“Then let’s order my breakfast.”
“I took the liberty of getting a repeat of yesterday for you. You don’t have any problem with that, do you?”
“Not unless you expect me to share,” he said with a smile. “I’ve got time to shower.”
“I wouldn’t count on it. I’m guessing this won’t take long.”
“I’ll be quick,” he said.
“In that shower? I’ll believe it when I see it.”
He made it out in time, beating his breakfast by a full thirty seconds. After Garrett brought the food in, he handed me a small radio. “For you.”
“I was just teasing.”
“This will eliminate the need for you to go through the switchboard. It’s set to my frequency. If you need anything, you have only to ask for it, and it will happen.”
“Wow, so it’s a magic radio.”
Zach was ignoring us, diving into his meal.
“You might say that,” Garrett said with a smile.
After Garrett was gone, I helped myself to a glass of tea, and grabbed a stick from Zach’s plate.
“Hey, you’ve got your own.”
“But they aren’t as hot as yours are,” I said.
Zach appeared to think about that, and then he nodded his approval. “Point taken. Are you ready for your breakfast meeting?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be. Do you really think Lorna’s a murderer?”
“I’m not saying just yet. Push her, and do it hard. I want to see what happens.”
“What if she snaps?”
“Would you feel better knowing that I’ve already covered that? I’ve got a plainclothes detective staking out the restaurant. You’ll be protected the entire time.”
“Don’t I rate getting you?”
“She knows me, Savannah. I’m afraid Lorna won’t open up if she sees me there.”
“You’ve thought of everything, haven’t you?”
“I hope so. It’s not too late to back out, you know.”
I glanced at the clock and realized that Lorna was already on her way. “No, I said I’d do this, and I will.”
“That’s my girl.”
I kissed him, and then I walked out the door.
“Good luck,” he called out.
“Thanks.”
The trip down the elevator was much too fast for my taste this time. I was going to have a rather public conversation with one of our murder suspects, and I wasn’t looking forward to it at all.
“THERE YOU ARE,” LORNA SAID AS I WALKED INTO THE restaurant. “I was beginning to think that you weren’t going to show again.”
“I said I’d be here,” I said.
“I’m glad.”
As I joined her, I scanned the room full of diners, wondering who the plainclothes detective was that Zach had promised me. No one stood out, so I supposed that was a good thing, at least for him, but I could have used the sight of a uniformed officer at the moment.
After we ordered, I said, “You were going to bring me a present today, weren’t you?”
Lorna looked surprised. “Can you believe it? I left it on the counter at home.”
Was she lying, or had it just been an excuse to pick my brain about Zach’s investigation again? If it was, it was going to bite her this time.
“You’ve got to tell me what it is,” I said. “I’m just dying to know.”
“It’s a frame of your first puzzle that ever ran,” she said. “I called the
The first paper my syndicate had sold a puzzle to was indeed a small, independent paper in the city of Lenoir. I’d been as proud of that puzzle as I could be, but I’d forgotten to save one for myself.
“That’s really thoughtful,” I said. “Thank you.”
“It would have been even better if I’d brought it with me,” she said. “I’ll have it messengered over to you today.”
“I’d appreciate that,” I said. “What made you think of doing it?”
“You broke up my relationship with Grady. I owed you something out of gratitude. It was the wake-up call I needed to save me from my bad choices. Grady was exactly the wrong man for me at the wrong time, and I don’t
