Loving Again(63)
She almost blew off a visit to Amanda’s studio assuming Sam had gone there, too. But when she thought about it, he’d been adamant that Amanda had been out of contact so she took a chance and went to the GlassCo studio to see if Amanda recognized Beal Matthews. Only Leo Wilson was there. He identified the man in the photo as Mike, a guy who lived in the neighborhood and who’d dropped by a few times to talk about blowing glass.
She also learned “Mike” had asked a lot of questions about how they protected themselves from robbery when the area was deserted at night and Leo had told him about the gun they kept in the office. He couldn’t say for sure “Mike” knew where it was but it was possible he’d seen it when Leo had opened the drawer for a pen and paper to write down a phone number.
That left only one place to go — Amanda’s house.
“This isn’t a good time, Detective Hartmann,” Amanda said when she opened the door.
“It’ll only take a minute.” Hartmann pulled Matthews’ picture out of her leather bag. “Have you ever seen this guy?”
Danny watched Amanda’s expression harden. “I said, I can’t talk to you right now. Please go.”
“This is important. Leo says this guy dropped by the studio on several occasions. Maybe you saw his car? We think it’s an old Toyota hatchback.”
Shock broke through her neutral expression but Amanda still didn’t say anything.
Danny waited a few moments to see if there was more. “Nothing rings a bell?”
Amanda just stared at her.
“Couple other things might interest you: he’s been living about two blocks away from your studio and Bullseye.” She paused. “Oh, and he worked for Tom Webster selling drugs. Got out of prison a couple months back.”
The look of steely determination returned. “I have to go, Detective Hartmann.” Amanda started to close the door.
Danny put a foot on the threshold to keep the door from shutting. “We think he killed Eubie Kane and Robin Jordan. I also think he set out to mimic the circumstances of the Webster murder. Any idea why he’d want to do something like that?”
Amanda looked straight into Danny’s eyes. “Do you know how hard it was to get past the hell I went through last year because of what Tommy and a couple of your less-than-honorable colleagues did? I had to leave town to get away from the gossip even after the court acknowledged I wasn’t guilty of anything other than bad judgment in my personal life.”
“I appreciate what happened to you, Amanda.”
“I doubt that, Detective Hartmann. Portland can be a small town and it’s easy to have your reputation wrecked by careless police work and bad press coverage. I hope you never find out how easy.”
She pushed the door against Hartmann’s foot. “So, in case I haven’t been clear, listen up. I had nothing to do with what Tommy did; I had nothing to do with what happened at Bullseye. Other than that, I have nothing to say to you. And if you want to talk to me again, I need advance notice so I can have my lawyer with me.”
Hartmann removed her foot from the doorway. Amanda slammed the door.
• • •
“Hartmann. My office. Now.” L.T. bellowed from the door of his office. Everyone within earshot turned to see what was going on. No one could remember hearing Chris Angel yell like that before.