Julianne wondered what to do. She could shoot him here, now, and walk away. But she doubted Blake would give her another name.

Test the waters, and if necessary, take him out. You can always kill Blake yourself as well. It’ll be easy to pin his death on a guy who’s this unstable.

“Okay,” she said. “I’m in. How do you suggest we proceed?”

“Miranda Walsh. See what you can find out about her death. Take until tomorrow night. I’ll meet you at nine. I know a good place by the river.”

“Alright. Tell me everything you can about this Miranda Walsh.”

++++

The person who’d paid the server to fawn over Timothy Sabian at the restaurant last night downloaded the photograph that the man had taken of the troubled novelist as he walked out the restaurant door.

Timothy’s career had taken off several years ago, and it hadn’t been difficult to find him and to keep tabs on him. However, it’d also presented a dilemma—introduce himself or stay away?

His job made it relatively easy to acquire a camera small enough and surreptitious enough to hide in the author’s home. In the end, he’d entered the house under the guise of upgrading the television’s cable connection and planted the camera in the living room.

Just as he’d expected, Timothy had not recognized him.

He’d felt strangely nostalgic being there with him like that, standing in the same room.

Now, he watched Timothy through the video feed and listened to him speaking with this woman.

It was quite a conversation.

And the implications of it were intriguing. The two of them were planning to meet again tomorrow night at nine.

Well then.

It was time to clear his schedule.

STAGE III

Bargaining

Torn hope. Shards of glass.
A missing wallet. Emily’s hiding place.

15

Sunday, November 4

I got up before dawn to look over the case files and spend some time evaluating what we knew about Jon Murray’s suicide.

I didn’t want to discount the fact that Mannie had been present near the graveyard during the young man’s funeral. With Mannie there, it seemed like too much of a coincidence for the cases of Jon’s death and Mannie’s work to be unrelated. However, at the moment, I couldn’t put my finger on the connection between them.