“You need to find out before his little pranks turn really ugly.”
She lowered her hand from her face and looked up at him. “Brilliant idea. How do you suggest going about it?”
“We start with the people who were directly involved. Begin with the key players and work outward, eliminating them one by one, until the son of a bitch is left standing, exposed.”
“We? What about the police?”
“Do you think Starsky and Hutch there are going to go digging into an eighteen-year-old murder case?”
“They investigate cold cases.”
“Not after the culprit has already been caught and convicted.”
“Convictions are overturned all the time.”
“But they’ve got to have a compelling reason to reopen the case. Can you provide them one?”
She shook her head.
“Right. My opinion? They’ll wait until you’re physically assaulted and/or dead before they take the threat seriously, because they probably concluded that it had something to do with me. And you believe I’m right. If you didn’t, you would have spilled the whole sordid story to them while they were here. You saved yourself the breath because you have no more faith in their getting to the bottom of this than I do. And I have none. Which leaves it up to us.”
“What do you know about police work?”
“Only that I don’t trust it.”
“You would drop everything and—”
“I’m grounded, remember? I’ve got nothing else to do. Besides, I have a vested interest in finding this jerk. And when I do, for what he did to my airplane, I’m going to bash in his skull.”
“Lovely. Do you expect me to be your accomplice?”
“Get this straight.” He took a step, bringing them closer. “I don’t play nice, Bellamy. I never have.”
After a taut moment, she broke his hard stare. “All right. For the time being, at least, we’ll help each other. But where do we start? Who do we start with?”
He went to the chair she’d left empty moments earlier and held it for her. “We start with you.”
Chapter 6
“Me?” Bellamy exclaimed.
“You were as close to Susan as anyone. You were with her all that day until just before she was killed. Talk me through everything that happened from your point of view.”
“I did that with the lead character in my book. I wrote it from the viewpoint of a twelve-year-old girl.”
“I skipped the long paragraphs and only read the dialogue.”
“You still know what happened.”
“Not the behind-the-scenes stuff.”
“That’s the stuff in the long paragraphs.”
“Is there something you don’t want me to know?”
“No, of course not.”
“Well, then. I wasn’t at the barbecue, remember? I need details.”