Cold Pursuit - Carla Neggers [118]
“You need to talk to the police.” Her tone was crisp, professional. “Scott Thorne just got here with my sister. I’ll introduce you to him. You two can talk.”
Thomas held back a surge of defensiveness. “The meeting was Alex’s idea. He wanted to talk to me about Nora—he was worried about her. There was something else on his mind, too, but he didn’t go into detail. He was late. I waited. Then when he was hit by that car…” Thomas pictured his friend’s briefcase, the crease in his pants. “I don’t know anything, Jo. I swear. I talked to a messenger who said she was a witness. I gave the police everything I could remember when I called in the tip. That’s all.”
“Who else knew about your breakfast with Ambassador Bruni?”
“No one that I know of. We wanted to be discreet, because of our personal situation. I just don’t understand. Why kill Alex?” Thomas repeated the question, stunned, as if it would help him make sense of everything that had happened. “Who would want to harm him? He was my friend. He fell in love with the woman I married, but Carolyn and I weren’t meant to be a match forever.”
“As far as you know, she didn’t know about your breakfast?”
“There was no reason for me to tell her, and I doubt Alex did. She was in Hong Kong, on an entirely different schedule. But he might have told her. I certainly don’t know either way.”
“What about Melanie?”
“No, I didn’t mention anything to her, but I didn’t hide anything from her, either.”
Jo gave a curt nod. “Talk to Trooper Thorne. He’s in the dining room with A.J. and Elijah.”
“Jo—”
But she stayed focused. “I’ll bring you to him.”
Melanie resisted an impulse to get Nora by the hair and drag her across the parking lot. One more frosty look or moan of fatigue or whine about Devin and how scared she’d been, and Melanie wouldn’t be able to resist smacking her. Thanks to the little bitch and Kyle’s idiotic assault on Elijah Cameron and Jo Harper, Melanie realized that her life as she knew it was over.
“Just a few more steps,” she said sweetly. “I know you’re tired, sweetie.”
Nora gave her a sullen look and didn’t pick up her pace a fraction.
Melanie resisted an impulse to slap her across her sorry, tearstained face. What did that little bitch have to worry about? Her life would go on. She had her mother and her father and her trust fund. She could go back to Dartmouth. So, Alex was dead. So, she’d been scared. Melanie thought of all she was in danger of giving up thanks to Nora and her lack of trust, her inability to let her father fall in love again. She realized she was losing Thomas. The police must have been provided with some new bit of information about Alex’s death—someone who’d seen Thomas at the hotel. He’d looked guilt stricken when he’d seen Jo coming down the hall, but also maybe a little relieved, as if he’d been waiting for the moment when everyone would finally discover what a weasel he’d been.
Not that it mattered. As the day had worn on and Kyle’s death had penetrated her psyche, Melanie had recognized that Kyle’s stupidity left her no choice but to deal with Nora Asher herself.
Damn you, Kyle. She went around to the passenger side of her rented car and opened the door. He must have known that Elijah and Jo were armed. They weren’t the cold-blooded killer Kyle was, but they were more than capable of taking him down.
He hadn’t committed suicide. Not intentionally. Knowing him as well she did, Melanie was convinced he’d thought he could make his plan work. He just wasn’t that good at thinking on his feet.
But she was.
“Here,” she said, opening the front passenger door. “Do you need help getting in or are you—”
“I’m fine,” Nora said, stepping past Melanie and flopping down onto the car seat.
Melanie kept her mouth shut and ignored the twitch in her fingers.