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While Benny shared the pictures with Jamie, I attended to my lunch, despite not having enough appetite to do it justice. Mostly I picked at the tater tots and nibbled at the pot pie–sized burger until my phone rang.
I didn’t recognize the digits on the display, but on a whim I answered it anyway in hopes that it wasn’t someone from a network wanting a statement.
It wasn’t. It was Dana.
“A woman at your home—your mother, I guess—she gave me this number. I hope you don’t mind. ”
“No,” I said quickly, without correcting her. “No, I don’t mind. How are you? Where are you?”
“I’m at the Chattanoogan,” she said, naming a newer, high-end hotel downtown. “I didn’t have anywhere else to go, and they won’t release Tripp…his body, I mean. They won’t release it until after an autopsy. It may take a few days. ”
“Oh. ”
“So I can’t go home. Charlie left this morning. I didn’t have any reason to make him stay, and his wife was worried about him. ”
“That makes sense,” I said lamely. The guys had stopped talking and were looking at me. They’d realized it wasn’t Lu or Dave on the line, and were curious. I ineffectively waved them back to their own business, then removed my napkin from my lap and wadded it up, setting it on the table.
“Give me a minute,” I told them as I stepped away from my seat and walked to the edge of the landing.
“I hope I haven’t caught you at a bad time,” Dana said, and I heard real hope in her voice—the kind you don’t often get when someone’s only saying it for the sake of politeness.
I leaned lightly against the ironwork railing, and stared down over Market Street and Eleventh. “No, not at all. I’m just finishing up lunch. I’m done now. I can talk. I’d like to talk. ”
Dana dove on in. “I wanted you to know, I told the police you were working with me. I don’t know what you were doing out there really; but you probably saved my life, and I thought I owed you that much, at least. ”
“We appreciate it,” I said. “I found out about it this morning, from a reporter who came by my house. ”
“Nick somebody?”
“Nick somebody, that’s him. Alders,” I confirmed.
“Chipper bastard, isn’t he?”
I laughed, then smothered it because it felt wrong to laugh on the phone to a woman whose husband had just died. “Until the microphone was off, yes. ”
“He struck me as the sort of guy who rolls into the news-room with a hangover, then tells the news while sitting behind the desk without wearing any pants. ”
Her assessment was pitch-perfect. “That’s about the truth, I bet. And I mean it—thank you. We were out there for about the same reason as you. Hell, you met Benny, our fan-boy in residence. We were just trying to get to the bottom of it too. ”
“I thought that must be the case. And I saw later on, after the alarm went off and the ambulance was there—I thought I saw you had a camera around your neck, is that right?”
“Uh-huh. ” I shot a glimpse over at my friends, who were fawning over the arguable bits and pieces of the dead that had showed up in the images.
“I wondered if you got any pictures of the guy who did this. I thought, maybe we could get together and talk. Compare notes. Get a drink, I don’t know. ”
“Sure. Sure we could. ”
I had a strong feeling that whatever motivated our shooter was going to be something well outside the experience of local law enforcement—a possibility that had probably occurred to Dana, too. And who else would we talk to, if not each other? Kitty, out in the Bend?
“I want to understand,” she said.
“I know you do. So do I. ”
“Is there a place we could go? Maybe this afternoon? Maybe now?”
I thought about telling her to head east a couple of blocks, but decided against it. It would be easier to go and pick her up than give her instructions. “I’ll come and get you,” I said instead. “I know where you are. That’s the hotel with the bar in it, the Foundry. Meet me in the lobby, in say, ten minutes? I’m only a few streets away from you right now. We can get coffee, or something. ”
“I’ll be there. ”
