Her Frozen Cry (Detective Amanda Steele)

“From our understanding, New Belle was very profitable. What was your interest in it?”

“I was considering running it myself.”

“And you know about the cosmetics industry?” Trent asked.

“Not a lot, but you can pay for expertise. I saw myself closing Smart Acquisitions and anchoring myself to one company. It takes a lot of work to research companies to take over and then figure out how to make them profitable and flip them.”

“I can imagine,” Amanda said. “And Alicia knew this was your plan for New Belle?”

“I was upfront with her about my intentions. She didn’t seem to care what I did with it, though. She said to give her some time, that she’d need to consider my offer.”

To Amanda, it sounded like Alicia was undecided, but Rocco took her response to indicate he’d won the bidding. That belief, if genuine, would remove his motive, at least from the angle they were looking at things—one of the bidders exacting revenge on Alicia and then taking out the competition. But what if it was a more tangled web? What if Eve Kelley killed Alicia because of being stabbed in the back again, and then someone else killed Eve? That person could have used the same killing method so it would look like one person had murdered both women. Even if there was a copycat, it would need to be someone she and Trent had spoken to about the pentobarbital. “Have you heard of pentobarbital?”

Rocco nodded.

“What can you tell us about it?”

“I believe it’s what vets use to put animals to sleep.”

“That’s right,” she said. “And sometimes small doses are prescribed to people. You ever been prescribed any?”

“No.”

“Alicia Gordon was poisoned with pentobarbital,” Trent deadpanned.

Rocco tugged on the collar of his shirt, loosening his tie. “I had nothing to do with that.”

“You seem to know about the drug,” she volleyed back.

“I think most people would have heard of it.”

“Did you know Eve Kelley?” Amanda decided it was time to change course.

He swallowed roughly. “More of her. Owner of Pixie Winks, right?”

“That’s right. She died this morning. It’s looking like she might have been poisoned the same way as Ms. Gordon. That information is strictly confidential—her family has not yet been informed.” She momentarily thought of Malone’s orders—why had he insisted they do things backward? It felt wrong talking to Lopez before Eve’s family had been notified.

Rocco’s eyes filled with tears.

She wasn’t sure what to make of his reaction—guilt or empathy. “Mr. Lopez, do you know anything about that?”

“About who killed her and Alicia? No idea.” He clamped his mouth shut and blinked slowly. “Do you think I’m in danger?”

“Why would you be?” The question was automatic, but as they’d discussed, one of the bidders could be perpetrator or potential victim. Dread was creeping over her skin.

He twitched like a shiver had laced down his spine. “Let me show you something.” His hands were shaking as he opened the lid on his laptop, tapped a few keystrokes, then turned the screen to face her and Trent.

He was showing them an email, the body of which read, Stay away from New Belle or you’ll be sorry.

The message was timestamped last Wednesday morning at eleven—the day after Alicia’s murder and before it hit the news. Had the killer sent it, or was it a coincidence? And the author had obviously still considered New Belle at risk of being sold after Alicia’s death, it would seem. “Is this the only threat you’ve received regarding New Belle?”

“First and last. But now you say Eve Kelley is dead?” He kept swallowing and pressing his lips together like he was going to vomit. “I told myself I shouldn’t take the message seriously. Maybe I should?” His wet eyes petitioned Amanda.

Good question.

“Here, take the computer.” He thrust it across the desk. “I trust you’ll safeguard any confidential information on there, but I keep backups. I’ll just get another laptop to work on.”

“That won’t be necessary.” Amanda pulled her business card. “It was just the one email?”

“Yes.”

“Forward it here.” She pointed to her email address on the card. Rocco did just that, and Amanda confirmed receipt through the email app on her phone. “We’ll do our best to track down the sender. In the meantime, I’ll get some officers to watch over you.”

“Thank you.”

She and Trent left and loaded into the car.

Trent turned the ignition and said, “We need to look closer at the threats Alicia and Eve received.”

“We do. I’m going to fire this email over to Detective Briggs in Digital Crimes and see if he can track the original sender’s IP address. While I’m doing that, you take us to Acne Buster.”

“You got it.”

Amanda trusted that if anyone could get the job done, it was Briggs. He worked the night shift, but his expertise would be worth the wait. She just hoped his findings would lead them straight to a killer.