The last letter-number combination represented the grid that my hotel was in.
As I dialed my husband’s number, there was a knock at the door.
“Who is it?” I asked as I waited for my husband to answer.
“Housekeeping,” a muffled voice said from the other side of the door.
Without even thinking to check twice, I opened the door as my husband’s phone went to voice mail.
Steve Sanders was standing there instead of a maid, and he had a wicked-looking knife in his hand.
I’d been right figuring out the killer’s identity, but it wasn’t going to do me the least bit of good.
AS HE FORCED HIS WAY IN, STEVE REACHED OUT A HAND for my cell phone. “I’ll take that, if you don’t mind.”
He grabbed my phone out of my hands, threw it to the floor, and then smashed it with his heel. “We don’t want to be interrupted, now do we?”
“You were a little too cute with that last clue. I knew it was you.”
He looked surprised. “Come on, you’re not that clever, Savannah.”
“S squared, naming the victim and the killer, and the last coordinates from the map are of the hotel.”
Steve nodded. “Bravo. I didn’t give you enough credit, I can see that now. Not that it’s going to do you any good.”
“You honestly don’t think you’re going to get away with this, do you? My husband will never rest until he brings you down.”
Steve laughed. “That’s where you’re wrong. Zach is going after Grady, so I had to strike while I could, before the mayor was in custody, or something worse happened to him.”
“Why me, though? I thought we were friends.”
He looked sincerely regretful. “You’re collateral damage, Savannah. I have to blind your husband with rage, and killing you will do just the trick. I’m hoping he kills Grady for me.”
“Your plan was to bring the mayor down? Why?”
“He endorsed Davis, not me.” Steve’s voice was growing agitated, and that was a good thing. I had to distract him somehow until help arrived. The only problem was, how would anyone know that I was in trouble, until it was too late? My cell phone was in a thousand pieces, and the house phone was too far away.
But I still had a radio.
If I could get Steve to brag about his brilliance, I might be able to summon help on it.
“It was clever casting suspicion on Grady, I’ll give you that. But what reason would he have to want me dead?”
“You were about to expose him,” Steve said. “In the scenario I’ll suggest as motive, it will appear that you held on to some evidence you found at his house the day you and your husband were there.” Steve reached into his pocket, and for just a second, he took his eyes off me.
I casually put my hand in my pocket, hoping he wouldn’t notice.
He must have seen something in my eyes, because Steve lashed out and struck me with his clenched fist, exhibiting a swiftness that startled me, driving the air out of my lungs. As I fell to the carpet, I struggled to catch my breath and signal Garrett.
At least he hadn’t used the blade in his other hand.
Not yet, anyway.
I didn’t know if I made it or not. Steve reached into my pocket and pulled out the radio before I could try again.
He was angry, until he looked at it a little closer. “I don’t know what you thought you were doing, but you turned it off. Thanks for saving me the trouble.”
He smashed it as well, taking glee seeing it strike the wall and shatter.
“No one’s going to save you,” he said as he stood over me.
The knife shifted in his hand, and I realized I was about to die. I had to do something to stall him. My breath was starting to come back, but when I spoke, my voice was still muffled. “How are you going to frame Grady? You might as well tell me. No one else is ever going to know.”
It was clear that Steve felt he had all of the power, and he seemed to draw strength from it. “I was about to show you, so I don’t see what it could hurt now. It’s not like you’re going to be able to tell anyone.”
He pulled something out of his pocket, and I knew what it was in an instant. It was Cindy Glass’s cow necklace, the one Barton had been so desperate to find.
“That won’t do any good.”
“It’s just one more piece of the puzzle, Savannah. I’ve got other little trinkets, and Grady’s watch is one of them.”
Grady had mentioned that it was missing when all of this started, but none of us had suspected at the time that it was going to be used to frame him for murder.
“That’s pretty clever,” I said. “You killed Cindy to put suspicion on Grady, and then after the public fight between Grady and Hank, you had a perfect opening. But I don’t understand something.”
The knife hesitated, and I started breathing again.
