about that now. Besides, by that time, even more people would have figured out that she and Drew were an item.
Now that talk of their upcoming travel plans were out of the way, their conversation took its usual route...one that led to naughty talk. And after he told her all the things that he planned to do with her the next weekend, she’d usually fall asleep, totally content.
• • •
Drew glanced over at Toni. “Tell me why we’re interviewing Maria’s roommate, Pamela Larkins, again?”
“Just to make sure there’s nothing we overlooked. I hope you don’t mind.”
He shrugged as he signaled to turn the corner. “I don’t mind, just as long as she doesn’t get hysterical again.”
“Hopefully, she won’t. I’m sure it was hard losing her best friend.”
He nodded as he turned another corner, which led to a street filled with colonial-style houses. It appeared to be a nice neighborhood of older homes that were well cared for. Even the yards looked decently maintained.
A short while later, they were walking up to Pamela Larkins’s grandmother’s home. When Andrew pressed the doorbell, he looked at Toni through his sunglasses. As usual, she looked absolutely delicious.
He loved spending time with her on the weekends, at his place or hers. Last week, they played tennis for a few hours, then he grilled steaks in the backyard. They were also putting his theater room to good use, and spent almost as much time in there as they did in his bedroom. But oh, the things they would do in his bedroom. Often, they would wake up to make love in the middle of night and then lie in bed and talk for hours.
The door opened, and Pamela Larkins’s eyes widened in surprise. “Detectives Logan and Oliver? What can I do for you?”
“We’d like to ask you some more questions, if you don’t mind,” Toni said.
“Oh. I was hoping you were here to tell me you found the person who killed Maria.”
“Sorry, but the investigation is still ongoing. May we come in?”
Sure,” she said, stepping aside. “Nana just went down for her nap. We can sit in the dining room and talk. Would you like anything to drink?”
Both Andrew and Toni declined as they took a seat at the table. Andrew glanced around. This house reminded him of Stonewall’s grandmother, Granny Kay’s house, colonial-style, both inside and out. He bet this was the original wallpaper on the wall, and the hardwood floors were the real thing. Even the furniture was dated but sturdy—the kind that could last forever. The only difference between this house and Granny Kay’s was the kitchen.
One of the first things Stonewall had done when he’d gotten out of prison was replace all of Granny Kay’s appliances with new ones that were all stainless steel. This house might not have the original appliances, but the fridge and stove in the kitchen looked pretty close to it.
“So...you had more questions?” Pamela Larkins asked, joining them at the table.
He let Toni take the lead since coming here had been her idea. “I just wanted to review the list of Maria Tindal’s ex-boyfriends, just to make sure we didn’t miss anyone.”
After Toni went down the list, Pamela Larkins said, “That’s everyone. She didn’t date much. If you want me to include the guys she dated in high school and college, I’d have to do some digging.”
Toni shook her head and chuckled. “No, we don’t need to go back that far.”
Then, she asked about the flash drive, but again Pamela said Maria never mentioned anything to her about the flash drive or about her taking it from Nettles. When Toni then asked if Maria had ever made a comment about something that had left Pamela puzzled about anything, Pamela paused.
“There was something I thought was odd, but when I asked her about it, she explained the reason.”
“And what was that?”
“A few weeks before she died, she went through her photo album looking at old pictures. When I asked her about it, she said she’d been feeling melancholy lately since it was close to her mother’s birthday. She said she wanted to look at old photos of happier times.”
Andrew sat listening, finding nothing odd about that. He did the same thing around his mother’s birthday. He would pull out a photograph he had of her—his favorite one—then he would look at it and remember the day it was taken. It had been a good day, one that his father hadn’t been around to ruin. He only had a