Her mouth dropped open in disbelief.
“And Alice Hatfield, too.”
“That’s ridiculous,” she said. “Why would he do that?” Her eyes were focused straight ahead and both hands gripped the wheel. This stretch of the road was far less populated than the part I’d traveled earlier, with only a few scattered houses set far back under tall, leafy trees. And no streetlamps.
“I think she figured out he’d killed Shannon. She called him and asked a couple of questions that made him see she was getting close. And then he showed up at her house.”
Riley’s eyes left the road for only a split second, but long enough for me to see the anger flashing in them.
“For starters, Cody couldn’t have killed Shannon,” she said. “I saw him before he took off to look at a piece of property and we talked on the phone a little while later. He seemed perfectly normal.”
“He’s slick, a sales guy. He knows how to put on a front. And he may have been planning it for a while, so he had plenty of time to work out all the kinks.”
“But helovedShannon,” Riley said. “Why would he have killed her?”
I massaged my scalp, pulling my thoughts together.
“I don’t know. Could he have been having an affair?”
“No way. And what about those other women?” Her irritation seemed to be intensifying. It was going to be tough to convince her.
“I think someone else committed those murders. Someone Cody met in the army—he called him Dirk tonight.”
“Youarecrazy,” Riley said. For the first time I thought I heard fear in her voice. Was I finally getting through to her?
“I’m sorry, this has to be hard for you.” I swiveled again and peered through the back window. Far, far back on the road, two high beams penetrated the darkness, like disembodied torchlights.
“Shit, that may be him behind us,” I said, keeping my eyes on the lights. “Can you speed up?”
The view behind me suddenly slid out of view, and I realized Riley was hanging a sharp right. But not onto another road. As I faced forward again, I saw that she was pulling into a parking lot. The sign at the entrance read “Pine Grove Tennis and Swim Club.”
“Riley, what—?”
“I missed the turn for the municipal center. I never come this way.”
She took her foot off the gas and eased into the lot.
“But Cody might be tailing us. Look, we better call 911. Can I use your phone?”
“Are you going to turn Cody in?” she said.
God, was she so devoted to the guy she couldn’t wrap her mind around the idea of him being a killer?
“I’m going to explain to the sheriff that we might be in danger, and the police can sort it out from there. If Cody didn’t do anything wrong, he won’t be in any trouble.”
“All right.”
She shifted into park.
“Riley, we shouldn’t stop. Give me your phone and I’ll call.”
“Fine.”
She grabbed her bag from the floor by my feet and fished around inside it.
But it wasn’t a phone she pulled out. It was a gun. Small and black with wood on the handle. She pointed it directly at my torso.
Panic flooded through me all over again.
