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She stopped in at the office for the first ti Tawny&039;s steps in the week before she&039;d died, trying to find out who&039;d killed her, why and how on earth they&039;d done it in such a macabre manner
The only lead she&039;d found was Da other than an eccentric, world-renowned ths to preserve the o She&039;d tried her daround, but had co onto the scene as the world&039;s ician, he had, it seemed, no past at all
"Shannon Hey, where you been? I was starting to think you&039;d gone outta business"
She s in the doorway of the pizzeria, with his clean white apron covering his rounded middle She hadn&039;t told him, or anyone, that Tawny&039;s murder would be her last case "Hey, Sal Not out of business, just busy What&039;s new?"
"Rent&039;s going up next ain?" It didn&039;t matter She wouldn&039;t be here nexthis eyes "Probably a letter wait in&039; for you Got mine yesterday"
"This place isn&039;t worth e&039;re paying now," she gru it open, mounted the steep stairway
Sal came to the bottom and called up to her "You could afford the rent if you didn&039;t drive such a fancy car, you know"
"So you keep telling h for a paint job" She&039;d get that done She proet that done before she went down for the count
"That&039;s baloney You don&039;t look good Shannon You eatin&039; right?"
"I will be today" She reached the top of the stairs and unlocked her office door, then paused to look down at Sal "Two slices for lunch, with the works"
"Everything but anchovies I kno you like it"
She s in a chair in front of her desk rose, set the file folder he&039;d been perusing aside, parted his lips to say soaze dropped to the revolver she was pointing at his chest She&039;d jerked the gun from her waistband in a split second, before he&039;d even turned fully He stood very still
"Who are you, and what the hell are you doing in my office?"
He licked his lips, a quick, nervous little dart of his tongue And then she recognized him He was the one who&039;d taken Tawny&039;s body out of the ME&039;s office last night
"Take it easy with that thing I have ID May I?"
She nodded, a little shiver dancing up her neck "You pull anything other than a wallet out of that fancy jacket you&039;re wearing and it&039;s gonna have a big hole in the front"
His hand dipped into the jacket, came out with a small leather folder He handed it to her, and she took it, never limpsed a photo ID froaze darting back to him every other millisecond or so Stephen Bachman Then she read a little further and blinked
"CIA?"
"One of its subdivisions"
"Which one?"
"That&039;s not i the card enuine or a fraud She had no way of knowing She gazed at hiain Tall, broad- shouldered He had an athletic build to him, and his dark hair curled a little at the ends Gray suit, spotless white shirt Telltale bulge beneath the left arun barrel "Put your weapon on the desk, Mr Bachun, a shiny nickel-plated 9 er, and set it on the desk She stepped forward and picked it up, tucked it into the back of her jeans "How&039;d you get in here?"
He saze, nodding, and then took the file folder he&039;d been reading It contained her notes on Tawny&039;s death She frowned hard "Why is the CIA involved in a ation?"
"Oh, come on, Ms Mallory We both know this is no ordinaryin order for you to shootbehind her desk as he sat She took her own seat "Just what the hell is going on?"
The man stared hard at her "You&039;re the one who found her Why don&039;t you tell oing to tell me all about Tawny Keller And all about yourself And everything you think you know about this case"
She sed, pursed his lips "Because we both want the sa To catch her killer And because if you don&039;t, I&039;ll have your private investigator&039;s license pulled before noon"
"Sure do kno to sweet-talk a girl, don&039;t you? Tell you what I&039;ll tell you everything I know, if you&039;ll answerto tell hi For all she knew, he could be a fraud Then again, maybe not He certainly had clout with the ME&039;s office
His eyes narrowed "If I can What do you want to know?"
"Why I can&039;t get Tawny&039;s body released to ive her a funeral" She knew he had the answer to that question She waited
That tongue darted out again "Settle for a et the body"
"Why?"
"It&039;s now the property of the federal governht as well have slapped her "What the hell have you done with her, Bachman? I know she&039;s been moved Where is she?"
"Good little private snoop, aren&039;t you? How&039;d you knoe moved her?"
