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There, held down with a handful of pebbles, was a manila envelope. She picked it up and brought it inside. “For you” was scratched across the front in pen.
She opened it up and shook out the contents. A notebook.
Bailey’s notebook.
Chapter 26
McCrae changed his mind about returning to the station and went looking for Tracy again, but she wasn’t on the schedule t
o work at the bar that day. Jimmy, her boss and possibly boyfriend, regarded McCrae with serious suspicion this time and wouldn’t say anything apart from the fact that Tracy wasn’t there.
McCrae started to leave, then looked at the stool where he’d sat the last time he was here, remembering Tracy leaning over the bar, pulling back, telling him about Penske’s burner phone and the guy who was watching. The old car with the faded hood pulling up outside Lundeen’s, the watcher talking to the driver.
He had a sudden mental picture of the Crassleys’ car graveyard.
He left in a hurry.
* * *
Delta’s cell phone rang as she was leaving Danny O’s. She pulled it out of her purse, regarding it with trepidation as she crossed the parking lot to her car.
Ellie.
“Did McCrae tell you what happened?” Ellie responded to Delta’s hello.
“Um . . . no, I don’t know . . . what do you mean?”
“You haven’t talked to him?”
“Not for a while. What happened?”
There was a pause, and then she said, “Can I do an interview with you? I’m not with the station any longer. It would be for the paper, maybe. Something written. No camera, unless you wanted that and we could figure it out.”
“No.”
“It would be your chance to proclaim your innocence.”
Delta unlocked the driver’s door. “I’m not interested, Ellie.”
“With the sales of your book skyrocketing, this could be a big interview. Built-in online audience. Do you have a website?”
Delta clicked off. The hungry tone in Ellie’s voice pissed her off. Not with the station any longer . . . was that even true? Didn’t matter anyway. She wasn’t giving interviews. Amanda had told her not to, and she hadn’t planned on it anyway.
She called Amanda, who picked up on the second ring, surprising her. “I just got a call from Ellie, who wants to do an interview.”
“No,” Amanda responded.
“That’s what I said.” She sighed. “I’m sure you heard about Zora and Brian. I’m having trouble thinking of anything else. Zora was supposed to be taking care of Owen tonight, so I could have some time to myself.”
“She asked you if she could babysit?” Amanda asked quickly.
“She offered, yeah.”
“Delta . . . you’re too trusting. Zora was . . . she had some problems. She’d been trying to get pregnant for years.”
“I know. I think that’s why—”
“She talked about if you were convicted of murdering Tanner, that maybe she could have your son. I’m sorry. I don’t want to talk ill of the dead, but that’s a fact.”
