CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

"Shelby, thank you for indulging us in some more questions," said Ian.

"No, it's no problem at all. I'm sorry this is occupying so much of your time. I guess I didn't realize how difficult all this would be."

"Honey, we think that you might have seen the man or woman that Amber was working with. I know you said you went out with her a few times, but we honestly believe that you may have met them or seen them and didn't know it."

"I don't understand. If they knew that she knew me, why would they contact me."

"You're the package," smirked Ghost. "No offense, honey. Amber was cute, but she wasn't you. She dressed a bit…"

"Trashy?" frowned Shelby.

"That's one word to describe it. You're more refined. Prettier, better dressed, put together in all the ways someone might target a woman thinking that they had money. We think that you saw them, or they saw you with her and decided to go for you. By setting up dates with you and leaving you hanging, you were sitting there buying coffee or drinks as your credit cards were being run. That also left your apartment vulnerable and gave them time to get in and hack your computer."

"God, I'm so angry about this!" she said, standing and pacing the room. Red watched her, smirking at the others. He liked this fire. He liked that she wasn't about to sit back and do nothing.

"We're angry too, honey. Now, let's do something with that anger." Nine smiled at her, nodding. "How many times in the last six months did you go out with Amber?"

"That's easy. I keep everything in my phone," she said. She pulled up her calendar and simply searched the word ‘Amber.' "It looks like, maybe five, no, six times. One was lunch. The others were all after work hours drinks or dinner."

"Let me have the first one," said Code.

"Lunch at Delroy's on October 19th." Code did his thing, hacking into the security cameras at Delroy's then searching for the date in question.

"I've got you," he smiled. "Pretty dress, by the way. You should wear pink more often."

"You wanna keep those teeth, brother?" asked Red. Code just smirked at the man, nodding.

"I think that was very sweet. Thank you, Code," said Shelby. She turned to Red, touching his arm. "I think you were very sweet as well. Thank you." Red just laughed, shaking his head.

"I can't see one dude in the camera view. What kind of place is this?"

"Oh, it's an English tea shop."

"Okay," he frowned. "Next."

"November 2nd at Pat O'Brien's."

"Of course. You picked the busiest drinking spot in New Orleans. Evening?" She nodded to him. "Alright, got the date, looking after six. There you are. Jeans and a sweater. Lovely, Shelby. Amber not so much. What the hell is she wearing?"

"She liked to show herself. A lot of herself," said Shelby. "Despite what she's wearing, she was a very insecure woman. I remember that night because it was cold, and she had to have been freezing. I don't remember meeting anyone or seeing anyone. There were probably five or six girls from work. I left around seven. I didn't stay long."

"Yeah, I'm not seeing anyone watching you or looking in your direction other than the occasional glances. Next one."

"December 19th. We went out for a holiday dinner and drinks at Lavere Rouge. There must have been fifteen people in our group that night. We had a small private dining room."

"Probably not that night. They would have wanted her, or you, in the open."

"Alright. Let's see," she said, scrolling through the calendar list. "February 24th. She pestered me all day to meet her for drinks at Boxy's across the street from the hotel. I wasn't feeling well, a cold or something. I agreed to one drink. That's the day she recommended the dating website."

"Boxy's," repeated Code. "Got you. Once again, Amber is lacking sufficient coverage of her assets. You, however, look lovely."

"You got up and left right when she arrived," said Ghost.

"No. No, I stepped away to use the bathroom. I was really feeling horrible. Coughing, sneezing, the whole bit. I took some non-drowsy cold medicine, then took a call from my mom. I remember her telling me to get home and go to bed. It's all I could think about. I was gone probably twenty minutes."

"Twenty-seven," said Code. "And in those twenty-seven minutes, Amber makes a phone call, and suddenly, two men appear. She's speaking to them. One of them is rubbing her back. Oh. That's not her back."

"Code. Stick to the facts."

"Brother, that is a fact. What he's rubbing is not her back. She knows those men, or at least the one with the wandering hand. They're talking, and she's shaking her head. He's rubbing, now kissing, and bam! She's nodding. I think I just witnessed Amber being persuaded by this mystery man."

"Can you get a good enough shot to run through facial recognition?" asked Nine.

"I can work on it and clean it up," he said, nodding. Shelby stepped closer, staring at the two men.

"I don't know the one with his hands on her, but the other man I recognize. He was one of the profiles on the site. He wanted to meet at Café du Monde. I waited an hour for him and then left. He just totally ghosted me."

"He's a fucking idiot, among other things," growled Red.

"Do you remember what his profile name was?" asked Code.

"Yes. Racer4thewin. I thought it was odd and asked if he'd been a racecar driver. He said he ran marathons. Whether he did or didn't, he was very convincing and seemed to know a lot about racing. I'm a pretty good listener, and he seemed to talk for hours on end about it. At one point, he stopped and apologized.

"He talked about the qualifiers for the Boston and New York marathons, what it takes to participate in an Iron Man competition, all of it. I was seriously impressed. He also said that he'd run in some ultra-marathons, which I think are like more than fifty miles or something. I just kept thinking this man has a lot of discipline. Then, he ghosted me."

"I wish we could use something other than ‘ghost,'" said Ghost. Shelby laughed.

"You are the Ghost. Ghosted is very different. I'm going to bet you would never do that," she smiled innocently.

"Uh, well. I mean, I'm a married man. But," he frowned, "I won't lie that I've ghosted women in my past. I'm not proud of that."

"Don't worry," she smiled. "I've ghosted a few men."

"What?" growled Red.

"I would never ghost you. You, I would always swipe right for."

"You're never swiping anything ever again," he said, pulling her tight to his side. He kissed her in front of everyone, and she blushed a beautiful red color.

"Maybe we should call you Red," grinned Code. Shelby laughed, shaking her head at the men in the room. She was becoming surprisingly comfortable with all of them, feeling as though they were uncles or older brothers, at the very least.

"Give me a bit to run these faces through the program. I'll see what names I can come up with. In the meantime, Miller, Angel, and Luc are headed to search Amber's office. I'll let you guys know the minute I know something."

"Code?" called Shelby as he started to leave.

"Yes, ma'am," he grinned.

"Thank you. All of you. Thank you for everything. I'm so very fortunate I found you all."