She bit her lower lip She wouldn&039;t shoeakness, tur me the royal runaround I had a suspicion You just confirmed it"
He nodded "Not bad But I can&039;t tell you where she is Sorry"
He glanced at his watch "You want to move on to the next question? I don&039;t have all day"
She fought with her temper and won Voice level, cold, she asked him, "How did she really die?"
"Blood loss"
"I know that I mean how?"
He stared hard at her "Daht as well have been wearing a sign HeThe bastard
"My turn, Ms Mallory You&039;ve been seeing a doctor--four times in the past month What&039;s the problem?"
She felt her brows lift "There isn&039;t any proble to cooperate"
"I aot checked out There was no problem"
"I can verify this more easily that you&039;d believe"
"Why a ti flippant or blatantly honest, she could tell Good, let him wonder
"You&039;ve seen a lot of Damien Namtar in the past couple of days"
She blinked, then stopped herself fro her surprise in any other way "Have I been under surveillance?"
"Not yet"
"Him, then?"
His lips thinned "I need to knohy you&039;ve been seeing hi Damien She wondered if he knew it "I&039; I should know about Mr Naether sure you don&039;t already know"
The puzzled expression she felt twist her broas genuine What the hell was that supposed toto do with the , but he wasn&039;t saying a daaze "Maybe I should watch ether"
Was that a warning? What did this bastard know?
"I&039;round, and the victim&039;s--"
"Tawny Her name was Tawny Use it"
He snapped open the briefcase on his lap, nipped open a notebook "Whatever You ards of the state, assigned to a foster home in Flatbush Then both ran away It&039;s ent on between then and now that&039;s tough to docuaun froht at his nose "Your time&039;s up, Bachman Get out"
"I&039;m not finished" He closed the notebook, then the case
"You&039;ll be more than finished if you don&039;t leave--now"
He nodded "Fine There are other ways to find out what I need to know" He reached for the folder on her desk She squeezed the trigger The bullet shattered an ashtray two inches fro to stare at her It was anger not fear she saw in his eyes "I could have you in jail for that"
"I could blow your brains out and say I o"
His eyes darkened, but his hand fell to his side He stepped toward her She opened the door and moved aside In the doorway, he turned to face her "You keep quiet about your friend&039;s death, Ms Mallory It&039;s going down as suicide and the first tiht just disappear yourself"
"If you think I&039;ll let it die, you&039;re wrong"
"You have no choice in the matter And Iwith here" He glanced down at the Ruger she still held and opened his hand "My gun?"
"Not anymore" She slammed the door in his face
It took her all of five seconds to decide to follow him when he left, and as she did, she racked her brain for answers Bachit The ME wouldn&039;t have cooperated otherwise So as the government so interested in the murder of a prostitute? The way she&039;d died It had to be But how had Tawny died, exactly? How had someone put those marks on her throat, drained her blood? And why?
She had a feeling Bach
Da always searching But for what? No matter how many stone tablets were uncovered in the sands of Iraq, no a, there would never be one recording the true end to the tale
He slammed the book closed, tossed it to the floor His eyes burned, but he blinked thenite the pain Stupid It was long gone now Netty cleared her throat, drawing his attention
"You have a guest"
At Netty&039;s side in the library doorway Shannon stood staring at hilanced past him to the book he&039;d just thrown "If it&039;s a bad tiot to his feet "No Pet peeve, that&039;s all"
"She looks so ht, doesn&039;t she now, sir? More color to her cheeks" Netty patted Shannon&039;s ar for this chilly autuht Warm your bones"
"That&039;s really not--" Shannon broke off Netty was already hurrying aith those abbreviated, high-speed steps of hers Shannon shook her head, s a little
Daaze ?"
She licked her lips "Look, I don&039;t knohy the hell I&039;ot good instincts I had to have, the way I grew up Not so much who to trust and who not to trust More like who&039;d slit your throat and who&039;d just rob you blind"
He frowned She was raht"
"You said you and Tawny learned to fight on the streets Ihim "It doesn&039;t e amber eyes seemed to reach out to him "Where was your family?"
She looked at the floor "My mother dumped me when I was a baby I don&039;t even remember her"
"Then you were adopted?"
Her lips twitched a little "They tell rew up a ward of the state, saw lots of institutions, a few foster homes I met Tawny in one of theered the strap that was anchored over her shoulder