Nita already knew that her cousin was a little slow on the uptake, so she took in a deep breath before putting forth her deductions to help him understand her thought process.
"After I entered the car, I caught a whiff of the rose scent since it was the sharpest smell in here." She began and revealed how things had progressed after that.
As the car had been shut for a couple of days after the forensic department had completed their search, no one had entered it.
This allowed the scents that were already present inside to stew in the hot summer air.
The moment she had entered the car, the strong scent of the leather car seats was overpowering everything else.
However, when she was scanning her surroundings, she had leaned closer to the driver's seat from her position.
At that moment, a faint scent of roses had caught her attention, which was unlike anything else she could smell in there.
Her brother preferred oceanic or woody scents and even the car's fragrance smelled like pines.
This made it easier for her to realize that the rose scent she had caught neither belonged to her brother's perfume nor was it the car's fragrance.
Therefore, this meant that either Detrim, as Rowan had thought, was carrying a bouquet full of scented flowers with him or there was someone else in the car with him.
The bouquet theory could be easily written off as the surveillance cameras showed that Detrim never left his car all the way from the Valken Mansion to the last spot with the functioning camera.
This meant that he did not have the chance to purchase a bouquet which left them with the last deduction.
"I'm leaning toward the second theory." Nita disclosed her thoughts and continued explaining why she had said so.
Since this floral-heavy scent did not belong to her brother or the car, it implied that there was someone else, who wore this kind of perfume, inside the car.
"And I can be certain that it was not anyone from the police department or the family guards." She added with such certainity that her confidence surprised the two men with her.
The guards of the Valken family were all big and burly men so there was no chance that any of them would prefer such a female-oriented perfume.
There was also the head of the family, her father, who had arrived at the scene of the accident shortly after he was informed about Detrim's car being discovered.
However, she was absolutely certain that even her father did not wear such a scent as he had stuck to the same perfume for decades.
'Something Mother had picked for him back when they first met.' She recalled this piece of information that her mother had shared when she was younger.
Ever since that moment, her father had only worn that one perfume and even today, Nita had smelled the same fragrance coming from him when she had met him at home.
Therefore, she was confident that this scent could not belong to her father as well.
That leaves the police and the forensic department officials who had arrived at the scene of the crime to investigate.
"Cops prefer not to wear any heavily scented perfumes so as not to attract attention." She revealed something that was of common knowledge to most.
Since the police department hunted criminals and dealt with dangerous individuals, wearing heavy perfumes would leave an evident trail of their scent behind, which would easily give away their location.
This would be troublesome, especially if they were trying to conceal their presence.
For this reason, they would opt for body-like scents or would go without them altogether.
Hence, she was sure that this rose-based scent they had discovered here belonged to neither of the twelve people Jodie had sensed during his first tracking session today.
As her explanation came to an end, both Jodie and Rowan looked at her with newfound admiration for her observant deduction skills.
"No wonder Uncle brought you back!" The elder one spoke up, praising the Valken family Head for his quick thinking.
If Nita had not been called back by the Head, then they never would have made this discovery about the mysterious passenger who had entered Detrim's car, either before or after the accident.
Rowan's words of praise did not make Nita feel better, instead, she rolled her eyes at him before moving along with what she had to say.
"I would like to speak to the detectives handling my brother's case." She announced as her reason for coming here had been accomplished.
Hence, she revealed her next steps as she wished to gain as much information as she could from the people handling the case regarding Detrim's disappearance.
Rowan was quick to nod his head, whereas Jodie had his head lowered, typing away at his phone's screen.
While the two made plans of heading to the Police headquarters next, Jodie busied himself with whatever he was viewing on his phone.
Once the plan had been finalized, Rowan got out of the car and Nita followed after him from his side of the vehicle.
Since they had decided on what needed to be done next, the two cousins began walking away.
However, the two stopped after taking just a few steps, upon noticing that Jodie was too lost in his phone to even realize that they were leaving the accident site.
Shaking his head at his younger brother, Rowan headed towards his side of the car and knocked on the window to gain his attention.
This action startled the youngster, whose entire attention had been on his phone's screen.
"Let's go!" Rowan yelled, making his younger brother nod his head but he did not get out of the car.
This made both Rowan and Nita frown as they stared at the young man who remained seated in the same spot.
"I think I might know which perfume this is..." Jodie revealed hesitantly, pulling his phone up and pressing it against the car's window.
The two standing outside peered at the phone screen and realized that he had been searching for fragrances that had those specific scent notes which he had sensed earlier.
That was where his attention had been focused, and Nita, surprised at his sudden sharp thinking, could not help but nod in approval of his actions.
Jodie had narrowed down the list of perfumes down to just three after reading the notes mentioned on their respective websites.
"One is a rare, high-end designer perfume and two are well-known but not that rare to find." He continued and saw them nod at him once again.
"Send me the list, I'll have them delivered to the Valken mansion by evening." Rowan announced and neither Jodie nor Nita had any issues with this plan.
After all, Jodie was too lazy to put in too much effort for this task, whereas Nita had just returned and did not have enough connections without her family's resources.
'At least in this city...' She added as she had just returned to this place after nine years and hence, did not have any power or status here without her family's assistance.
Knowing this, Rowan had lent his aid and Nita was not one to refuse his support at this point.
As he had volunteered to take over this task, Rowan got right to work, sending this information to his assistant and giving him further instructions on what needed to be done next.
Only after Rowan had finished speaking to his assistant over the call did the three of them head back to where their car was parked on that secluded road.
As she walked along, Nita silently made a mental note of the assistance she had received from the Tuskar brothers, as she was never one to forget the favors she received, regardless of whether the other person was family or not.