“What’s his full name?”
“Jamal Wilson.”
“What made you think there might be foul play?” Bradley asks.
“I was up early, getting ready for class—”
“You go to the University of NC Vintage Ridge?”
“I do. Jamal does too. Well, when I woke up this morning, the car was in the driveway with the door open. It was almost like he never left for work. When I called his work, he hadn’t shown up.”
“And what happened when you called his cell phone?”
“That’s the weird thing. His phone was in the car and the car door was open.”
“Okay. Have you called his parents?”
“I called his sister, but he’s not close to his parents, so I didn’t think they’d know. His sister didn’t know either. She just suspected that he went out drinking and skipped on work. She said he used to do that all the time. But he doesn’t anymore!”
“He doesn’t party anymore?” Bradley asks.
“No! And he also left his phone and the car door open!”
“He didn’t mention going anywhere else?”
Tanner shakes his head. “No, he was planning on going to work. He doesn’t miss work.”
“Does he usually tell you where he’s going?”
Tanner shrugs. “I don’t know… I guess. Like if it’s somewhere unusual, yeah.”
“When’s the last time you talked to him?”
“I texted him around noon asking if he wanted to eat lunch together. He said his class ran over and he wouldn’t have time, but we could tomorrow… which is today.”
“Can we see the car?” Bradley asks.
“Of course,” he says as he quickly heads to the door. We follow him out to the car where he gives us permission to enter it. Then he shows us where everything was when he found it this morning. Tanner had taken the phone into the house, so we send him off to get it.
“What are you thinking?” Bradley asks once we’re alone.
“It does seem strange. If he really did go out drinking or partying, why leave the phone and the car?”
“I agree. When we get the phone, let’s see if he has an Uber app or had someone pick him up,” Bradley says.
With a gloved hand, I pick up a plastic bag that’s sitting on the passenger seat. It’s black, which is unusual, so I look inside. There’s nothing in it but a receipt that I pull out.
“Ace’s Wild… do you know what that is?” I ask, since it wasn’t ringing any bells for me.
“Yeah, like an adult shop.”
“Huh.”
And suddenly I’m thinking about getting Bradley in an adult shop. Then I remind myself that I’m a professional, albeit horny, man who needs to stay focused on his job and not the man next to him, even though he looks mighty fine in his police uniform.
“Ooh, look here,” I say as I point at the bottom. “The receipt shows he was there yesterday at 6:53.”
“So he drove back here after that… interesting. I wonder if he was with someone or met someone there. Well, whatever was in the bag is gone. Can you tell what he bought?”
“I… don’t know, since it’s an abbreviation,” I say before taking a picture of the receipt.
That’s when Tanner returns with two cell phones in his hand. One, I’m assuming, is his and the other is hopefully Jamal’s.
“Did you know about Jamal going to this Ace’s Wild shop?” Bradley asks.
Tanner shakes his head. “Isn’t that an adult store?”
“It is. Is he dating anyone?”
“No.” Tanner holds out one of the phones. “Here’s his phone. I’ll unlock it for you. Feel free to go through it. I know Jamal, and he wouldn’t mind you going through it if he was in trouble and it meant you guys could help.”
“Thanks, I appreciate that. While we do that, can you please send us a couple of recent pictures of him? As recent as you can get,” I say.
We take the phone from him and search for calls and text messages sent in the last seventy-two hours. We also spend time looking at other things that might help the investigation, but there aren’t any alarming messages and the last person he called was his sister and that was earlier in the morning yesterday. We get permission from Tanner to take the phone, which we’ll drop off at the station on the way to Ace’s Wild so we can have someone assessing it while we drive.
Back in the car, I turn to Bradley. “Are you contacting Sgt Parker?”
“Yeah,” he says as he calls her.
“Sgt Parker,” she answers.
We give her a rundown of what we found when we arrived as well as what Tanner had told us. She decides to have us continue investigating as long as we update her if we need assistance.
We finish up the call and are quiet for a minute, thinking. At this point, there’s a huge chance Jamal got in a fight with someone and is hiding out until things cool off. It happens all the time. Rarely does a missing persons case become anything beyond a person missing for a few hours to cool off or get away.
Bradley turns toward me. “I’m going to call the school and get the names of his professors to see if he showed up for class this morning. Do you want to call his family?”
“Sounds good. I’m still hoping he just forgot his phone and ended up having too much fun at some college party.”
He nods. “Me too. We have no reason at this point to believe there’s any foul play, but the car and the phone are concerning. Especially with Tanner so convinced something has happened to him.”
“I agree, but we see cases like this all the time and it’s almost always just a dispute.”
I call his family before reconvening with Bradley back in the car, hoping he’s learned something new.
“He did show up to his last class of the day yesterday, but his first class today isn’t until one. They’re going to call us if he shows up. Did you get anything?” Bradley asks.
