Amanda looked Leo up and down like a bad piece of fish, then turned back to the woman. 'Special Agent Trent is at your disposal. The GBI is more than happy to offer you any and all help.' She raised an eyebrow at Will, letting him know that the opposite was true. Then, maybe because she thought he was stupid, she added, 'I need you back in the office within the hour.'
The fact that Will had anticipated this very thing happening did not make him any more prepared. His car was parked back at city hall. Donnelly was going to be stuck on the scene until they cleared it and any one of the beat cops outside would love a chance to get Will Trent alone in the back of a squad car.
'Agent Trent?' Faith Mitchell seemed annoyed, which made Will think he'd missed something.
He asked, 'I'm sorry?'
'Yeah, you are,' she mumbled, and Will could only blink, wondering what he had missed.
Leo didn't seem to find anything unusual about the exchange. He asked the woman, 'The mother say anything?'
'The daughter's got a best friend.' Like Leo, Faith Mitchell carried a small spiral-bound notebook in her pocket. She paged through it to reference the name. 'Kayla Alexander. The mother says we can probably find her at school. Westfield Academy.'
Will recognized the expensive private high school on the outskirts of Atlanta. 'Why wasn't Emma in school?'
Faith answered Leo, though Will had asked the question. 'There've been some truancy issues in the past.'
Will was hardly an expert, but he couldn't imagine a teenage girl skipping school without taking her best friend along with her. Unless she was meeting her boyfriend. He looked at the stairs again, wishing that he could go up and examine the scene. 'Why wasn't the mom here today?'
Faith said, 'She's got some weekly thing at her club. She usually doesn't get back until three.'
'So, if someone was watching the house, they'd know that Emma was here alone.'
Faith told Leo, 'I need some air.' She walked out the door and stood at the edge of the porch with her hands on her hips. She was young, probably in her early thirties, of average height, and pretty in the way that thin blond women were naturally thought to be pretty-but there was something that kept her from being attractive. Maybe it was the scowl that had been on her face or the flash of raw hatred in her eyes.
Leo mumbled an apology. 'Sorry, man. I was trying to tell you-'
Across the foyer, the pocket doors slid open again. Abigail Campano stood at the entrance, leg bent at an angle so she wouldn't put weight on her hurt ankle. Unlike Faith, there was something radiant about her blond hair and perfect, milky white skin. Even though her eyes were swollen from crying, her lip still bleeding where it had been busted open, the woman was beautiful.
'Ms. Campano,' Will began.
'Abigail,' she softly interrupted. 'You're the agent from the GBI?'
'Yes, ma'am. I'd like to offer my condolences.'
She stared at him in confusion, probably because she still hadn't come to terms with her daughter's death.
'Can you tell me a little bit about your daughter?'
The blank stare did not go away.
Will tried, 'You told Detective Donnelly that she had been skipping school lately?'
She nodded slowly. 'Obviously, she managed to…' Her voice trailed off as she looked at the dead man on the floor. 'Kayla got her into skipping last year. She'd never done anything like that before. She was always a good girl. Always trying to do the right thing.'
'There were other problems?'
'It all seems so inconsequential.' Her lips trembled as she held back her emotions. 'She started talking back, doing her own thing. She was trying to be her own person, and we still wanted her to be our little girl.'
'Other than Kayla, did Emma have any friends? Boyfriends?'
Abigail shook her head, wrapping her arms around her waist. 'She was so shy. She didn't make new friends easily. I don't know how this could have happened.'
'Does Kayla have a brother?'
'No, she's an only child.' Her voice caught. 'Like Emma.'
'Do you think you could make a list of the other kids she hung out with?'
'There were acquaintances, but Emma always picked one person to…' Again, her voice trailed off. 'She had no one but Kayla, really.' There was something to her tone that was so final, so certain about her daughter's aloneness in the world, that Will could not help but feel some of her sadness. He also hoped to God that Leo was making plans to talk to this Kayla. If she was as much an influence in Emma Campano's life as her mother indicated, then she probably knew a lot more about what had happened here today than anyone else did.
Will asked Abigail, 'Is there anyone who might have a grudge against you or your husband?'
She kept shaking her head, transfixed by the sight of the dead man lying in her foyer. 'It all happened so fast. I keep trying to think what I did…what else I could have…'
'I know you've been asked this before, but are you sure you don't recognize the man?'
Abigail's eyes closed, but he imagined that she could still see her daughter's murderer. 'No,' she finally answered. 'He's a stranger to me.'
Suddenly there was a man screaming from the front of the house. 'Get the fuck out of my way!'
Will heard scuffling outside, cops yelling for someone to stop, then Paul Campano barreled up the front steps like a man on fire. He rammed Faith Mitchell out of his way as he burst into the house. A uniformed patrolman caught her as she stumbled back, perilously close to the edge of the porch. Neither of them looked happy, but Leo waved his hand, telling them to let it go.
Paul stood in the foyer, fists clenched. Will wondered if this was something genetic-that you were either the type of person who clenched your fists all the time or you weren't.
'Paul…' Abigail whispered, rushing to him.
Even holding his wife, Paul kept his hands fisted.
Faith was obviously still bristling. Her tone was clipped. 'Mr. Campano, I'm Detective Mitchell with the Atlanta Police Department. This is Detective Donnelly.'
Paul wasn't interested in introductions. He was staring at the dead man over his wife's shoulder. 'Is that the fucker who did this?' His voice turned to a growl. 'Who is he? What's he doing in my house?'
Faith and Leo exchanged a look that Will would've missed if he hadn't been watching them for his own cues. They were partners; they obviously had a shorthand, and it looked like this time Faith was taking the short straw.
She suggested, 'Mr. Campano, let's go out on the porch and talk about this.'
'Who the fuck are you?' Paul glared at Will, his beady eyes almost swallowed by the extra weight on his face.
Will shouldn't have been surprised by the question, or even the way it was phrased. The last time Paul Campano had talked to him this way, Will was ten years old and they were both living in the Atlanta Children's Home. A lot had changed since then. Will had gotten taller and his hair had gotten darker. The only thing that changed about Paul was he seemed to have gotten heavier and meaner.
Leo supplied, 'Mr. Campano, this is Agent Trent with the GBI.'
Will tried to talk Paul down a little, to make him feel like he could help. 'Do you know if your daughter had any enemies, Mr. Campano?'
'Emma?' he asked, glaring at Will. 'Of course not. She was only seventeen years old.'
'How about you?'
'No,' he snapped. 'No one who would do…' He shook his head, unable to complete the sentence. He looked back at the dead killer. 'Who is this bastard? What did Emma ever do to him?'
'Anything you can give us will help. Maybe you and your wife could-'
'She's up there, isn't she?' Paul interrupted, looking up. 'My baby's upstairs.'
No one answered him, but Leo took a couple of steps toward the stairs to block the way.
Paul said, 'I want to see her.'
'No,' Abigail warned, her voice shaking. 'You don't want to see her like that, Paul. You don't want to
