She looked up, excitement fizzing into her blood. “It’s hers,” she said. “The phone number in that matchbook was for Gracie Drummond’s cell. And it was written inside a matchbook with a logo that says B.C.” Her eyes lanced his. “Like on her calendar—B.C.—the dates she had with Amanda R. and Lara P.”
CHAPTER 39
Killion was standing in his office doorway when Zach turned around. There was a strange look in his boss’s eyes.
“What was that about?” Killion said.
Zach inhaled deeply, his mind racing, questions crackling and sizzling along synapses and short-circuiting, then zipping right back to be asked again. “Those detectives had questions about a friend of mine, Jayden Norton-Wells. It seems they’re looking for his Lexus, which was stolen about two weeks ago.”
“So why come to you, whythisoffice?”
“Like I said, Jay’s my friend. They wanted to know if I was with him at a restaurant the night his vehicle was taken—seems Jay was a bit too drunk to recall who all was there.”
Silence. A strange kind of energy rolled off the mayor. A disquiet crawled into Zach’s chest.
“And this thing about the initials, B.C.?”
So Killion had heard the conversation. Zach fingered the matchbook now in his pocket. “I have no idea.”
“If there’s anything I should know—”
“There isn’t.”
The mayor held his gaze for a moment, then cleared his throat. “Have those council agenda updates gone out to the media?”
“A while ago.”
The door closed suddenly. Zach stared at the shut door, and the dark disquiet in his chest deepened.
Jack Killion picked up his phone, glanced at his closed door, and quickly dialed a number. Their special number. As the phone rang, he swiveled his chair to watch the silvery rain beat against his window.
“What is it?” came the husky voice he loved so much.
He moistened his lips. “The police were just here.”
“Youroffice?”
“Two MVPD detectives—one male, one female—asking Zach questions about a stolen Lexus and your son.”
“Jayden?”
“Yes.”
“What ... why?”
“Did he have a Lexus stolen?”
“I ... yes, I heard him talking to his father about it. I don’t involve myself in issues between those two. It never ends well. At least the cops are doing their jobs looking for the darn thing.”
“So why come and see Zach, and why in my office? At this time—on the eve of my inauguration?”
“You think it’s posturing on the part of the MVPD, some vendetta?”
“I’ve not made friends among law enforcement with my campaign promises to sweep the MVPD clean. And I chair my first in-camera police board meeting tomorrow. They’re all anticipating a change of guard.”
A long pause. “I’ll speak with Jay when I get home tonight. It’s probably nothing more than it seems.”
“Joyce, the optics of it—Metro investigating a criminal issue in connection with the ADAG’s son is a big enough media event as it is. And detectives coming to the mayor’s office linksmeto your family and a criminal investigation. Christ, given the way the MVPD can’t control the leaks from within their own organization, we could see this on the front page of theSuntomorrow or on that woman’s blog. Next thing we’ll have telephoto lenses pointing into our penthouse windows, with media watching us from a press boat in the harbor.”
