like baking again, I’m not going to stop you. Especially if you feel a yen to make those rocky road brownies or lemon squares,” he said with a winsome grin. “Or the bread pudding, you know the one with the chocolate mixed in? And—”
Laila put her arms around him, interrupting his growing list. “How about I bake all of it, every recipe I know?”
Mason grinned at her. “Only if you feel like it…”
Laughing at how transparent he was, Laila cuddled close. Savoring the closeness, he held her quietly.
“I have to go to