Amanda remembered she’d made a similar bold statement before. “No one is saying you have, and that’s not what this is about. It is about staying alive.”
“Fine, you want all the information on the sale? I’ll make sure you get a copy of all the paperwork. For the sake of transparency, I’ll also include the financial reports from my company and Gabay, Finch & Earnest, as well.”
“Is that the company you’re merging with?” Trent asked.
“Acquiring, but, yes, the very one. For the record, I just received their financial reports on Friday afternoon and haven’t had a chance to dig in yet.”
Amanda tensed. Was the timing key or coincidence? “Did you receive them when you were in Washington?”
“Uh-huh.”
Amanda’s mind was whirling. Could it be that someone wanted to prevent her from looking at the books? It was possible they expected Dominique to return home to Woodbridge that night and sent a killer for her there. Or was Amanda inching down the wrong path? All she knew was poor Christine Lane was collateral damage in all this, and Joel Blackburn was caught in the crossfire. It was too soon to know if he’d come out of this alive.
TWENTY-FIVE
Amanda and Trent walked into Central armed with coffees from Hannah’s Diner. One for themselves and a third for Malone. They even brought him a freshly made blueberry fritter, which Amanda knew was his favorite. Trent got himself a double-chocolate dip, and she went with a French cruller. She’d take the added sugar in the glaze and hope for the insulin spike to kick in and wake her up. It might be a temporary rush, but it was better than nothing.
She rapped her knuckles on the doorframe of Malone’s office, and Trent led the way inside carrying the tray of coffee. She held the bag of goodies.
“That’s supposed to make up for the fact I’m at my desk at seven thirty?” Malone flicked a finger toward the coffee Trent was holding out to him.
“And this.” She fished in the bag for Malone’s donut and plucked it out wrapped in a napkin.
“Hmph.” He looked at them with narrowed eyes while accepting their offerings. “Thanks, but don’t think this makes up for the late night and the early start.”
“We wouldn’t dare.” Amanda held back a smile. “How’s your back?”
“Just fine. No need to worry about me.” He took a substantial bite of his fritter, removing a chunk from the top corner.
Amanda’s stomach rumbled as she held the bag for Trent to take out his treat. She happily reached in for hers when he was taken care of. She had just got her fingers on the sticky glaze when her phone rang.
“No one sleeps anymore,” Malone mumbled around a mouthful of food.
Amanda dug out her phone and answered at the sight ofCSI Stuarton her screen. “Detective Steele.”
“CSI Stuart. Keller and I are working the scene here at the Blackburn residence. We’ve recovered four nine-mil casings. We’ll run ballistics to see if they tie back to a Glock.”
Amanda would take what she could get. The only true solution was catching this shooter and running ballistics on her gun. “Let me know.”
“Will do. After all, you think the person from tonight killed Lane.”
When Amanda called the CSIs, she filled them in on the direction she and Trent were leaning with the investigation. “We do.” She passed a side-glance at Trent, who appeared all too content chomping away on his donut. He had a tiny smudge of chocolate in the corner of his mouth. Amanda tapped hers to let him know.
He mouthed, “Thanks,” and wiped it. She gave him a thumbs-up.
“We also found some blood,” Stuart said. “It was on a piece of broken glass that remained in the window frame. It may belong to the perp, so we’ll be running it through the system.”
“Thanks for calling me with this,” Amanda told her.
“Yep.” With that, the investigator hung up, and Amanda put her phone away.
Malone wiped his face with his napkin, then brushed some sugar crumbs from his shirt. “Good news?”
“Some news, anyway.” She shared the details of the call.
“At least there is some forensic evidence from all this.” Trent scrunched up his napkin and tossed it into the bag.
She was the only one left with an untouched donut. Her stomach rumbled as she reached for it.