“His parents haven’t heard from him for about four weeks. His sister talked to him yesterday but said that nothing seemed unusual. She sounded very concerned but also thought it was likely that he’d gone to a party. She said that he would skip out on work quite often when he was younger and isn’t sure if he’s changed since. Tanner seems to think that he’s changed completely and doesn’t do that anymore.”
Bradley nods. “Let’s check this shop out and see if he was with anyone. It kind of seems like they might’ve been the last people to see him.”
“Sounds good,” I say, not sure what I think about going into an adult shop with Bradley. The day started with him as my new partner and has progressed to a trip to an adult shop filled with vibrators and paddles before lunch. I’ve never been in an adult shop before, but I know that if I had to go with someone, I’d want it to be Bradley. Maybe. Walking through rows of giant dildos suddenly sounds a bit awkward with Bradley by my side.
“How well do you know this place? Like ‘go there every Sunday and peruse the lingerie’ or ‘slipped in once out of curiosity’?” I ask, not quite sure how this pertains to the case but positive that I need the answer to sate my own need to know.
“I never slip in anywhere out of curiosity. That’s how you get diseases,” he warns.
I snort. “Good motto.”
“Thanks. I went in looking for something one time. I might have gotten distracted by the unicorn horn dildo, and I might have bought it not to use but because I felt like it was a beautiful table centerpiece.”
“You’re joking.”
He grins at me as he puts the car in drive. “I’m not. My guests loved it after I assured them it was unused. My mom? Not so much. She thought the colors were gaudy.”
“Now you have to be joking.”
His grin widens. “Maybe you’ll have to come over some time and see?”
“I’d love to come,” I say before realizing that it sounds like I’d enjoy ejaculating on him. While I would enjoy that, it’s probably not the best way to make a friend.
I think.
>
Couldn’t hurt to try.
Okay, it could hurt.
But let a man dream!
Bradley bites back a laugh, like he’s not sure if he should take it the way my subconscious did. “Well, I have a board game night with my friends every other Friday. So why don’t you come then?”
I’m not sure if he’s hitting on me or making fun of me at this point, but I’m into it.
“Sounds great,” I say.
It’s becoming really hard to balance my excitement with my concern over the missing guy. The reality, though, is that we get calls for missing adults all the time. Almost all of them end with the person needing a break from life and their loved ones were quick to panic. Knowing that, it lets me enjoy the bliss of Bradley telling me I’m allowed to come all over him.
Okay. Maybe he didn’t say that. But a man can hope.
Chapter Three
I’m not sure what I was expecting Ace’s Wild to look like, but the average brick building wasn’t it.
“It looks so normal,” I say. Besides the handcuffs detailed into the sign.
Bradley looks at the building, then back at me. “What were you expecting it to look like? A giant penis?”
“Breast shaped at the very least. Maybe glass windows where some guys in latex suits are rolling around.”
“You have some crazy expectations for places,” he says.
“I wasn’t exposed to much as a child and had to use my imagination.”
“Yet you knew what birthing a cat was like by five, so I’d say you were pretty rounded.”
I try not to grin. “Please, what will it take for you to let that go?”
“Maybe if you reenacted it for me, I’d drop it. Anything less than that and I just won’t be able to do it.”
“Right now? What do you want me to give birth to? My gun?” The grin he gives me makes me want to do it.
“I don’t even care if it’s your shoe at this point—I just want to watch,” Bradley says.
“Ah, the best things are things you must… wait on? I don’t know, that sounded good in my head, but I got lost halfway.”
“No, it sounded beautiful. Who wrote that? Shakespeare?”
“I did.”
His blue eyes get wide. “My goodness. I hope you save lives as well as you come up with words.”
“No, but I can write a mean speeding ticket,” I joke.
He chuckles as he pushes the door open and gets out of the car. I follow him up to the front door, which he holds open for me like the beautiful gentleman he is.
When we walk inside, I’m instantly drawn to the displays of toys, vibrators, and lingerie.
“Ooh! This is what I bought,” Bradley says as he holds up a massive dildo shaped like a unicorn horn.
“Your mom’s right—the colors are gaudy,” I joke. “This would look better.” I snatch up a dildo in the shape of Thor’s hammer. “Is it weird that I kind of love this? I want to carry it around for Halloween. Feel the thrust of Mjølnir!” I cry out.
“Oh my god, you’re a nerd,” he says.
I hesitate. “Ooh… I was still in the nerd closet, wasn’t I?”
“Do you guys need help?” a man asks.
I’ve never put anything back on a shelf faster, but Bradley still has the horn clutched in his hand as we turn around. Behind us is an employee, who is several inches shorter than us and probably in his mid-forties.
That’s when the man’s eyes nearly sparkle as he looks at our uniforms. “Oh my goodness. Are you guys strippers?”
“Depends how much you’re willing to pay,” I say, because I can really get on the idea of watching Bradley strip, and I’m willing to chip in.
The man laughs as he pushes his glasses up. “Did you officers need something or just stopping by?”
“Are you the manager?” Bradley asks as he puts the unicorn horn back.
“Part owner,” he says as he looks behind him. “My other half is… somewhere.”
