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“You and Zoe have fun today?” Until hearing Logan’s voice, all thoughts of them playing hadn’t even occurred to her. She’d been so focused on the investigation.
“That we did, and we’ll tell you all about it. Later.”
“Can’t wait.” She puckered a kiss across the phoneline, said, “Love you”, then ended the call.
When she and Trent got to Malone’s office, they found that his office door was closed and he had company. Through the glass, she saw that Chief Buchanan was with him. His deep baritone traveled into the hallway, but his words were muffled.
The chief was gesturing rather emphatically, and it was apparent that something had him worked up. Usually, Buchanan was rather cool-tempered and level-headed.
Malone’s gaze dipped to the door, and Buchanan turned too. Then he started walking toward it. He opened the door, mumbled greetings to them, and left.
Okay…
She entered Malone’s office with Trent behind her. He closed the door, and she jacked a thumb over a shoulder. “What was that about?”
“Don’t you worry about it.”
His saying that had the opposite effect. It also didn’t help that Malone’s cheeks were flushed, and he wasn’t looking her in the eye.
“What’s up?” He leaned back in his chair, clasping his hands over his lap.
“We just wanted to bring you up to speed on the case.” Amanda sat down in one of the chairs facing his desk, and Trent leaned against one of the filing cabinets in the room.
“You want to join the conversation, Stenson?” Malone waved for him to sit next to Amanda.
“Yes, Boss.” Trent did as he’d been told.
“Lay it out. Let’s go.” His gaze dipped briefly to the papers in Amanda’s hand.
“We’re still waiting to firm up Navarro’s alibi,” she said. “I left a message for his girlfriend, lover, whatever she is to him, and haven’t heard back yet.”
“All right. He gets comfy for the night in holding. What else?”
“We just returned from Manassas. Cause of death wasn’t what we’d expected,” she said.
He leaned across his desk and angled his head to the left. “It had nothing to do with the knife in her chest?”
“Nope. Blunt-force trauma.” She told him about the missing coffee table and rug, realizing she’d skipped over that with her last briefing. “Other than minor differences, the murder scene presented much like the ones in Felicity Kelley’s novel, The Romeo Killer.”
“Still thinking the ex is responsible?”
“He has things stacked against him. Whether they hold up, we’ll have to wait and see. It comes down to his alibi.” Amanda wasn’t close-minded when it came to Navarro; there were other avenues to explore. Like Sheldon Lowe, obsessed fan. “One thing hanging over us is that all of Felicity’s manuscripts and research were likely burned in her fireplace. It feels like there’s more to that than simply recreating a scene from a book. Either way, Trent and I have talked about seeing if she backed up to a drive or cloud storage.”
“You tell me that you think Kelley’s murder was an isolated incident, and you peg her ex-boyfriend. What reason would he have to destroy her books?”
“Hurt her where it would cause the most pain,” Trent said.
“Kill her and figuratively destroy her legacy.” She wondered if they’d get a satisfying answer for why her work was destroyed.
“Reach out to her internet provider about any cloud storage. Get it done.”
“We will. And speaking of paperwork…” Amanda lifted the confidentiality form she had in hand.
“I was wondering what that was.”
“The publisher at Garrison & Marrow requires us to sign a confidentiality agreement before they will enlighten us about Felicity’s latest project.”
“Let me see it.” Malone reached out, wriggling his fingers.
