Page 32 of The Forbidden Billionaire
“Can you enlarge it?”
She pulls the laptop toward her and clicks her mouse a few times. I get up and walk around the desk to look over her shoulder.
She moves the photo to focus on Aurelia’s wrist. It shows a navy-and-white striped band.
I take the mouse from Ella and move the photo to the right, examining the pillow.
“What are you looking for?”
I’m starting to feel nauseous. “Gut feeling.” I follow the line of the pillow up, past her curls, then move the photo back to examine the top of the pillow. It takes me two goes, but eventually I stop and zoom in further.
There, at the top, is a very faint strip of striped material, barely visible when the photo is zoomed out.
Ella leans forward. “What is it?”
“I think it’s a man’s tie. It’s knotted around her wrist and slotted through one of the slats of the headboard. I’m guessing the other end is tied to her other wrist, but it’s out of shot.”
She stares at it. Then she looks at me. “This is a sex photo?”
I look at Aurelia’s flushed face, her limp form, and grit my teeth. “I think so, yeah.”
“Then how…”
“It means it wasn’t taken by someone creeping into her room at night. I’m guessing Dominic took it.” A deep, dark rage builds inside me. “Their lunch didn’t go well. I couldn’t hear all of it, but I think he wanted to get back together, and she refused. He tried to physically restrain her at the end, and I…” I scratch my forehead. “I manhandled him off her. Shit… did he send her this because of what I did? Am I to blame?”
“Stop,” she says, pointing her pen at me. “This is not your fault. For a start, I don’t think he sent it.”
My eyebrows rise. “What do you mean?”
“It didn’t come from his phone. Obviously, he could have any number of burner phones. But the message that came with the photo said ‘Midnight Beauty.’”
I try to calm my racing heart and force my brain to think. “The stalker often calls her Beauty.”
“Exactly. I think it’s from the same person who sent the rest of the messages. And we have no evidence to tie him to them.”
“So… how’d he get the photo?”
“He could have tapped into Dominic’s phone. Maybe even today, at the restaurant, as it was sent shortly after you left. Perhaps sending the photo was a veiled threat to both Aurelia and Dominic. A comment about their relationship. Anyway, I don’t think we can leap to the conclusion that he sent it. But we need to talk to him, find out if he took it at least.”
“I’ll do it.”
She lifts a brow. “Are you sure? This needs delicacy, Luke, not brute force.”
“I can be delicate.”
“I can’t actually think of anyone less delicate than you.”
“I want to talk to him,” I say firmly.
“He’ll probably be resentful after what happened today. He might not want to talk to you.”
“Let me try,” I ask her. “Please.”
She meets my eyes. Then she nods. “Okay. Hold on. Take a seat.” She taps into her laptop, then picks up her phone and dials. After a few moments, she says, “I wonder whether I could speak to Mr. Blackthorne’s secretary, please.” She waits for ten seconds, then continues, “Oh, hello. I’m just enquiring whether Mr. Blackthorne is in this afternoon? Would he have ten minutes available for a client of mine? He just wants to ask a quick question. Yes, that’ll be fine. Mr. Grayson. Yes, he’ll be there. Thank you.” She ends the call. “He’s got a space at 3:15 p.m.”
I check my watch. It’s nearly 2:15, so I have plenty of time to get there. “Great.”
“We’ll hold off on telling the police for now,” Ella says. “Once we have an idea whether Dominic was involved, I’ll submit a report.”
