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“Only because he nearly knocked over the stroller.”
“I don’t even remember mentioning the ponytail, but they played back that part of my recorded statement. I’d said, ‘A guy in a ball cap with a fake ponytail.’”
“You recognized it as a fake?”
“Not consciously, but I guess it registered as such because that’s what I told them.”
“Do you know who the other three key witnesses are?”
“No. You?”
“No. I wouldn’t have known that you were one of the five if we hadn’t run into each other outside. I don’t think they would like that we’re talking about it. They wouldn’t want us comparing notes or influencing each other’s memory.”
“Probably not,” he said. “But what harm can come of it? Something you say might spark something in my memory, and vice versa.”
“So coming here to get your book signed was only a ploy. You really wanted to get my take on the investigation.”
“Hell no. My priority was to get your autograph.”
“How did you know where to find me?”
The blunt question took him off guard. Out of habit, his initial reaction was to evade it with a double-talk answer. But he decided to tell her straight.
“Shauna told me that she’d asked you several times for an interview, so I was certain she had your contact info stored in her phone. I don’t have access to that, but when I got out of the hospital, I snooped around her workspace at home. I found your name, address, and phone number scribbled on a notepad.”
“Why didn’t you just ask her for it?”
“Because I had insisted that she leave you alone. After our rather heated discussion about that, if I had turned around and asked how I could contact you, she would have wanted to know why.”
Speaking low, she said, “Iwould have wanted to know why.”
He averted his gaze to the tag on the tea bag string. “While I was still in the hospital, I thought about writing you a note or something. You know, let some time pass first, a week or two, then reach out to tell you how sorry I was about your son.”
He let that settle, then looked at her directly again. “That was before we came face-to-face there in the hallway at the precinct. I came away that day thinking that I’d botched it for sure, but that I’d said everything I had to say, everything I knew to say, so I never followed up on writing you the note.
“But after what we learned today, I was glad I’d held on to your address. I could come here and talk to you privately about the hush-hush lead and ask what you thought about it.”
“Why didn’t you just call to ask?”
“I could have, but I wanted to… uh… talk about it face-to-face.”My face to your face.
“Oh.”
“You know, because it’s such a tricky subject. We’re not even supposed to be talking about it.”
“Right.” She dampened her lips. “And it’s harder to catch nuances over the phone.”
“That was my thinking. You miss expressions and inflections.” He waited a tick, then said, “Like last night.”
Her chest visibly hitched. “What about last night?”
“Well, I don’t think the conversation we had in the bar would have been as meaningful, at least not to me, if it had been over the telephone. I took away much more from it by being there. With you.”
Their gazes held for a ten count, then her eyelids lowered, shutting off direct contact. The atmosphere had become so thick, he either had to breathe deeply or pant. Instead, he gave a dry laugh. “And if I had called, I wouldn’t have gotten my book signed.”
He leaned forward and took the copy ofHeavens to Betsyfrom the bag. “I assume Betsy is the main character.”
Looking relieved of tension, she smiled. “Yes. She’s the cloud with life lessons to learn.”
