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“Did you usually go out together before the broadcast?”

“No Normally, I take a short break, head out, have a quiet cup of coffee in this little café on Third I like to—get away froot a restaurant, lounges, a coffee shop in house, but I like to break off and take ten on my own”

“Habitually?”

“Yeah” Nadine met Eve’s eyes, veered away “Habitually But I wanted to o I lent her ht to Eve’s And were devastated “She’s dead instead of me You know that, and I know that Don’t we, Dallas?”

“I recognized your coat,” Eve said briefly “I thought it was you”

“She didn’t do anything but run out for a few cigarettes Wrong place, wrong ti coat”

Wrong bait, Eve thought, but didn’t say it “Let’s take this a step at a time, Nadine An editor has a certain amount of power, of control”

“No” Slowly, methodically, Nadine shook her head The sickness in her stomach had snuck into her throat, and tasted foul “It’s the story, Dallas, and the on-air personality Nobody appreciates, or even thinks of an editor but the reporter She wasn’t the target, Dallas Let’s not pretend otherwise”

“What I think and what I know are handled in different ways, Nadine But let’s go hat I think for now I think you were the target, and I think the killer ot different builds, but it was raining, she earing your coat, had the hood on There either wasn’t time, or there wasn’t a choice once the mistake was realized”

“What?” Dazed at having it all said so flatly, Nadine struggled to focus “What did you say?”

“It was over quickly I’ve got the tiuard We’ve got Morse stu over her ten minutes later Either it was timed extremely well, or our killer was cocky And you can bet your ass he wanted to see it on the news before she’d gotten cold”

“We accommodated him, didn’t we?”

“Yeah” Eve nodded “You did”

“You think it was easy for me?” Nadine’s voice, raspy and thick,

burst out “You think it was easy to sit there and give a report knowing she was still lying outside?”