The two men filled her in while Caleb took notes. When they were done, she said, “I don’t blame you for what happened. And hopefully we’ll be able to run him down with the intel you just gave us.”

“Wish us luck,” Caleb said sourly. “We’re going to need it because he’s got quite a head start.”

The pair quickly left and returned to the van.

“Nice job in there, Caleb,” Annabelle said admiringly.

“I was in the thespian club in college. I had dreams, you know. Not Hollywood, God forbid. The stage.”

“So you wanted to be on Broadway but ended up a librarian? How come?”

“I loved acting but there was a downside I could never get over.”

“What was that?”

“Stage fright. I was sick for hours before every performance. I lost so much weight and went through so many costumes I finally had to give it up.”

“Well, today you were a star.”

Chapter 43

CHAPTER 43

THE INTERVIEW with Charlie Trimble was going better than Stone had expected. His questions were polite but prepared. And then it began to change. The reporter sat in his old swivel chair, a piercing expression in his gaze, one that was making Stone extremely uncomfortable.

“You seem familiar to me, Ben. Have we met before?”

“I don’t see how.”

“You ever been in Washington?”

“Never.”

Trimble sat back and drummed his fingers on his desk. “Why’d you come here?”

“Just making sure Danny was okay.”

“That’s all?”

“Why not?”

Before Trimble could launch another question, Stone pounced. “What do you know about Debby Randolph’s and Rory Peterson’s deaths?”

At first, Trimble seemed taken aback by this, but his expression became bemused. “Why do you want to know?”

“Some people tried to kill Danny. I think somebody tried to OD Willie.”

“I talked to Bob Coombs about that. Do you have any proof?”

“Just what Willie told me and what the doctors found in his system.”

“Willie’s a drug user, not the most reliable people in the world.”

“Have you talked to him about that?” Stone asked sharply. Trimble shook his head. “Then you’re not really in a position to gauge his credibility, are you?”

Trimble’s face flushed but then he smiled. “You make a good point. I do need to talk to him.”

“So getting back to my question. Danny and Willie both are targets. They both knew Debby. Willie was engaged to marry her.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“No one apparently did. Debby supposedly commits suicide. Willie thinks that’s impossible. He talked to her the night before she was found dead. She sounded great.”

“Sheriff Tyree looked into all that. It did seem crazy that Debby would do that, but all the evidence pointed to suicide.”

“It’s pretty easy to make murder seem like suicide if you know what you’re doing.”

Trimble shot him a penetrating look. “You know about such things?”