“Any chance you took a city-owned car?”
“No, I like to hit the open highway in my truck when I get the chance. Why?”
“Grady, it’s my job to check everything.”
“Davis didn’t ask me any of these questions,” the mayor said a little petulantly.
“I’m not about to comment on someone else’s investigation techniques. This is just how I do it. Is there anything else you want to tell me? Anything that might help me solve this case?”
“If you’re hoping I’ll confess, I’m sorry to say that you’re going to be disappointed.”
“Then how do you explain two murders, both claimed by some nutcase, that touch your life?”
“Maybe it’s just a coincidence,” Grady said.
“Sorry, I don’t believe in them.”
“I don’t know. What can I tell you? The only other thing I can think of is that somebody’s out to get me.”
“Ordinarily I’d say you’re being a little paranoid,” Zach said.
“Hey, even the paranoid are right sometimes.” His voice softened as he added, “Zach, I know you’re just doing your job, but if anybody else finds out that I’m your main suspect, you’re going to destroy my political career.”
“That’s why you should be helping me instead of stonewalling.”
“I said I’d do anything I could. What else do you need?”
“A list of your enemies might help,” Zach said. “If you didn’t do it, I’m willing to guess that someone you know did.”
I heard him stand, and I knew I had to get out of there before they caught me listening in. I ducked down the hallway hoping to find an open door, but I made it all the way to the stairs, and every room was locked. I had no choice. I ran into the stairwell and climbed up to the next landing. I was going to wait five minutes, and then emerge to compare notes with my husband.
As I silently counted down the minutes in my mind, the stairwell door opened. I’d taken two steps down, so I hurried back to my landing.
Below me, I heard Grady say, “Call the second you have something.”
When there was no reply, the mayor added, “You’re not going to tell me anything, are you?”
“A lot of that depends on what I find out,” Zach said.
Grady turned his back without another word and hurried down the stairs. I waited until I heard the door below shut, and then I made my way to the door to our floor.
It was locked from the inside.
I pounded on it for a few minutes, but no one answered. I had no choice but to follow Grady downstairs and make my way back up the elevator.
The only problem was that the mayor was still near the stairwell door when I walked out, and I nearly ran him down.
Chapter 5
“SAVANNAH? WHAT WERE YOU DOING IN THE STAIRWELL? Were you eavesdropping?”
“I was up on the roof,” I said suddenly, hoping that he would believe me.
“Why in the world would you go up there?”
“Sometimes I need to be above everything when I create. Who knows why? Every puzzle is different, and I don’t know what circumstances I’ll need until I realize what I’m doing isn’t working.”
“I figured you did them all on computers,” he said.
“No, I’m an old-fashioned kind of gal. I like the feel of pencil lead on paper, and the way an eraser glides across the page.”
He nodded absently, and I could tell that his thoughts were somewhere else. It was time to nudge him a little.
“Did you and Zach have a productive conversation?”
Grady looked skeptical, and then he said, “Your husband acts tough sometimes, doesn’t he?”
“What makes you think he’s acting?”
That clearly wasn’t what he was expecting to hear. “Savannah, do you think I killed those people, too?”
“I never said that, Grady, and I’m willing to bet that my husband didn’t, either.”
“How could you possibly know that? You were listening in to our conversation, weren’t you?”
“I don’t have to hear my husband’s words to know what he would or wouldn’t say. Besides, I was on the roof, remember?”
“So you said,” Grady answered. He was about to say something else when his cell phone rang. He glanced at the number, and then said, “I’ve got to take this. Excuse me.”
“Certainly,” I said.
He moved away, and I saw his bodyguard trailing after him. A sudden dark thought occurred to me. Had he protested having someone shadow him because it might limit his movements? If he was a killer, having a police chaperone would be the last thing he wanted. It was a possibility that I’d have to discuss with my husband.
Steve Sanders approached, and it was clear that he’d seen me watching the mayor. “He’s some piece of work, isn’t he?”
“What do you mean?”
The officer just shrugged. “I don’t know. Forget I said that. I’m just a little beat.”
“Then why don’t you go home? I’m sure Zach can manage without you.”
“What, and miss out on all of the fun? I don’t think so. There will be plenty of time to sleep when I’m dead.” He must have realized how that sounded. “I didn’t mean anything by that.”
“Don’t be so sensitive,” I said. “I wasn’t offended.”
“You’re all right by me,” Steve said. “Are you going out?”
“Actually, I’m heading upstairs to talk to my husband. Give us five minutes before you come up, okay?”
He saluted me, and I didn’t care what he thought we were going to do with our time. I didn’t like the way Steve had looked at Grady, and I didn’t want him privy to the conversation I needed to have with my husband.
“I thought you went back to the hotel,” Zach said when I walked into the task force room.
“I never left,” I admitted. “What do you think about the way Grady acted when you questioned him? He sounded pretty defensive to me.”
“You heard us? Were you eavesdropping, Savannah?”
“I kept the door ajar when I left, and I listened from the hallway.”
Storm clouds crossed Zach’s face. “We had a deal. You were supposed to leave the interrogation to me.”
“I didn’t say a word. You didn’t even know I was out there, so don’t try to say that I interfered.”
He frowned for a few seconds. “He could have caught you.”
I bit back the urge to say that he almost did. That wouldn’t do either of us any good. “But he didn’t. It was better than nothing listening in, but I couldn’t see his face. Was he telling you the truth during your interview?”
My husband was a trained investigator, and I knew there wasn’t much he missed, though I was happy to help from time to time. He stretched back in his chair, and for a second, I wasn’t sure it could take the strain. “There were things he wasn’t telling me, but I honestly can’t say yet whether I believe the things he did say. On the face of it, it’s all pretty convenient, isn’t it? His alibi for the first homicide was murdered herself before the police could question her.”
“Atlanta’s close enough to drive back here and kill her, but it didn’t leave him much time if he did it. There are a thousand things that could have gone wrong during that drive. Is Grady that big a risk taker?”
“You know him as well as I do,” Zach said. “He can be foolhardy if it suits him. What I don’t understand is why he’s trying to hide something from me if he’s innocent. All I want to do is help him, but he treated me like I was the enemy during that interview.”
“So, you can’t cross him off your list.”
“Not by a long shot. I have to do a lot more digging before I’m willing to do that.”