Page 30 of D for Dead

Jake felt his heart sinking, already knowing what was coming. He glanced at Rebecca and knew she was thinking the same thing.

Boaz’s scowl deepened as he finally addressed Hickok.

‘I think you’ll find it’s relevant. Another paperback has been found with the victim.’

10

Amy paced back and forth across her apartment, raking her hands through her hair.

‘Why is this happening?’ she addressed no one in particular. ‘Why has he picked my books?’ She wasn’t whining; more distraught that she had unwittingly written the death scene for another innocent victim.

‘We’re still trying to establish that,’ Jake told her. He had been given the job of breaking the news to her that the killer had copycatted another of her novels. Rivers was with him; Hickok having chosen Rebecca to accompany him to the crime scene. Under normal circumstances Jake would’ve argued against the logic of splitting up from his partner, but Hickok and Rebecca had unresolved issues and it was creating a bad atmosphere. For the moment he was glad to be away from them.

Amy had been writing when they’d arrived. Her laptop was still lit up, sitting on the oak dining table, the words on the screen illegible from where he stood. Beside the laptop sat a coffee cup and a pair of reading glasses.

Her apartment was a mix of shabby and chic in muted shades of cream, green and soft grey. Cushions were scattered across the two couches and the pictures and ornaments in the room combined contemporary with antique. It had a feminine and homey feel. In the corner of the room, beside the open patio doors, Huckleberry watched them from his bed, where he had retired after enthusiastically greeting Jake and Rivers. The long curtains billowed gently, the much-needed breeze adding a little respite from another hot summer day.

‘You know there are four more books in the series?’ Amy looked at Jake, her eyes troubled.

Amber coloured eyes. He hadn’t noticed them before. Almond in shape and framed by long lashes. They were the kind of eyes a man would fall for. Maybe a killer would fall for? She worked at the Velvet Lounge as a waitress. Perhaps she had attracted the wrong kind of attention. She had been followed from there. It would be worth checking out if Shawn Randall ever drank in her bar. Jake stored the idea away. Something to look into later.

‘So the shooting death, it was from the second book?’ Rivers questioned. He sat on the couch, pen poised, the cup of tea he’d insisted on Amy making when she had offered them a coffee from the pot she’d recently made, still untouched on the table beside him.

Jake shot him an irritated look.

The question was rhetorical. They already had the name of the book the first responding officers had found at the scene and bagged up as evidence.

‘Yes, I thought you already knew that before you got here?’ Amy said, echoing Jake’s thoughts. She moved to sit back at the dining table, where she had been writing before their interruption, and scraped her hands back through her hair again, letting out a deep breath. She seemed drawn and nervous, with no sign of the feistiness from their previous meetings.

‘We had been told that,’ Rivers responded, his tone surly. ‘But I like to be thorough. The information I put in here,’ he continued, tapping his notebook with his pen in a patronising manner, ‘it has to be orderly. I can’t work with scribbles.’

Prick, Jake thought, keeping his temper reined in.

He pulled out a chair and sat down facing Amy, prompting Huckleberry to get up from his bed and mosey over. Rivers watched the dog guardedly, looking relieved when he settled against Jake’s leg. The younger agent hadn’t been impressed with Huckleberry’s greeting when they’d arrived, and Jake had gotten the feeling Rivers didn’t do slobbering tongues or dog hair on his suit pants.

Something he didn’t get. He’d been around animals all his life; his parents owned a ranch back in Georgia and he had grown up surrounded by horses, dogs, cattle and chickens. Dogs had always featured in his life and he couldn’t imagine not having one.

‘Why don’t we ignore thorough for now,’ he suggested, rubbing Huckleberry’s soft ears, sounding calmer than he felt, ‘and try and move things forward.’ Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rivers shoot him a look and he glared back at him, daring him, before refocusing his attention.

There was a vulnerability about Amy today and, for reasons he didn’t care to define, he felt protective towards her, especially when Rivers was acting like an asshole.

‘I need you to think,’ he told her. ‘I know we went over this before, but who in your life might have a problem with you? We already have Nadine Williams on the list, but I need you to think of other people. Anyone you may have inadvertently pissed off or who has a reason to spite you.’

‘I don’t think there is anyone; just Nadine.’

‘Cast your mind back. No other fans or writers whose toes you’ve trodden on? Any of the employees in the Velvet you might have had a disagreement with? Friends or exes you’ve fallen out with?’

She did as asked, closing her eyes for a moment, her face pale as she struggled to come up with a name. Eventually she reopened them.

‘I’m sorry, but I’m struggling. I guess I had a bit of a fight with Jocelyn, one of the waitresses I work with, a few weeks back, but it wasn’t even a fight; just a stupid disagreement over tips. We were fine by the end of the shift. I try not to fall out with my friends; we’re all good. And exes – I broke up with my last boyfriend nearly a year ago.’

Jake nodded. ‘Was it amicable?’

‘Is it ever amicable?’

‘You broke up with him?’

‘Yes, but it had been fizzling out for a while.’