Nodding, she picked up one of the computer panels then tried to zone out the men’s ongoing conversation. She was tired and ready for some sleep. Her afternoon nap had helped, but she wanted to be fresh and alert in the morning. She still had a lot of names, places, and happenings to put together.
“Got a problem,” Josh said, glancing between Mitch and her.
“Do you need more info on one of the names?” She’d put down the bare details, figuring she’d expand the descriptions later.
Josh sighed. “This woman you said wanted to talk to you off the record, what did she say?”
“I never got to talk to her, because I was called back to be fired. We can try to contact her and find out what she wanted to tell me.”
“No, we can’t.” Josh shook his head. “She’s dead. She was killed the day you were fired.”
Bright white orbs flashed in front of Liz; nausea made her hold her head down as she bent over. Mitch grabbed her hand, and, when she looked into his face, she couldn’t read his expression. Part of it looked like a man who’d been hit upside the head with a two-by-four and was still standing, dazed and pissed. The other part held a layer of anger and calculation, with a film of consolation trying to cover his conclusions.
None of them said anything until she had regained her composure and sat back up. “Could you check again?”
“I already did,” Josh said.
Reese cleared his throat. “Where did you meet this lady?”
“I assumed she was an employee at the company I was doing an article on.” Liz played the day through her mind. “I was walking down the hall, getting ready to leave, when she slipped something in my hand as she passed. The note said to meet her in the parking lot the next afternoon. She’d talk off the record.”
“That’s all the note said?” Mitch asked.
“That and her name.”
Josh clicked up a photo. “Was this her?”
Liz’s eyes filled with tears. She’d seen the woman’s face for only a moment that day, but her flawless complexion and strikingly high cheekbones had stayed in her mind. The woman had been beautiful. “Yes, that was her.”
Mitch appeared to be searching for more clues on the computer, bouncing the side of his hand against the keyboard every time he paused to read. He’d even narrowed to where her last assignment had been—Arizona. “So, you never saw the woman again? Never talked to her? Nothing?”
She shook her head. “When I contacted my editor back at the main office in Chicago, he said she didn’t sound like a reliable resource.”
“Why?”
“He always checked out the leads I had. Informants who randomly showed up. Made sure I wasn’t going into a dangerous situation. Evidently, he pulled up something that flashed red to him.”
Leaning back in his chair, Mitch took on the demeanor of someone sitting down to read a good book or watch a serious movie. “What did you do when your editor said no?”
His easy-peasy tone was totally out of character. She’d bet money this was a trained move, one meant to ease the tension in the meeting. One asking her brain not to be afraid to answer. She wasn’t a fool. She used some of the same techniques in getting her stories.
“I…I told him I’d be staying an extra day in the area. That there were a couple of local historic sites I wanted to see before I left.” She felt the weight of the words in the realization they’d been a death sentence.
“Was he okay with that?” The tone was still the same, soothing.
“No. He practically ordered me to come back. But…”
“But what, Liz?” Josh asked.
She bit her lower lip. “Well, I’d already been doing some rumor verifying around town. Talking to people. Taking some photos. Being extra careful because, I have to admit, I even thought I was being watched a couple of times.”
The side of Mitch’s mouth quirked a bit, his eyes narrowing with those words. “Watched? How?”
She shrugged. “Don’t know, and yes that sounds strange. I really never saw anyone following me, just felt an uncomfortable vibe. I convinced myself I was being paranoid. But I’ve been in sticky situations before when doing research, and this time I had the hairs-on-the-back-of-the-neck feeling. The kind a woman gets the moment she meets some men.”
“Not us, I hope.” Reese slightly laughed, then winked at her.
She shook her head. “No. You guys aren’t weird. You’re all just crazy…nice crazy.”
