Her Frozen Cry (Detective Amanda Steele)

FIFTEEN

Amanda was fuming, and her mind kept tossing around Claudia’s words about her marriage to Tony, specifically the part about them growing apart because life became all about taking care of Bethany and earning a wage. While Amanda’s pampering Zoe wouldn’t cause her to lose a partner, she could lose something far worse—herself. Something that Becky had pointed out. Drinking Becky always had wise epiphanies.

Trent had put the car into gear, not that she had a clue where he was going.

“Where are you taking us?”

“Figure we probably have a long day ahead of us. Thinking a super-duper large coffee from Hannah’s Diner is called for.”

“I like it.” What she’d really like was to talk to Bethany Wagner, but that wouldn’t be happening today with her out of town.

Ten minutes later, the two of them were walking through the door of Hannah’s Diner, the bell jangling overhead.

“There you are.” May Byrd, the woman who owned the place, had a huge heart and was the pulse of the community—or at least had her hand on the pulse. Her coffee shop was a popular place for locals. It wasn’t only because she served the best coffee on the planet—she had a warm spirit too.

“You realize I was just here a couple of hours ago.” She’d picked up a coffee on the way to meet Trent at Central.

May waved a hand. “It’s Saturday, and you’re obviously working.” Her gaze drifted to Trent, and she grinned so large, Amanda half-expected her to reach out and pinch his cheeks. Weird thought…

“That obvious, eh?” Amanda imagined she must appear ragged after going a round with Claudia. The past was rarely a hospitable place to visit.

“You’ve got that look. I’m thinking that you’re thinking about an extra-large coffee. Black.”

“Always.” Amanda smiled and tapped the counter.

May looked at Trent. “Assume the same for you?”

“Sounds great. Thanks.”

“Just a sec.” May turned around and poured their coffees.

Trent pulled out his phone. Amanda stared at nothing in particular, seething over how petty Claudia had been—and her nerve in implying that Amanda had been the reason behind their dissolved friendship, like Claudia had nothing to do with it.

“All right. Good news,” Trent said. “I checked my email—looks like it was sent to both of us—and we have the incoming and outgoing numbers from Alicia’s phone.”

“Great. We’ll dig in when we get back to Central.” The feat would be even easier to tackle with a delicious hot brew in hand.

Once back in Woodbridge, the two of them set up in Trent’s cubicle, and he opened the attachment the CSI had sent with Alicia’s recent phone activity. They looked at both the incoming and outgoing calls. Alicia had been in regular communication with Tony Bishop and Harold Armstrong. There were also calls with Eve Kelley, Pamela Zimmerman, Seth Rossi—Leo’s dad—and the estate lawyer’s office. No unknown numbers or contact with any of the bidders. Claudia Bishop had called last Sunday, and that coincided with what Tony told them about her calling and coming over to the house that day. What really stood out were conversations between Alicia and Eve. Alicia had called Eve Tuesday afternoon, the day she died, and the call lasted fifteen minutes. Then Eve had called Alicia back two hours later, and that call lasted thirty minutes. She pointed this out to Trent.

“They could have been talking about New Belle,” he suggested.

“Twice in one day—when their arrangement had already been ironed out?”

“I don’t know. We’ll have to ask her about it.”

“Yep. First thing Monday, we’ll find out for sure. We also have that set of tire tracks at the cabin, and the fingerprints on the wineglasses and the bottle. Eve’s? Did she go to the cabin later in the day to talk more with Alicia and then tampered with her sleeping aid?” That left the man’s size-eleven shoeprints without an explanation, though.

“Possible, but remember Alicia could have been drugged over time.”

“Could have been. We don’t know for sure.”

“True. There’s this guy too.” Trent pointed at Seth Rossi’s name. “Leo’s dad.”

“He could have easily been calling to discuss something to do with Leo. Confirming a pick-up time or something as insignificant as that.”

“Whatever the case, there couldn’t have been much said in forty-five seconds. That’s how long the call lasted. And it was on Monday, the day before Alicia died.”

That part was hard to ignore. “Huh. She took his call, but she wasn’t happy to hear from him?” she tossed out. “It seems a stretch to think much of the call length, Trent. But I guess it’s possible their split wasn’t as amicable as Tony made it sound. And really it’s hard to believe it could be. Alicia moved on with Tony rather quickly. She’d only been split from her ex for about six months before dating Tony.”

“As Mom would say, no moss grew under their feet.”

She smiled and shook her head.

“I still find it crazy they’d get hitched so fast. Marriage? That’s a huge commitment. If I ever take that step, I’m going to know her like the back of my hand.”

“Well, good luck with that. There are so many layers to people, and most are carrying around secrets.”

“My woman won’t be.”