Page 66 of Iron Shield
The photo. The agent. The restaurant. Jolie’s kidnapping. Every piece was connected but the ties weren’t strong enough.
“Maybe there is more.”
Her head came up. “What?”
“Walk me through the last few weeks before the restaurant incident.”
She blinked. “Which restaurant incident? The dead guy? The pizza guy? There are too many restaurant incidents now.”
“The dead guy.”
A faint grimace passed over her beautiful face. “I went to work. I came home. I worried about bills. I occasionally made terrible decisions involving iced coffee. Very exciting.”
“Did anything change in your routine?”
“No.”
“Think.”
Her eyes widened. He’d told her to think before, during the questioning.
“Did anyone show up in a weird place? As an example, your landlord started coming into the restaurant and going to the coffee shop you frequent. That sort of thing.”
Her brows pinched and she shook her head.
“Anyone at work ask about you? About Jolie?”
“Customers always talk, so do coworkers. Especially when Jolie went missing.”
“Did anyone know details they shouldn’t know?”
She opened her mouth, then closed it again with a frown.
He kept going. “Same car near your apartment or the restaurant?”
“Chicago has a lot of cars.”
“Anybody hanging around outside when you closed?”
“Chicago always has men standing around pretending they’re not creepy.”
Her answer made his lips twitch but he remained solemn as he fired off another question. “Customer more interested in you than the food?”
“That’s half my section every Friday night.”
“Did anyone ask if you always close alone? If you took out the trash? If you walked home?”
Her expression shifted—it was small but he saw it.
“Stina?”
She shook her head. “No. I don’t know. Maybe.”
Everything inside him sharpened.
“Any deliveries you didn’t order? Flowers? Messages? Hang-up calls? Weird DMs?”
“No.”
