Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 74604 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74604 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
But with Brock?
Oh, yeah, I was a lot more into that than I should have been.
It was just a quick touch, though, gone before I could even fully process it.
I couldn’t tell you what I expected a man like Brock to drive. For example, I could generally picture ex-military guys driving pick-ups for some reason. But also, in my mind, private investigators drove really nondescript black sedans.
What Brock drove, though, was an unexpected 4Runner in this unique pale greenish blueish color that I didn’t even have an example to compare it to. But it stood out. Definitely not something that suspicious people would miss parked on the street.
“Front, sweetheart,” Brock said when years of riding in the back of a town car made me go to the rear passenger door.
“Right,” I said, shaking my head at myself as he pulled the door open for me.
“Been a while, huh?” he asked.
“I honestly don’t remember the last time I rode in the front of a car,” I admitted. “Years, I guess.”
“Don’t you ever drive?”
“I never learned how,” I told him. “I was born and raised in the city. There was never any need for me to learn. And then when I decided having a vehicle was smarter than wasting time on public transit, it made more sense to go with a town car and a driver, so that I could get work done on my way to and from places.”
“Makes sense,” he agreed, pulling out of his spot. “For a workaholic, anyway,” he added. “I’m surprised you didn’t bring your laptop.
“The only reason I didn’t is because you were waiting for me outside,” I told him.
“Won’t it be nice not to be working for a couple of hours?”
“That is a good question that I don’t have an answer to yet. So what is Navesink Bank like? I haven’t been to a lot of places in New Jersey. Aside from Cape May.”
“It’s a big small town, if that makes any sense. Lot of people, and a lot of diversity in socioeconomics. There’s a rougher area, a big suburb, and a rich suburb. And I mean rich-rich. You rich,” he clarified. There’s the Navesink River along one part, and the beach is only maybe fifteen or twenty minutes away, depending on where you live in Navesink Bank.”
“Is it where you grew up?”
“Yes. And then I went away after the military.”
“Why did you go back?”
“Sawyer. He’d gotten his shit together and opened up the private investigator agency. He wanted people he knew that he could trust on his team. So he came to find me, dragged me back to town, and I’ve been there ever since.”
“Do you like your job?”
“I guess that depends on the case,” he said, shrugging, and it was refreshing that he didn’t just answer yes. No one loved every aspect of their work. Not even ‘workaholics’ like me.
“Which cases don’t you like?”
“While they’re the easiest cases to work on, I’ve had about enough of cheating spouse cases. It’s hard to enjoy the breaking up of a marriage or family, even if the person did bring it upon themselves.”
“I get that. There’s a lot of trauma involved. What are your favorite sort of cases to work on?”
“The ones involving beautiful, single women?” he said, shooting me a smirk. “I also like helping the families of missing persons after the cases go cold, or when their local department is just not doing enough. Those can be heartbreaking a good chunk of the time, since most people who go missing end up being dead.”
“But at least the families get closure.”
“Exactly. And when you can, on a rare occasion, find someone alive, that’s a high you don’t come down from. Even if there is often a lot of trauma involved in that too.”
“But you helped get them out and back to their families where they can heal.”
“Yeah. It’s definitely nice to get some good mixed in with some of the shitty stuff.”
“Do you get a lot of cases like mine?”
“With the faked suicide and 5150? No, babe, you’re my first.”
“I kind of meant with some unknown foe wishing someone unwell.”
“It’s not as common as the cheating spouses, but, yeah, it happens. We get a lot of stalker cases in particular. It’s hard for victims to get any sort of help from the police with shit like that, so they come to us for help.”
“What can you do? I mean, aren’t stalking cases notoriously hard to prosecute? Even with evidence?”
“Yeah, definitely. But we help the victims build up cases, get information on their stalkers, and try to weigh the danger level. Sometimes, just knowing we are involved with scare the creeps off. Other times, we have to refer clients to other organizations to help them disappear and start a new life away from a real psychopath. What?” he asked, giving me a long look, making me realize my thoughts must have been on my face.