Waves

Part 46

Let me know if you saw this one coming!

Joe's chest felt like it was going to rupture into a million pieces as he watched Eve shuffle through a stack of photos and turn back towards him. "How? Who helped her? Eve, spit it out!"

Eve sighed and looked at him with soft eyes, the weight of the betrayal slowly knocking her over. "When you went to the lab, the phlebologist–it was a man right?" Joe's eyes narrowed, his brain recalling every moment from that day yet again. "Y-yeah. How did you know what?"

"This was him, wasn't it?" Eve held up one of the photos from the table and Joe's eyes grew wide, snatching it from her hands for a closer look. "Yeah, actually. He had a scar on his cheek like the guy in that picture. I remember John made a Peaky Blinders joke to me when the tech left the room. How the fuck do you have a DMV photo of some random phlebologist? Do you know him? Is he connected to one of your cases?"

"I don't know him well, but I've met him. So did you, for a second time after he drew your blood that day. In fact, you took a photo with him, only during that meeting, he had a beard and frankly, you were hammered," Eve mumbled. Zooming in on a picture on her phone, Eve handed it to Joe, her heart breaking at the slow-bubbling horror on his face.

"Eve...there's no way. There's no fucking way," Joe croaked. "That's Nat. Amanda's brother. Nathaniel Brian Danielson. I met him for the first time in Vegas right before the Super Bowl, but you met him that day at the lab. The lab with weird initials in the name. NBD Laboratories. NBD. Nathaniel Brian Danielson is also Lana's ex-husband who has been off the grid for a few years now."

Joe felt his stomach churn and for a moment he thought he might throw up. Pulling out a chair from the table, he sat down lifelessly as the others crowded around the photos, mouths hanging open.

"Eve. What are you saying right now?" Joe asked, his voice barely audible. "I'm saying that Amanda's brother is Lana's ex-husband and he's been in the wind for years, probably for illicit purposes. I'm saying that Amanda is in school right now for health sciences and most likely has the capability or at least the lab knowledge to tamper with test results . And I'm saying that when I pull the property records for NBD Laboratories on Walnut, I'm going to guarantee the lease is going to have Amanda's name on it because she had lived in that building," Eve said quietly, recalling several innocuous conversations that now stood out like towering red flags.

"Your new apartment is so freaking cute! Are you loving it?" Eve asked, shouting over the loud music. "Are you kidding me? I adore it. OTR was fun but Walnut is just so slammed all the time and living above a chicken place made all my clothes smell like a KFC. Plus I'm closer to Sam now," Amanda smiled.

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"I'm such a shit friend. I forgot you're back in school and haven't asked once how it's going. What are you studying again?" Eve peered at the spine of one of the large reference books and tried to decipher the subject. "First, you're not a shit friend. You've got a million things going on all at once. Second, health sciences," Amanda replied, sweeping her stuff off the table and motioning for Eve to sit down.

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"Sam booked massages and facials for us back in the suite, do you want to come join me and my mom?" Amanda asked. Holding up her laptop, Eve shook her head. "I'd love to but I want to get some work done so I can be distraction free the rest of the weekend."

"You're the most disciplined person I've ever met. I brought my hem textbook and haven't even pulled it out of my suitcase. Well, if you change your mind, you know where to find me!" Hugging Eve goodbye, Amanda skipped off and Eve made her way to a somewhat quiet lounge that served coffee and sat down for a few hours with her laptop.