Page 28 of D for Dead

‘Your instincts, eh?’ Hickok grinned.

‘Yes, Hickok, my instincts.’

‘She has a new book to promote, doesn’t she?’ This was from Rivers, who had been scribbling notes furiously as if his life depended on it, oblivious to the fact his partner and Rebecca had been sniping at each other throughout the morning.

Definitely a rookie, Jake thought.

‘The murder was taken from one of her old books,’ he pointed out to the younger Fed. ‘It wouldn’t make sense she was killing for publicity, unless it was from the new one. Amy Gallaty is involved, but she’s no killer. I think our perp specifically targeted her book, for what reason I don’t know.’

‘What makes you so sure her book wasn’t picked at random?’ Hickok asked. ‘Maybe our guy read it, liked it and decided to re-enact it.’

‘She said someone was following her last night.’

‘She did?’ Rebecca questioned, eyebrows slightly raised. ‘How come I don’t know about this?’

‘Because I haven’t had a chance to tell you until now,’ Jake said levelly. ‘She was being followed on the way home from the bar where she works, stopped off at a pizza place and called me, so I went and checked it out.’

‘She called you?’

‘She had my card.’

‘You see who it was?’ This was from Rivers.

‘No. Whoever it was had gone by the time I got there.’

‘So how do you know she wasn’t making it up?’ Rebecca asked, a little tightly.

‘My instincts.’ He could tell she was pissed at him for not sharing this snippet of information earlier, probably because she wanted to have the upper hand with Hickok. Truth was, Jake was still analysing the night’s events himself. There had been no sign of anyone following Amy, but she had been genuinely unnerved and a little jumpy. If she had made up her stalker then she was one hell of an actress.

He believed her.

‘Okay, so let’s say someone is targeting her specifically,’ Hickok theorised. ‘Do we have any names: people she’s pissed off, ex-boyfriends, husbands?’

‘There was a woman, a fan, who had an altercation with her at a book signing a couple of days ago,’ Rebecca told him. ‘When Amy returned to her car, someone had written the word “bitch” across the windshield. The fan may have vandalised the car, but she has a solid alibi for the night of the murders.’

‘Name?’ Rivers was still scribbling away.

Jake figured they’d have a full transcript of their meeting by the end of it.

‘Nadine Williams.’

‘Got it.’

Hickok shot his partner an irritated look.

‘Anyone else?’ he questioned Rebecca and Jake.

‘Not that we’ve come up with.’

‘Seriously, Angell? That’s all you’ve got for me?’

Rebecca glared at him.

‘We’ve been eliminating suspects. Forgive me if you don’t like where we’re at. If we’d had some warning you were gonna show up out of the blue and muscle in on our investigation, perhaps we could have lined a few more up for you.’

Rivers had stopped writing to listen to their exchange and sat with his jaw agape.

‘You’re being a little unfair, Joel,’ he chipped in, as Rebecca finished her outburst. ‘Detective Angell is well respected.’