“It wouldn’t have made a difference,” Charles said. “That audience wouldn’t know true talent if it socked them in the jaw.”
“You’re probably right,” Melanie Joan said.
“So you decided to bring it to Leila Donnelly,” I said.
“It was my idea,” Charles said.
My eyes widened. “Really?”
“I thought it might make Ms. Hall feel better to have the last word.”
“Charles gets me,” Melanie Joan said.
I looked at Charles. His gloved hands resting on the wheel. A possible conspiracy-to-commit-murder charge was looming over him, all because he’d been outraged at the way his boss had been treated. And yet here he was, still concerned for Melanie Joan, still trying to build her up.
Charlesdidget her. He believed in her, just like Harold and Tony and Spike and I did. Melanie Joan Hall had a way of inspiring loyalty in people. It was why I’d found it surprising—anda little disgusting—that her publisher had been willing to dump her so easily.
“So you convinced Harold to leave his post, and then you escaped from the Ritz-Carlton,” I said. “Charles was waiting for you outside. You took the book with you, and you both drove back to Leila’s house in Union.”
“I had the address from our trip there,” Melanie Joan said. “Charles plugged it into his GPS.”
“We made good time,” Charles said. “Didn’t hit a lot of traffic.”
“You get to the house,” I said.
“Could use a good reno, that place,” Charles said.
“I thought so, too,” I said.
“Sweet ride, though. Porsche 911 Carrera. You see that?”
“I did,” I said.
“What a honey. A nineties model, if I’m not mistaken.”
“Anyway,” I said. “You both walk to the door. You have the book with you.”
“No,” Melanie Joan said.
“No?”
“I went alone. I felt bad enough the last time we were at her house, with you fighting my battle for me, Sunny. I wasn’t going to return accompanied by a big, imposing man in a uniform.”
“So Charles dropped you off,” I said. “What time?”
“Maybe three-thirty? Four at the latest,” Charles said.
“I asked him to come back in twenty minutes,” Melanie Joan said.
“Then what did you do?”
“I rang the bell,” she said. “There was no answer. I rang it again. Still no answer.”
“Did you hear anybody in there? Voices?”
“Not voices,” she said. “I thought…maybe I heard some movement in there.”
“What type of movement?”
