Deadly Row, A - By Casey Mayes Page 0,21
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