had with Ungaro, but nothing about visiting his room. As far as she was concerned, it was totally irrelevant. Matt Healy’s death had zero to do with her getting butt naked with X.
“Did you see what kind of car he was driving?” Todd asked.
“No, and I’m not sure if it was his own or a rental.”
“Any other details about his background that might be pertinent?”
“What difference would it make?” Kit asked. “It would probably all be a lie.”
“You’d be surprised,” Molinari said. “Humans have a crazy need to reveal themselves, and sometimes even con artists slip in facts that are real.”
Kit shook her head. “There’s nothing more than I’ve told you. Except that he said he had a sister who lived in Miami. But he never said where.”
Molinari then mentioned that the New York City police would most likely be in touch with her in the near future.
Great, she thought. It just goes on and on.
Surreptitiously Kit checked her watch again, and saw that she was out of time. When she glanced back toward the two detectives, she caught them exchanging a look and wondered what it could mean. Molinari leaned forward.
“You’ve been very helpful,” Molinari said. “But we need a bit more of your time.”
Oh God, Kit thought. Was this going to explode somehow? She stared at Molinari, waiting in dread.
“We’d like you to work with a sketch artist for us.”
“But I’ll miss the flight,” Kit exclaimed.
“Why don’t you give us your info and we can see if there’s another option available tonight. And Detective Todd will drive you to the airport.”
Kit nodded wearily in consent.
“Are you thinking that the man I met could have actually killed Matt Healy?” she asked. By chance, the buzz in the room had quieted almost instantly and her words carried across the bullpen.
“We don’t know,” Molinari said. “At this point we’re still determining if the hit and run was premeditated. But as I told you earlier, I don’t like coincidences.”
“Do you think I have anything to worry about?” Kit asked.
Molinari toggled her head back and forth, as if she were weighing the question.
“Right now there’s no indication this man is after you,” she said, “but it wouldn’t do any harm to be cautious.”
And what did cautious mean? Kit thought glumly. Was she supposed to look over her shoulder every place she went?
They managed to find another flight for her, an hour and a half later, and so she sat down with the sketch artist, describing X. It wasn’t hard. He was still strangely vivid in her mind, as if she’d stood looking into his eyes just moments ago.
When the artist finally showed her the results, she caught her breath in surprise. It was him, staring straight at her. This time, though, there was no charm to his eyes, only a hint of malevolence. Had the artist interpreted that from something she’d said? She nodded and slowly let out a ragged breath.
Even with the ride from Detective Todd, she was running about ten minutes late when she reached the airport, and the security line seemed to snake forever. She desperately wanted to call Baby and fill her in, but she had to put all her energy and attention into reaching the gate in time.
It wasn’t until the plane was in the air that she finally sank farther back into her seat and allowed a little of the tension to seep from her body. But she knew she couldn’t fully let go. There were still so many unknowns, an ugly nest of them, and her emotions seemed all bunched up, too. If it turned out X had indeed killed Healy, his dark shadow would loom even larger in her life.
How stupid she’d been to say yes to that dinner, to say yes to the crazy lust that had left her weak in the knees. She grimaced at the memory of her foolishness. And how ironic in the end, she thought. X had suggested that the night would have to be one with no strings attached, but since then there’d been nothing but strings. No matter what she did, she couldn’t untangle herself from them.
Once Kit was finally in Key West and ensconced in her hotel room, she called Baby, who’d already left two worried messages.
“This is perfectly mind-boggling,” Baby said after Kit poured out the story. “Why would this fellow Matt Healy take the risk of trailing a criminal, especially when he had a security person at his disposal?”