Dangerous Games by Michael Prescott

progress toward the finish line.”
    “Fair enough.” She surveyed Tess’s plate with interest. “You gonna eat those fries?”
    “No.” Abby snatched a handful. Tess couldn’t resist warning, “Careful. They could slow down your metabolism, make you vulnerable to predators at the water hole.”
    “Even with one or two fries in me, this gazelle can still outrun the lions.” Abby popped a french fry in her mouth. “So where was I? Right, Kolb was the guy.”
    “How did you know?”
    “Pillow talk. Guys tell you all kinds of stuff after sex.”
    Tess hesitated, unsure what to say, and Abby laughed.
    “Gotcha. The look on your face—I wish I had a camera.”
    “Are you saying you did or didn’t sleep with Kolb?”
    “Bit of the mother superior in you, isn’t there?”
    “I just want an answer.”
    “I thought you Catholic girls were cool about sex. That’s your rep, anyhow.”
    “I am cool about it. I mean, I…” She wondered how the hell Abby knew she was Catholic. A guess based on her last name, probably. “Did you sleep with Kolb or not?”
    “No. That’s almost never necessary.” Tess noted the word almost . It didn’t raise her estimation of Abby Sinclair. “Most of these guys are too inhibited for casual sex—at least with me. They might go to a prostitute, but that’s business; it’s impersonal, a transaction. Anything involving emotional intimacy is scary to them.”
    “Does that description fit Kolb?”
    “To a T. Even the hookers. When I was working the case, I saw him check out the action south of Hollywood Boulevard. He stopped for a knob job—you know, a little lipstick on his dipstick.”
    “I understood the reference. You said you saw him?”
    “Followed him. I’m good at tailing people.”
    Tess took another swallow of soda. “You seem to be good at everything you do.”
    “I’m still breathing, aren’t I? Anyway, Kolb didn’t have to tell me anything. He was careless enough to keep copies of all his e-mails to Madeleine on his computer.”
    “He allowed you to look in his computer?”
    “The word ‘allowed’ might be overstating it. Let’s say I became familiar with his daily routine, which made it possible for me to gain access to information of a private nature without his direct, written consent.”
    “You broke into his residence?”
    “There’s that mother superior again.”
    “Breaking and entering is a felony.”
    “So is stalking, and nobody was doing diddly-squat about that.”
    “The end justifies the means?”
    “A minor transgression to stop a major injustice. That’s what I call a pragmatic trade-off.”
    “And you get to decide which transgressions are acceptable and which aren’t?”
    “It goes with the territory.”
    “That particular territory is located pretty close to the county jail.”
    Abby arched an eyebrow. “You gonna arrest me, Sheriff? Look, Madeleine was in trouble, and I got her out of it.”
    Tess let a moment pass. “How exactly did you get her out of it?” she asked finally, already knowing the answer.
    “Ah, the scales fall from your eyes. The truth is revealed.”
    “You set the fire, didn’t you?”
    “I prefer not to answer on the grounds that it would incriminate the hell out of me.”
    “You brought the fire department to Kolb’s apartment.”
    Abby said nothing. The smile was gone from her face. She watched Tess as if assessing her reaction to this news.
    “You could have burned down the whole building,” Tess said after a pause, though they both knew this was not the point.
    “Nope. The call to nine-one-one was made very promptly. Actually, before the fire even started. Someone must’ve had a premonition.”
    “Weren’t you worried about a trace?”
    “I believe the call was made from an untraceable cell phone.”
    “So you called from your cell, set the fire, and left. But before you did any of that, you put the evidence of the planned abduction in plain view where the firemen would see