get mad at me.”
“As long as you behave yourself, I won’t have to.”
“Come on. What are the chances of that happening?”
“Too slim to count for anyone but a mathematician,” I said.
I got out my phone as Zach locked the door behind us.
She picked up.
“Hey, Lorna. It’s Savannah.”
“Hey yourself. I was just thinking about you. You’re not canceling on me tomorrow, are you?”
“Not a chance. I’m looking forward to it. I have a quick question, though.”
“Fire away.”
“We know you were friends with Hank Tristan, but when exactly did you meet Cindy Glass?”
“Who?”
“The other murder victim.”
There was dead silence on the other end of the phone. “What are you talking about? Who said I knew her?”
“Zach doesn’t like me to reveal his sources,” I said, and my husband gave me a thumbs-up signal. I couldn’t let that go without a comment. I told Lorna, “You know how men can be like little children sometimes.”
“You don’t have to tell me. Does he really suspect me?”
“Well he wants to cover all of his bases. I’m looking at your name on the board at the task force headquarters right now,” I said, a full and blatant lie.
“I didn’t realize anyone knew,” she said softly. I wasn’t even sure she knew that she’d said it aloud.
“Charlotte may look like a big city to an outsider, but it’s really not all
“It was nothing. We met at a seminar two years ago. I barely remembered her until I saw her picture in the paper. You’ve got to convince Zach that I didn’t really know her at all.”
“I’ll try, but once he makes up his mind about something, it’s tough to get him to back down. He’s sure there’s a connection here somewhere.”
“You have to at least try, Savannah. Promise me.”
If her tone of voice was any indication, she was more worried about Zach’s theories than she wanted me to know. “I’ll do my best.”
“We’ll talk about it tomorrow, okay?”
“Fine. I’m looking forward to it.”
“Me, too. And Savannah?”
“Yes?”
“I didn’t kill either one of them. I’m not a murderer.”
“I’ll tell him that, too,” I said, and then I hung up.
“Wow, that worked better than I’d hoped.”
“What did she say?” Zach asked me.
“Lorna met Cindy at a seminar two years ago, so they have a history together. How did you suspect that?”
“I didn’t, but sometimes it’s fun to guess, isn’t it?”
I looked around the room, and then I asked, “What do we do now?”
“I don’t know about you, but there’s something that’s been bugging me, and I’m going to dig through the files until I find it.”
“Can I help?”
He shook his head. “No, this is a solo job. You can work on the clue segments, if you really want to help.”
“You know I do.”
AN HOUR LATER, NEITHER ONE OF US HAD MADE AN ounce worth of progress. The numbers and letters still meant nothing to me, and the more I stared at them and moved the sequences around, the more confused I got.
Zach looked over at me, and then shrugged. “Whatever it was I just had, I lost it.”
“At least you had it to begin with. I keep staring at these sequences like they’re Martian cookbook ingredients.”
He walked over and touched my shoulder. “I know I gave you the worst possible job in all of this. The more we get into it, the more I think the codes were made up just to frustrate us.”
“Then I’d say it was a roaring success. How about you?”
“I’m stumped, and I’m not afraid who knows it,” he said.
