“Well, yeah.”
“Every game I played I came out of it feeling like I’d been in a car accident. Every play helmets would smack together. It is what it is. I can’t do anything about what might be coming for me.”
“Prettyfatalistic attitude.”
“Prettyrealisticattitude. But the good thing is I barely played in the pros, so maybe there’s hope for me. NFL players hit a lot harder than college players do.”
“I hope you’re right. We need that brain of yours to find bad guys.”
“We need to put together a list of people to talk to. Dr. Freedman and Betsy O’Connor, and anyone connected toJoyce Tanner. And we need to find out what Tanner was living on. We also need to visit Bradley Costa’s workplace and home. And then we need to check out where Michael Swanson called home.”
“Look, while I know that we both believe all these murders are connected, we really have no evidence that they are.”
He eyed her appraisingly. “Even if they aren’t connected, should we stopinvestigating?”
Jamison looked taken aback. “No, of course not. I’m just saying—”
“I’m justsayingthat if there is one murderer or more than one murderer working together or separately, they still deserve to be held accountable for their crimes. Because I don’t know any other way to approach it.”
Jamison sighed and nodded. “I get the logic. But it’s a long list ofpeople. Could take a while. Longer than a week,” she pointed out.
“Could be. You should call Bogart and tell him we might need to extend.”
“No,youcan call him. This was your idea. I just wanted to come here and visit my sister and my niece, not get involved in another murder investigation.”
Decker didn’t say anything.
“We were almost killed tonight,” addedJamison.
“Yeah, I know. I was there, Alex.”
“Whoever did it might try again, if we keep going on this.”
“I told you I could do it. That you could just hang with your family.”
“And I wouldn’t sleep a wink if I wasn’t doing it with you.”
“So where does that leave us?”
“I guess it leaves us investigating a bunch of either separate or connectedmurders. Together.”
Decker turned to her.
“I’m going to do all I can to keep you safe, Alex.”
“I know. You promised Zoe.”
“No, you’re my partner. We have each other’s backs. Remember? You told me that before.”
“I remember, Amos. And you’ve already saved my life a bunch of times. But I have to rely on myself as well as you. And the same for you.”
“No argument there.”
***
The Little Eatery was still open and they ate their meal in a half-full dining room, where they continually caught people stealing glances at them.
“Word apparently travels fast in Baronville,” noted Jamison.