Page 65 of Maneater (The Mavens #1)

“Do you recognize the woman?” Rory asks low, that same hint of discovery excitement in her words.

“No,” I whisper, because although we can see the interaction, the quality isn’t amazing.

She nods as we watch the rest as he tugs out of her grip, and she clearly stomps off, annoyed or irritated.

Then the person in all black pulls some items out of a backpack, including lighter fluid, before liberally dousing the place with it.

He sets fire to the shack, and a few minutes later, the camera goes out; clearly, the heat of the fire is too much.

We sit there for a moment, taking in what we just watched.

“And then…what? They came back? Took it?”

Rory shrugs but nods all the same. “Must have, and then tried to stash it.” She opens another window, and after checking the exact time on the shack footage, she leaves the camera screen, spending a few minutes working her magic.

I watch as she moves through the resort cameras, attempting to track the woman’s departure through various cameras, trying to work around the missing footage.

Right as the cameras went back online, when she checks the employee parking, we see the woman’s back once more, in the same outfit and bag slung over her shoulder, step into a car and drive away, though we still never get a good look at her face.

Rory takes a screen grab of the vehicle.

“License plate,” I whisper.

Rory nods. “I don’t have the equipment to clean this up enough to get some numbers, but Demi…” she says, and I smile, grabbing my phone without another word and dialing our coworker.

“Hey, Man-eater,” she says when she picks up on the first ring. Demi is also great at flirting, but even more, she’s basically a human lie detector, something that I’m sure she’s using on her current mission with our other coworker, Lana.

On the video call, she’s sitting in a hotel room bed, her auburn hair pulled up into a loose knot on top of her head and her glasses perched on her nose.

“Hey babe, real quick: I’ve got a photo for you—any chance you have a sec to work your magic? There’s a license plate we’d love to identify.”

“You caught me at a great time,” she says, smiling. “Lana just left for practice, and I’m here all alone, bored out of my mind. Please send me the file, and I’ll review it to see what I can do. I’ll run it through the MVC as well. I just had the system open.”

“You’re an angel,” I say, then shift the camera to Rory, who is sitting at the computer, sending over the photo.

“Hey Rory!” Demi says.

“Hey girl, I just sent it.” Demi nods and pulls over a computer, obviously transferring the call to the laptop as the angle changes, and she begins typing.

“Where are you guys again?” I ask, sitting on my bed.

“This week we’re in Minnesota. Far cry from the Florida Keys.”

I laugh.

“Can’t say I envy you,” I say. “You guys are doing that monster truck case, right?” She nods vigorously. “Is Lana in the truck?”

“Yeah, you couldn’t pay me to do what she’s doing right now. You’ve got to see it; it’s insanity,” she says. “Okay, the image is processing. Hold on, I’ll send you some pictures.”

My phone vibrates, and I switch screens to see that multiple photos have been sent from her.

Scrolling through, I fight back a laugh as I see Lana dressed in a full-body racing suit in colors of pink and purple, her helmet resting on her hip with a unicorn horn on it.

Behind her is a giant, sparkling, unicorn monster truck painted in pinks, purples, and whites.

When I swipe again, there’s a video clip of the car going up and flipping in the air on a dirt mound before landing on all four tires.

“Holy shit! Lana’s in there?” I say, eyes wide, and Rory shifts then watches my phone in similar awe.

“I’m telling you guys, she was born for this. It’s insane. She’s beating all the boys in the rankings.”

“Boys, huh?” I say with a smile.

“Oh, you should see the one Lana has to work with the closest,” Demi says, then starts waving her hand at her face. “An asshole, but fuck, he’s hot.”

“A suspect?” Rory asks, and she shakes her head.

“Target.” I cringe because a case where we’re working closely with a target is always complicated. “A real piece of work, hates that a girl is beating him, thinks he’s too good for the job. He used to be in F1 but never got very far.”

“Oof,” I groan, knowing the type. “Good luck with that one.”

Target cases, where one person is being targeted either physically or emotionally, are some of the hardest to figure out because we have to take human emotions into account.

Motivations become blurred when someone is trying to hurt another person.

Even more so when you’re trying to protect an asshole like that.

“Yeah, it’s been very entertaining to watch them fight. Okay, done,” she says finally. “Okay, so the car is owned by a…Tanya Renard. Ring a bell?”

I look at Rory, whose eyes are wide.

“No way,” I whisper.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” There’s a knock at the door on Demi’s side, and she stands. “That’s my food. Need anything else? I’ll send you what I’ve got.”

I shake my head, and Rory answers.

“No, that’s it. Thanks, Demi. You’re a godsend.”

“You guys stay safe, okay?” I say.

“You too. Drinks when we’re all done here?”

“I’m begging,” I say. “I’ll call you when we’re home!”

She nods and drops the call, and I turn to Rory, nearly jumping in excitement. Rory, as is her way, has already pulled up the ID cards for the employees, and it becomes even clearer that we’ve found who our arsonist was fighting with. “One of the sabotages before we arrived was in the spa, right?”

I nod. “The irritant in the mud.”

My mind continues to run circles as I attempt to place it into our list, since she obviously could have had access to the spa. She was on our suspect list, but I’ll admit I hadn’t actually thought of her as a viable candidate until recently. A mistake, obviously. But…

“But she wasn’t the one who burned it down,” Rory says.

“She was in the vicinity when it happened, though,” I say with a tip of my head, trying to put the pieces together. “Could her hooking up with Daniel have been some kind of distraction?”

“Can we check where she was each time there was some kind of sabotage? I know the cameras have been tampered with for most of the issues, but where was she when, say, the break-in happened?”

“I can look. But I think we’re going to need some more info on her.” I nod, agreeing. “Where do we get it? She very much does not like you, so you can’t work your magic on her.”

Just then, my phone beeps with a new text from Rowan, saying he’s done with his calls and headed up with dinner. I smile wide at Rory, a brilliant idea coming to mind.