The Porn Identity

Chapter 7

            There was a long list of people who'd want Noah Walker dead. Most of them began and ended with his little extracurricular activities, so I'd decided to take another look at his Facebook page. Unfortunately, his account had since been locked. Thanks, Burenville Sherriff's Office! Fortunately, I'd had the idea to take about a dozen screencaps of his page and the comment section during my initial investigation. Thanks, my penchant for thinking ahead!

       Most comments, I remembered, were too old to really matter. Apparently, he'd taken a two-ish year hiatus. Probably because he'd gotten a nice job with an IT firm and didn't need the money.

       The comments that were most interesting had only started last April. That meant Noah had gotten himself fired and instead of filing for unemployment, he chose to pay his bills through extortion. Nice.

       That meant the list was short. Only three possible suspects:

       Kelli Olson. Former Miss Florida winner whose hard-won crown was revoked when Noah sold her obscure erotic photos to the press for cash. Killed her Miss America dreams and almost wrecked her career. But she'd pulled it back and became a successful businesswoman/councilwoman. Would she really risk everything she's worked for over some old photos that were already public? I'd already talked to her on the phone, so she was probably my most compliant suspect right now.

      Next was Felix Rosario. An amateur boxer trying to make it big in the local circuit. I'd messaged him last Thursday, but he'd ignored me. Boxing is a violent sport and Noah had shown up Friday night with a shiner on his right eye. Maybe they'd had a run-in hours before and he came back to kill him. Don't know what Noah had on him so the motive is still out.

      Lastly, there was David Howell III. An heir and businessman with a million-dollar fortune. Definitely an ideal target for blackmail. His background is clean, though. All accounts say he's an upstanding citizen and family man. No idea what he could be getting blackmailed for, but he seems to be a gun enthusiast with quite the collection. Could be promising...

       "What you working on?"

       I looked up from my laptop and turned my neck to look at Manny. "This woman came in 'cause she was being blackmailed for her nudes."

       He was sitting on his side of my bed with his own laptop propped open on his lap. "I remember. It was her boyfriend, right?"

       "Yep. A real shit-show."

       The light from my tv sent a soft glow across the room. We'd put on some movie and then separately started working because being a workaholic in a relationship with a workaholic knows no indignities. "Did she press charges?"

       "Nope. He's dead."

       "Huh. Well, if you can't press charges, I guess that's the next best thing."

       I threw him a look of concern. "That's a crazy thing for a homicide detective to say."

       He shrugged. "It's really just job security."

       I howled with laughter. "You know what I told her? I said, 'he's dead, you killed him, right?'. She was not happy."

       He gave me a little conspiratorial nod. "I'd want to kill someone who threatened to leak my nudes."

       My eyebrows raised into my hairline. "Oh? Has the gentleman been flashing that thang around the internet?"

       His mouth dripped sarcasm. "Yeah. There's nothing I love more than snapping picks of my dick and sending them to internet strangers. It's a public service really—don't laugh!"