"What's up, Tyler?" Tyler opened the folder and slid the picture of the corpse from Los Angeles across the table toward Maverick. Mav picked up the picture and stared at it. No flare of recognition lit in his eyes, Tyler noted. He held it over to Ricky to show him. Ricky squeezed his eyes shut and visibly shivered.
"Eww what, I mean, who is that?" Ricky asked, shakily.
"That's what we're trying to find out, Ricky." Tyler turned his attention to Mav. "I need to know if you've ever seen him before, Mav. Was he a guest at the dude ranch?" Maverick picked up the picture and studied the blue-faced man again. He slowly shook his head.
"He don't look like no one I ever met, Tyler. I'm pretty sure I never seen him before today." Ricky looked up at Mav and shook his head then looked over at Tyler.
"He doesn't look familiar to me either, officer," Ricky said quietly.
"Well his credit card was used out here at the winery, two months after that corpse showed up floating in the Pacific Ocean." He opened the file again. "See here's the credit card receipt. The man's name was Frank Saloomen." Ricky audibly gasped; his hand flying to his mouth as he swiveled his head to Maverick, round eyed.
"Wait. Frankie?" Ricky's look seemed to confuse Mav at first then he asked Ricky, "Is that Michael's boyfriend Frankie's last name, Saloomen?" Maverick drawled. Ricky nodded vigorously, his hand still over his mouth.
"But how… how, Mav, what's happening?" Ricky looked very confused and frightened. As confused as Maverick, if not more so. Tyler on the other hand was the most confused of all. He held up his hands.
"Okay, you seem to know the name but not the picture, Ricky. Do you want to tell me how you know this name and who's Michael?"
"Michael is Michael Francis, my ex-boyfriend. He was dating a man named Frankie Saloomen when we came to the Lazy E together." Tyler was even more confused.