“I’m Officer Howell and this is Officer Michaels.”
“Wilder,” he says as he holds out his hand, and we each shake.
“We have a few questions we were hoping you could answer,” I say. “We’re currently looking for someone, and it seems like this might be his last known location.”
He gives us a look of shock. “Oh! Of course, anything I can do to help.”
I pull out my phone and show him a picture of Jamal. “Do you recognize him?”
“No… I don’t. Let me find Ace and see if he does. You guys can come with me. He’s probably in the break room,” he says as he heads for an open door. We follow after him and into a break room, where there’s a noticeably tall guy with long dreads hunched over a laptop.
“Did you hire strippers again?” the man jokes.
“Yes, he did,” I say as I turn to Bradley, like I’m expecting a show. While I’m not expecting one, I’m wanting one.
Bradley reaches up and unbuttons the top button of his uniform. “That’s all the stripping I can do for you gentlemen today,” he jokes.
Does that mean if we come back tomorrow, I’ll get another button undone?
“Ace, these two were hoping we could identify someone who came into our shop. I don’t recognize him. What about you?” Wilder says.
I hand my phone to Ace, who takes it and looks at it before shaking his head. “Can’t say I do either… How do you know he came in? That might help me figure out who was working at the time.”
“There was a receipt in a bag that was in his car,” Bradley explains as I find the picture I took of it and pass it over. The two look down at it for a moment.
“Hannah was working yesterday, wasn’t she?” Wilder asks Ace.
“Yeah, while you check with Hannah, we can see if those security cameras we had installed actually work,” Ace says.
“Alright, let me call her. Does one of you want to come with me in case she has questions?” Wilder asks.
Since Bradley is closest to the door, he heads out with Wilder as Ace gives the seat next to him a hearty pat. I sit down as he pulls open something on his computer. “We had cameras installed because we had some merchandise go missing,” he explains. “We haven’t used them since we caught the kids responsible, but they might come in handy now.”
“Definitely. If we can figure out if he was with someone, acting strangely, anything, it would help us,” I say.
He fumbles with it a bit before a video begins playing. “I’ll start it at six thirty,” he says and presses play.
“Ace, a moment?” Wilder calls.
“I’ll be back,” he says before getting up and rushing out the door, leaving me with the computer. I set it so it runs at four times the normal speed and watch the customers enter and exit, none looking anything like Jamal.
That is until a familiar face enters, and I hit play so damn fast I nearly send the mouse flying.
It’s Bradley, and he’s walking straight in. My eyes adhere to him as he wanders around a bit. But what was he doing here? Better question, how was he here when he was at Davies’ retirement party?
I check the date and time and realize that while Ace clicked the right time, he had the wrong date. I know I should be a respectable human being and click the next day, I even move the mouse up to the little tab, but I’m far too curious. I need to know what Bradley is into. Maybe I could get his attention then?
That’s when Bradley walks over to a shelf of books and picks one up. He looks it over, flips through it, and heads to the cashier.
Now I need to know what book it was. It was the third one in with a black spine. I really don’t need to know, right? I mean… invasion of privacy and everything. But I’m a cop! It’s in my nature to investigate things. I’m clearly also a big fat liar because I really don’t need to investigate anything.
That’s when Bradley walks in. In my moment of panic I yank the mouse up to click on the date button, but my mouse goes a smidge too far and I click a different tab altogether.
Suddenly, I’m staring at a picture of a naked man standing before a device that appears to be smashing his nuts like a good ol’ bench vise—you know, if bench vises clutched onto testicles instead of holding wood boards in place.
“What are you up to in here?” Bradley asks as he slides into the chair Ace had been using.
“What? No! I clicked the wrong tab! But… look at his balls,” I say, unable to look away.
“He seems to be enjoying it,” Bradley comments. “Look at that smile. That’s a Christmas-morning-presents-everywhere smile.”
“The only present he looks like he’s getting is the inability to have children,” I say.
Bradley chuckles as I quickly click back over and hope that past Bradley is no longer on the screen. He’s not, so I click the correct date and time. “Find anything besides your new fetish?”
“Not yet. Ace clicked the wrong date,” I say. “You?”
He shrugs. “The lady remembers him, and they figured out that he bought a pair of handcuffs.”
“Interesting…”
“She said there was nothing off about him or anything that made her think there was something going on. She said that a lot of people are a little nervous when they’re in here, so she might not have noticed even if he was.”
That’s when I see Jamal on the screen and slow down the play speed. He walks in and looks around, but like someone who already knows what they’re getting. He’s definitely not browsing. About halfway across the shop, he stops and opens his phone.
“It looks like he’s texting,” Bradley comments, especially because he hurriedly types something, hesitates, then types something again.
“That’s interesting because his phone showed he hadn’t sent a text since about three.”
“So either he’s writing something else or he deleted his text,” Bradley says.
I think about it for a moment and try not to get distracted by Bradley’s foot bumping into mine. “Do you think the handcuffs were not for something fun but something a bit more serious?”
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