It wasn’t a complete bust, however.

Like most businesses in the city, The Tea had street-facing security cameras – which Micah quickly gained permission to bring into the precinct.

He had felt his lungs constrict when he recognized Nico stepping out of a dark-colored van on the Saturday morning he’d disappeared. But the man who got out and entered the café with him – Nico’s mysterious date – must have known where the cameras were stationed, because he didn’t turn to face them once.

Micah had felt like punching his computer.

Instead of giving into the urge, however, he’d handed the grainy surveillance video over to Tessa, who was an expert at enhancing CCTV footage. She was able to clear it up enough to make out the van’s license plate. She’d also been able to snag the license plate of the cab that Nico and his date had left in approximately an hour later.

Which left Micah with two new people to interview.

Much like the barista, the Uber driver who had dropped Nico and his date off at The Tea vaguely remembered Nico when he was shown a picture, but he couldn’t recall much about the man Nico had been with. The man had paid him in cash.

Micah’s interview with the cab driver had gone even worse. The man seemed distrustful of police in general, and he’d barely even glanced at the picture Micah tried to show him of Nico, claiming he taxied a lot of people around the city, and he could hardly be expected to remember the faces of every one of them, could he?

All in all, Micah felt like he’d spent the past several weeks chasing his own tail, where all leads led absolutely nowhere.

It was frustrating and damn near crippling on his self-esteem. Each day that passed, he grew less and less confident that they’d find Nico’s killer and bring him to justice. The worst part was having to give Mr. and Mrs. Sanchez daily updates – something he’d promised them and himself he’d do. Having to admit every day that they were no closer to arresting anyone then when they’d first found Nico’s body was taking it’s toll on his mental health.

Micah, for his part, remained convinced that whoever killed Nico was also responsible for the string of murdered prostitutes that came before him, but with no new evidence to support his theory and with the Hooker Hunter “officially” in custody, the cases remained unrelated in everyone’s minds but his own.

It’s what prompted his half-assed idea to go back undercover as a prostitute.