“Saturday? I’ll be back in New York.”
He smirked. “We’re flying home Friday afternoon, going to the Giants-Mets game that night, and Emma has to be back to her mother’s by noon Saturday.” He nodded toward her boards for Jason Hoffman and Lindy Ames. “You won’t be leaving until you solve both cases. And I think it’s going to take you all week.”
*
Max almost thought Nick Santini wouldn’t show. It was Sunday afternoon, she was a reporter, he was a cop. David had called one of his buddies in the Marines and learned that Nick was a decorated veteran who’d served in both Iraq and Afghanistan as part of a Special Forces unit. He was still in the Reserves, like David. David was Army, but as far as Max was concerned, military was military.
Max sat in her favorite booth in the bar. Her phone vibrated again with another call from William. He’d left a message for her last night, which she’d ignored, and called again already this morning, which she also ignored. Maybe now he understood that she was serious about that parking ticket.
She answered the phone.
“I thought you were going to send me to voice mail again,” William said.
“What do you want? We said everything that needed to be said last night—unless you were lying.”
“I didn’t lie to you. Why can’t you trust me on this?”
“I want to,” she said.
“I was calling to warn you—Andy knows about what happened at the Ames house last night.”
“Why does Andy care?” But he had come to see her Friday night, and their conversation hadn’t been all that friendly.
“I told him you weren’t looking into Lindy’s death, and now you’re making me a liar.”
“I never told you to lie.”
“You brought me into it last night!”
“Me? You’re the one who had the secret parking ticket and didn’t tell anyone. All I did was call you on it. So I repeat, why are you now a liar?”
“Andy asked me point-blank what you were doing at the Ames house last night. I played dumb, like I didn’t know what he was talking about.”
“You don’t. I never told you.”
“I can guess.”
“You’d be wrong.” Max shifted uncomfortably. She hadn’t told David about the call to her hotel yet, and he wouldn’t like that she’d kept the information from him, especially after their heart-to-heart this morning. And she didn’t know if she’d honestly forgotten to mention it, or if subconsciously she knew David would have canceled his vacation with Emma if he knew there had been a threat, however subtle it was.
“Then why?”
Max might have told William about the threat, except that she saw Andy walking briskly toward her. He looked as happy as Brooks and her grandmother had last night.
“Your best friend is paying me a visit. Is that why you really called? To warn me that Andy was on his way?”
“He’s there?”
“Good-bye.” Max hung up on William. Andy leaned over, his palms flat against the table.
“What the hell are you doing harassing Kimberly Ames?”
“Hello, Andy,” Max said. “I’d invite you to sit down but I’m expecting someone.”
Andy sat and Max’s temper went up a dozen degrees. “I told you to leave Lindy’s murder alone.”
“I don’t take orders from you.”
“You don’t take orders from anyone. You never did. I came to you as a friend the other night—”
“I’m not going to repeat myself.”
“What did you say to William that got him all upset?”
“Why don’t you ask William? He’s your best friend.”
“I did, and he talked around it, but he can’t lie to save his soul, and the more I pushed the more upset he became.”
Max stared at Andy. “Why do you care so much?”
“Because Kevin O’Neal killed Lindy, and you’re stirring up shit that doesn’t need stirring.”
“How do you know I was at the Ames’ house last night?”
“Everyone knows!” He slammed his fist on the table, causing water to slosh from her glass.
Max noticed that Nick Santini was approaching. His eyes weren’t on her; they were fixated on Andy, as hard as his expression.
“Hello, Nick,” Max said with a half smile.
Andy had been so engrossed in trying to intimidate her that he didn’t notice Nick until he was standing right next to the table. His manners battled with his anger. Manners won, barely.
“I’m sorry if I interrupted your meal,” he said through clenched teeth.
“Good-bye, Andy,” Max said.
Andy stood, turned back to her and said, “We used to be friends. If that means anything to you, you’ll just stop this nonsense and go back to New York.”
“I think you know me well enough to know that I like running with scissors.”
For some reason, that infuriated Andy. “Be careful which way you point the scissors.”
Nick said, “Is that a threat?”
“Back off,” Andy said. “This doesn’t concern you.”
Nick showed his badge. “Everything concerns me.”
Andy wasn’t fazed by Nick’s shield. He smirked, glanced at Max, then said to Nick, “Watch out. She bites.” Then he left.
Nick watched Andy leave the restaurant before he sat down. He looked at Max and said, “You don’t look intimidated.”
“I’ve known Andy for a long time.”
“Ex?”
She shrugged. “High school sweethearts.”
“That’s right. You graduated from Atherton Prep.”
The way he said it made Max wonder how much research he’d done into her background. It was mostly an open book—she had a detailed bio on the “Maximum Exposure” Web site and there were interviews she’d given that spilled most of her secrets. How she was raised by her grandparents, didn’t know who her father was, and her mother disappeared when she was a kid. Oh, and that she’d been left millions of dollars by her eccentric great-grandmother and her family sued to try and null and void the will. They lost, she won, and the rest is history.