Loving Again(44)
“ … I was a woman? Easy mistake. Danny seemed like a better name for a cop than either Danita or Rebecca, the choices my mother gave me.” Hartmann paused for a few seconds longer than Amanda liked, looking around. “I’d like to talk to you. Is there someplace private we can go?”
Amanda felt her eyes widen and the blood leave her head. “Oh, God, something’s happened to Sam, hasn’t it?” She held onto the broom she’d been using with a death grip hoping it would hold her up if this woman had come to tell her that the consequences of what she’d seen the night before had already played out.
“No, nothing like that. Sam’s fine. I just need to talk to you.”
As the tension left her body, Amanda felt herself deflate. “Then he didn’t — ” She stopped to take a deep breath. “Right. Talk. We can go in the back.” She propped the broom against a table before leading the detective to the office.
“What’s going on out there?” Hartmann asked as she sat in the chair Amanda offered.
“Someone broke in last night. Second time in a week. This time it’s a freaking disaster — an expensive, freaking disaster. And there was … ” she let it trail off and broke eye contact with Hartmann. She realized she was playing with the envelope that held the two letters. Not sure yet what she was going to do about them, she did know she didn’t want Detective Hartmann getting curious so she slid the envelope from the desktop into a partially open desk drawer and closed it.
“You report it to the police?”
Amanda looked up, wondering how Hartmann knew about the letters, then realized that wasn’t what she meant. “Oh, the break-in? Yeah, I guess I should. Usually it’s … you know … just addicts looking for money although this seems different. More like the time my work got destroyed last year. But, I’ll worry about it later. What is it you wanted to talk about?”
“Eubie Kane. You heard he was killed last night.”
Amanda took a sharp breath. “Yes … I … ah … heard it on the radio this morning and saw it in the paper. Eubie and poor Robin.” She looked away from the other woman, biting her lip, picked up a pen and clicked the cap off and on a few times before quickly looking back at the detective.
“Eubie called me last night and asked to come over here to see me. But he never showed up. I didn’t know why until I … until this morning when I heard the news.” She slid back in her chair. “Why do you want to talk to me about him?”
Without answering, Hartmann brought a photograph out of her leather bag. “Do you recognize this?”
Amanda took the photo, looked at it for a moment and shook her head. “It’s a gun. Should it mean something to me?” She looked at the photo a second time before handing it back to the detective. “One of my studio mates keeps something that looks like it in the desk for protection.”
“We found this next to the bodies. It’s being tested to see if it’s the murder weapon but I’m assuming it is. It’s registered to a Leo Wilson. Is that the name of your studio mate?”
Amanda stifled a gasp. She nodded. Barely.
“Your fingerprints are on the barrel.”
“My fingerprints? How?” She moved in the chair as if the place she was sitting had suddenly warmed up. “The only time I even touch it is to move it out of the way when I go into his drawer. Leo’s drawer is the only one with a lock of sorts on it so we keep petty cash there and the stamps.”