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Amanda Lofland's shoulders raised and lowered on a deep breath.
Lofland sought a more comfortable position on the hospital bed. "How much more, Deputy?"
"Not much. You brought work up here yesterday."
"We had to put some finishing touches on our proposal before presenting it to the client next week. The mock-ups weren't coming through very well on the PDFs. Berry asked if I could run them up here, let her see them exactly as the client would. She had to sign off on a couple of other elements that had been added. So a trip up here seemed called for."
"Who knew you were coming?"
"Well, Amanda."
"Besides her. People at Delray?"
"I had to let people in the office know that I'd be out for the entire day, so yeah, I told a few."
"Three, four?"
With distinct impatience, he said, "The receptionist who answers the phone for our department. My immediate supervisor and his assistant. I can give you their names."
"Besides them, no one else knew?"
"Not unless one of them told somebody."
"Would they have told Oren Starks that you were spending the day with Berry?"
"I doubt that any of them kept in contact with Oren, but if you want to know, you'll have to ask them."
Ski smiled. "I have." Before Lofland could respond to that, Ski asked, "What time did you arrive yesterday morning?"
"Ten-thirtyish. We got right down to it and worked all day."
Ski flipped through several more pages in his notepad, then said idly, "You two get in the pool?"
Lofland shot a quick glance toward his wife where she still stood at the window, her back to the room. "After we knocked off, we each swam some laps to cool off, work out some kinks."
"You'd brought your swimsuit?"
Ski's question caught him off guard. "Uh, no. I had some gym shorts in my car."
"That was convenient." Lofland said nothing. Ski continued, "I guess the shorts are somewhere in the house?"
"I left them hanging on a towel bar in the guest bathroom."
"Okay." Ski let that reverberate for several moments, as though weighing its significance, when actually he'd found the gym shorts in the guest bathroom, exactly as Lofland had described. He just wanted to rattle him in front of his wife, see what shook loose when he did. Unnecessarily, he referred to his notepad again. "You and Ms. Malone grilled steaks for dinner."
"We didn't take a lunch break. We were hungry."
"It got late, you decided to stay over."
"Only after consulting Amanda," Lofland said hastily. "By the time Berry and I had finished dinner and I'd helped with the
cleanup, it was well after dark, and it doesn't get dark till nine-thirty or better. That's when I called home."
"It was eleven oh three," Amanda said, keeping her back to them.
Lofland, looking sickly, said to Ski, "I didn't realize it was that late. But since it was, Amanda said she'd rather I not head back to Houston."
Ski nodded. "Probably best."
