AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I did promise, and I was insistent, yes. I’m trying something new.” Conrad shifted in his seat, now in full-on agent of the law mode. “I can’t tell you everything. But. You may ask me questions, and we’ll go from there.”
Meaning, she could ask, but he might not answer? “Let’s get started then. So which came first, the drug or the beating?”
“Which do you think?”
“The beating?” Tony had been universally disliked, so there was a good chance the killer wanted him to hurt before dying.
Conrad bopped the tip of her nose. “Guess who won her honorary detective’s badge?”
She’d gotten it right? Jane fluffed her hair. “Well. That isn’t a surprise. I’m not just a cutie, Officer Inspector Detective Special Agent Ryan. I’m a smarty, too.”
“That you are. But when did I become an inspector on top of everything else?”
“Today. I gave you a promotion in my mind.” Okay, on to the next question, before he charmed her silly. “Did GBH find fingerprints on the syringe? I’m guessing no.”
“Then you’ve lost your brand-new detective’s badge.”
Well, drats. But whose fingerprints had they found? “If there are fingerprints, why hasn’t an arrest been made?”
“That, you’ll have to answer on your own.”
Jane popped another chip into her mouth and washed it down with peach tea while racking her brain. Many of her guests had worn gloves to ward off the night’s chill. Wait. Had the prints belonged to Tony himself? Had he been conscious after his strike to the head? Had he fought his attacker?
“My turn to askyoua question,” he said. “Other than Emma, are you still considering a certain medical professional as a top suspect?”
“I am. At the party, Dr. Price did an awful lot of slinking through the darkness.” Before she asked her next question, she took Conrad’s earlier advice and batted her baby blues at him. “Doyoustill consider Dr. Price a suspect?”
He moaned and said, “I can tell you he isn’t a person of interest at this time.”
Oh. Hmm. Well. Poor Conrad and his by the book investigating. He missed so much. “What about Dr. Garcia?”
“This is public knowledge currently posted on the Headliner, so I’m free to share. Some of your guests claimed he fell ill. That he was searching for a bathroom he couldn’t find when Fiona screamed.”
“Wait.” Jane paused with the sandwich halfway to her mouth. “Are you telling me he used my bushes to…?”
“No. He told us his stomach calmed before it came to that.”
“Oh, thank goodness.” But also super convenient. And majorly suspicious! Garcia had just offered such embarrassing information to anyone who would listen? Up the list he went, earning a top spot beside Emma, Hagger and Belfry. “So, uh–”
Conrad’s phone rang, interrupting her. He grimaced as he slid the device out of his pocket. “I’ve got to take this. My cell is on ‘do not disturb’ for every number but Hightower’s. We’ve been waiting for a specific bit of information.”
“I understand.” And what a wonderful opportunity to listen in! “Go ahead.”Please.
He snorted, as if reading her mind, then brought the phone to his ear. “Ryan.”A pause as he listened. “Too bad. I’m on a date.” More talking from Hightower, followed by a heavy sigh from Conrad. “I’m either twenty minutes or two hours away, depending on whether or not I drive my girlfriend home. Which do you prefer?”
Girlfriend. New, stronger tremors shook Jane, these born of disappointment. The single best night of her life was about to end abruptly, wasn’t it?
No help for it. The case came first. She gathered the leftovers, stacking them in the picnic basket.
“Forget it, not happening,” Conrad told Hightower. Then he nodded. “All right. Yes. That, I can do.”
When he signed off, he flashed a chagrined smile at Jane. “I know your answer before I ask, but are you okay if we drop by a restaurant called Primordial?”
She sucked air between her teeth. “The one owned by Reggie Belfry?” A prime suspect as well as Emma’s maybe, maybe not boyfriend? Jane popped to her feet and smoothed out her skirt. “Yes, yes, yes! My very first official stakeout.”
“Second place to a murder investigation,” he grumbled. “The indignity.”
Oh, if only he knew.
