Promising Young Women | Sons of Anarchy Fanfiction | Jax Teller x OC

Chapter Five: Lookin' For Love In All The Wrong Places

Wednesday, 6:37 pm

Fuzzy, colorless images filled her screen, and Grace squinted down on reflex to get a closer look. Her focus darted to the timestamp on the upper right-hand side of her screen - 01:47:36. So, presumably still before the time when Dani possibly could've been dropped off at her apartment building.

The movement across her screen just now didn't really look like anything, but that didn't mean it wasn't anything. Part of the problem here was that she didn't really know who lived in that building, and who didn't, so she also didn't know what was normal and what wasn't. Someone coming back to their apartment right before bar close on Friday night really wasn't that out of the ordinary. And from what she could tell, the guy that had just gotten out of his car and walked through the parking lot - just a tiny bit unsteadily too - also went right up the stairs and disappeared down a hallway, two stories above where Dani had lived.

Her heart twisted violently in her chest. Had lived.

Goddamn, that stung.

Scorched and burned every step of the way, right down to hell.

So, she took another swig of bourbon, trading one burn for another and liking this new one better as her eyes refocused on her computer screen.

"I don't get how you can drink that stuff," Luna called from the opposite end of the table. "That shit is nasty."

"You're nasty," she sassed back, smirking at her partner from over the top of her laptop. "And bourbon certainly isn't for the faint of heart. So I don't know what that says about you - or me, I guess."

Luna's dark eyebrows lifted, her lips curling into a lazily cavalier smile. "Touché, Gracie Ruth."

Now, Grace tipped her chin to her. "You got anything over there?"

"Nah. Just some white people comin' home from the bars."

"Yeah, that's what I see too."

Granted, there was still plenty of time between where they were currently at with security tapes versus when Dani might potentially show up on the feed. After sending about 30 fake emails to that apartment complex, someone on the other end finally clicked one, giving Grace everything she needed to mine their system for the security camera footage from the night Dani died. She'd also snooped their emails just long enough to find a chain between two of the property managers discussing when and how to comply with the subpoenas they'd just received from the courts about said security camera footage.

On the one hand, it was good to know the people running Dani's apartment were cooperating with the cops, unlike certain other people in town. But on the other, it was clear these rental managers had no intention of complying in a timely manner because they were still up to their necks in damage control and bad press, given the girl that had been found strangled in one of their apartments.

There were also multiple email chains about hiring some security guards and implementing other security measures because, obviously, "security cameras aren't enough."

No shit.

That was all a good step in the right direction - but those kinds of reactionary plans didn't help Dani. Or those two other missing girls that Grace just couldn't find any fucking trace of.

And that thought just spurred her on, drawing her attention back to the feed on her computer screen. With both Grace and Luna fixated on their screens - they each had the exact same footage playing in black and white just to make sure the other didn't miss anything - they went back to work, pausing to make notes when needed, when a white pickup truck pulled into the lot and parked into a stall in front of Dani's building at 2:21:47.