“Because there’s been a similar murder,” Breisi said. “We’re looking into any links between the two. Unfortunately, that’s all we can tell you due to client privacy restraints.”
“So you’re doing some good.” Sasha seemed fine with that explanation as he tossed away a foundation-smeared tissue.
“We’re trying,” Kiko said. “But the leads are slow.”
“Really. Then we’ll see if I can’t help. What do you want to know? I’m an open book. A regular exhibitionist, like anyone else around here.”
As if to prove his point, he rose, sliding off his robe in the same fluid movement. Dawn caught a glimpse of smooth skin and hard body before she inexplicably looked away again. She came to lock gazes with Kiko, who’d angled his glance away, too, wide-eyed. She wasn’t terribly surprised, him basically being a puritan and all. But her? Had this afternoon’s bout with The Voice made her think twice about…well, being too hard-bitten about sex?
When Breisi said something else, it sounded as if she was still facing their interviewee. What do you know?
“How long were you with Lee, Sasha?”
Dawn heard him moving around, probably putting on clothes. “A few months. Then we broke up, he tried to flee, and the authorities hauled him back for murder.”
“You had no contact with him during all this?”
“None. Before I knew about what he’d done with Klara Monaghan, I just assumed he’d taken up with another fling. Lee wasn’t a relationship kind of man, not with males or females.”
“He was bi?”
Sasha stopped moving, and Dawn looked up to find him fully clothed in jeans and an Eddie Bauer–like shirt.
“Lee didn’t label himself,” he said. “I don’t do much of that, either. This queen stuff? I have a lot of fun doing it, but it doesn’t make me something I’m not. Lee and I felt the same way—we are what we are. That’s what attracted us.”
“What did his mom think?” Dawn asked.
When Sasha turned his gaze on her, she felt a rogue shiver travel over her arms. Maybe what unsettled her was in his eyes, the intensity of the light green or gray or…some combination of color.
“I don’t know about his mom,” Sasha said, “but the sister I talked to didn’t like the idea of Lee being with another man.”
Dawn would put money on the notion that the sister—Marg or Cassie?—had told Mama Tomlinson about a lov-ah but hadn’t mentioned he was male. Could it be that revealing this tidbit would’ve put the Lee-adoring Coral over the edge and the siblings were avoiding that?
“I’m starting to think there was a lot Lee’s family didn’t know about him,” Dawn said, searching Sasha’s face for any sign of her double meaning.
Kiko jumped on the Underground reference, having turned back around to the conversation. He reached out to Sasha, touching his bare arm as if to get his attention. “Before you and Lee broke up, did you notice anything different about him? Was he secretive? Did he go places and refuse to talk about where he’d been or did you catch him in any lies?”
Underground bait.
“Yes, I did notice some things.” Sasha sent a deliberate glance to Kiko’s lingering hand, then grinned at the smaller man. “He’d get moody when I’d ask him what he did the night before. And we had arguments about marks on his body. Bites that I hadn’t given him.”
At Sasha’s cheeky expression, Kiko removed his hand, then loosely backed away, hands up, as if silently saying, Hey, that wasn’t me making a pass. Not gay. Sooooo not gay. But I respect you for your choices, dude.
Dawn could’ve been wildly entertained by the Sasha/Kiko show, but she was trying to see if her coworker had gotten a reading. Also, she was wondering about that bite part.
“You were into biting, too?” she asked.
“Still am. Care to trade some?”
The feminine side of her preened. Yeah, screw you, Eva. See how men can like me as much as they like you? But her common sense was overriding everything else.
“Bites aren’t my thing,” Dawn said. “Where do you think Lee got his?”
As Sasha paused, Dawn noticed her partners trading a glance. From the way Breisi glowered, it was easy to guess that Kiko hadn’t gotten much off of his Sasha reading. Damn.
“Biting was just playtime for me.” Their interviewee rested his hands on his hips, coming off like the most masculine thing on the block. “But for Lee…? He got more and more into the fetish. Obviously, he went to other sources besides little ol’ me. I’m sure there’re a thousand places in town you can check into, businesses or pleasure palaces that would’ve accommodated him.”
Almost in desperation, Kiko watched Sasha’s hand, no doubt planning how to touch him again.