“Kenny, can you verify your whereabouts every night since Wednesday?”
He cracked his knuckles painfully loud. It even made Paige flinch.
“Why? You think I did this?”
“Your friend recently threatened someone with a chainsaw. We found that same friend living with you. You seem to have a disdain for escorts, and two of our victims were exactly that. Don’t you think that’s a little strange?”
“Ha.” Kenny seemed unfazed by the accusation. “Like I’m the only hooker-hater out there.”
Paige felt like she was on a crash course for a head-on collision with a brick wall. She’d interviewed a number of terrorists during her time at the Bureau and the majority of them loved nothing more than boasting about their body counts. Potential serial killers, she realized, were a different breed of predator.
“That doesn’t make you innocent.”
“Maybe not. But I’ve been at home every night. Ask my friends, ask my mom. Me and Bret have been streaming online, usually ‘til about 3am. You can watch all of our recordings if you want. How do you like them apples?”
Paige crashed straight into that wall. She couldn’t argue with evidence, providing it existed. That was their next mission, and if everything checked out then it was one step forward, two steps back.
“Okay. We’ll need the details. Another officer will take them from you.”
“Fine by me.”
“One last question. Did Teri mention where she found her clients? On the street, on the Internet, word of mouth?”
Kenny scratched his bald head. “Online. Those buy and sell websites. Escorts are always peddling their crap on there.”
Paige’s stomached knotted up. That was the one answer she didn’t want to hear. Those kinds of sites numbered into the thousands and they all favored anonymity, not to mention that Teri might not have used any keywords that could draw their attention. Most posts on those kinds of platforms were purposely vague.
“Thank you, Mr. Spencer.” She collected her belongings and rose to her feet. “Please show these women a little more respect.”
“Whatever you say, sweetheart.”
Paige fought the urge to react but lost. She leaned over the table and met Kenny nose-to-nose, close enough to taste the marijuana on his breath.
“One more comment out of your stupid mouth and I’ll stick my foot in it… again.”
Kenny shrunk down, moved his eyeballs to the table. Paige charged out the room where she found Ella waiting for her.
“Asshole,” Paige said to her partner.
“Totally.”
Paige regarded Kenny through the one-way glass. “How did I do?”
“Good, but you mentioned Kate was an escort.” Ella checked to make sure no one was listening. “We were sworn to secrecy on that.”
“Dammit,” Paige said and slammed the wall. “I’m sorry. I forgot. God’s sake, I can’t even get that right.”
“Relax. You did great.”
“No, we’re back to square one. I was so sure that was our guy. Now we’ve gotta do the whole thing again.”
Ella put both her hand on Paige’s shoulder. “I know this feeling. I get it every single case, and you’d be surprised what a few little tidbits of information can unveil. Teri and Kate have a connection now. That’s what we’re going to explore next.”
Paige appreciated the praise, but the reality was still difficult to deal with.
“Besides,” Ella continued, “I never told you how impressed I was that you took Kenny and Bret out like that. You took them down like an MMA champ.”
Paige laughed. “Thanks.” She turned back to the glass, eyeing up her once-suspect, all now a rapidly fading coincidence.
“And I’d do it again,” she said.
“Come on, let’s take a break. We’ll reconvene in thirty.”
“Alright. I need some air. I’ll be outside.”