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“Excellent. What was Felicity Kelley working on?” she asked, wasting no more time.
Her question was met with silence, then, “I have several meetings today, and it would be best if you spoke with Melody Schmitt regarding this. I will let her know she can talk with you freely about the project and have you connected with her.”
“Thank you.”
“Just hold the line,” he added, unnecessarily, just before the promotions started up again.
“Hello, this is Melody Schmitt.” The editor prattled off her greeting almost robotically.
“Ms. Schmitt, it’s Detectives Steele and Stenson. We spoke yesterday.” Even though it feels so much longer ago…
“Of course.”
Amanda didn’t think she should need the reminder, considering the circumstances that necessitated their visit. “Mr. Moss told us you would be the best person to fill us in on the details of Felicity’s latest project.”
“She was working on a book she pitched about a murdered intern at a publishing house,” Melody told them without hesitation. “As I believe I mentioned yesterday, she was due to turn it in two weeks ago. I now feel more comfortable telling you the reason she was delayed. She said she’d devised the perfect twist and wanted to do some rewrites before sharing the manuscript with me.”
“What was this twist?” Trent asked, beating Amanda to it.
“No details, just that she changed who the killer was.”
Amanda figured a publisher would prefer to be more hands-on in this regard. “You were okay with her holding back the details?”
“I trusted her. She’s repeatedly proven herself a superb storyteller.”
“Was it normal for her to change things up last minute?” Amanda imagined it would be unlikely, given that Felicity typically met her deadlines.
“Not really. Her first drafts usually closely modeled the original pitch.”
“How detailed are the pitches?” Amanda asked.
“That depends on the author. For Felicity, the pitch itself was rather vague, more a concept. She fleshed it out just before she began writing and would send that over to me.”
“Could you send us a copy of that?” If it was as they’d considered before and Felicity’s inspiration from real life fueled her fiction, it might help. It could even strengthen their case against Sheldon Lowe in a way they didn’t see yet.
“I would have to run that past Mr. Moss. As far as I know, I’m only cleared to verbally discuss the book, not provide written content.”
Amanda figured that would likely be her response as she recalled a clause in the confidentiality agreement that allowed for a verbal accounting of the synopsis. But her mind returned to what Melody had said a moment ago. “Did Felicity tell you why she was changing the killer’s identity?” Knowing what they did from the agent, that Felicity often played armchair detective and took inspiration from cold cases, had she gotten too close to a killer? And was that Sheldon Lowe?
“She thought it would make the book stronger. She sounded very convinced of that fact and inspired. What she decided, my guess is we might never know.”
“Without sending us anything in writing, will you recap the points of the plot, including who the killer was originally supposed to be?” Amanda asked and took a sip of her coffee.
“Ah, sure. Let me think a second here. I have so many storylines running through my head. Actually, just give me a minute, and I’ll pull up the document from the company server.”
The clicking of keys traveled the line. Then there was silence during which time Amanda suspected Melody was reading.
“Here it is. In the original pitch, rough synopsis, I guess you could call it, the killer was the victim’s ex-boyfriend.”
“Motive?” Trent asked, again beating Amanda to the same question.
“He was jealous of her newfound success. The victim, the intern, was one of those people who possessed an attractive quality. Things came easily to her. Not so much with the boyfriend.”
Amanda and Trent looked at each other. She couldn’t be sure what he was thinking, but her mind slipped to Felicity’s ex-boyfriend Luis Navarro. He was cleared of her murder, but Amanda wondered if Felicity took inspiration from her relationship with Luis and the situation of her rising fame. “When did she first pitch the book?”
“Two years ago.”
Long before her relationship even started with Navarro…
