Deadly Row, A - By Casey Mayes Page 0,19
husband. It was pretty clear that he wasn’t happy with the decision I’d made to take chances with my safety, but it was ultimately my choice.
That didn’t mean that I actually had to go back to the hotel and work on a puzzle, though. I kept the door purposely ajar so I could listen to their conversation without them knowing I was there. It wasn’t ideal, but it was certainly a lot better than just hiding in a hole until the storm blew over.
Once he was sure I was gone, Zach said, “We need to have a serious conversation, Grady. That means no lies, no misdirection, no holding back on me. Is that understood?”
Grady’s easy tone vanished. “What’s with the attitude, Zach? Was it a mistake bringing you back to Charlotte?”
“Not as far as I’m concerned. The city’s hired me to do a job, and I aim to do it.”
“You know I’ll cooperate all I can, but I never did like being bossed around. That’s why I’m the mayor. In a way, you could say that I am the city.”
“Funny, I thought the citizens were.”
Grady must have realized how pompous he was starting to sound. The edge was gone from his voice the next time he spoke. I would have given anything to study his face as he made that transition, but I couldn’t see more than a sliver of floor and shadow through the opening. “Is there any reason to have an attitude with me? We’re friends; at least I thought we were.”
Zach slapped his hand on the table, something that startled me from where I was lurking. I couldn’t imagine the impact the sound must have had on Grady. “I’m trying to get to the truth, and if you’re innocent, you should be trying to help me, not stonewalling like this was some kind of press conference.”
“Sorry. What do you want to talk about?”
There was a pause, and then I heard my husband say, “Let’s talk about Cindy Glass.”
“Let’s not,” Grady said.
“I’m not fooling around here.”
“Move on, Zach.”
After another pause, Zach said, “Okay, fine. We’ll come back to her later. I understand you had a pretty public argument with Hank Tristan the night he was murdered. Would you like to tell me about it?”
“Been spying on me, have you?” the mayor asked.
“It’s in the police report. Everybody knows about it, but I thought you might like to tell me your side of it.”
“Do you honestly think that I could have killed him? You do, don’t you?”
“Grady, I want to believe you, but there’s too much cop in me to turn my back on the fact that a guy you had a public brawl with was murdered not long after, and then a girl you were dating was next. How do you think that looks on you?”
“I’m being threatened, too, remember?” Grady said. His voice was high and shrill, and it sounded to me like he was close to snapping.
“If you didn’t do it, you’re my best resource. Somebody is hovering around the edges of your life and doing some pretty terrible things. You want me to find them, don’t you?”
“Of course I do. You shouldn’t even have to ask.”
“Then help me eliminate you as a suspect so I can go find the real killer.”
The request hung in the air between them, and for a second, I didn’t think Grady was going to answer. After a few more seconds, though, he said, “I’ll tell you whatever I can.”
“What were you and Hank fighting about the night of the ball?”
“He made a crack about my date, if you have to know. He thought it was amusing that I was there with someone’s secretary, and he asked me what it was like slumming with Cindy.”
“So you lost your temper with him?”
I could hear an edge of anger in Grady’s voice as he said, “He was acting like an idiot. I didn’t really know the girl. It was a fix up, a last-minute blind date for the ball when my original date had to cancel. I didn’t know her, but I wasn’t about to stand there and let some drunken fool take shots at her.”
“You’d been drinking too, hadn’t you?”
“Yes,” he admitted. “I’m sure that’s in the police report, too. But I didn’t kill him. Two minutes after the argument ended, I’d forgotten all about him.”
“Where were you later that night after the ball?” The question was simple and easy, but I knew that my husband was really asking the mayor of