Paper Bullets by Annie Reed Page A

to talk to her dad, or see him?”
    Samantha had been a sad, sleepy girl when I’d picked her up from the Marches the night before. I’d apologized profusely to the Marches for being so late. Bess had only given me a hug. Freddie, in a rare show of restraint, had stood behind his wife, hands in his pockets, and told me how sorry he was about the whole sorry thing.
    Once we got back home, Samantha had wanted to cuddle like she hadn’t for months. So I’d sat with her on her bed, arm around her shoulders, while she talked about not knowing what to do or say to her dad but feeling like she should mend the rift that had grown between them. I hadn’t known how to respond to that—nothing I could have said would have made anything better—so I’d just held her until she finally started to drift off to sleep.
    “Of course, Samantha can see her dad.” Norton knew that Ryan and I had joint custody, even though Samantha spent most of her time with me. “When’s the next planned visitation?”
    “Labor Day weekend.”
    I didn’t mention that Samantha might have other plans. All of our lives had changed drastically overnight. All of our plans, including my trip to San Francisco with Kyle, might be on hold indefinitely.
    And I still hadn’t heard from Kyle. I’d called him on my way to the police station as well. My call had gone straight to voicemail.
    “What about phone calls?” I asked. Norton hesitated, and a chill worked its way down my spine. “What aren’t you telling me?”
    “Ryan’s going to be under a microscope. Samantha can call him if she wants, but he’s in trouble, and he knows it. He might not be in the best frame of mind to talk to his daughter.”
    “I thought you said he’s not a suspect.”
    “I said he wasn’t an ‘official’ suspect, but he’s the primary person of interest. Circumstantial evidence points to him, and I know how the cops will view it.”
    “What circumstantial evidence?” I asked.
    Norton didn’t respond.
    “You know I’m going to find out,” I said. “You might as well tell me now and save us both the aggravation.”
    “All right. Ryan admitted to getting into an argument with Melody at his office. He met with her behind closed doors, but they got loud, staff in his office heard, and Melody stormed out. That part’s in the official statement he gave the police.”
    “There’s more, isn’t there?”
    “I imagine there is, and I imagine Ryan’s told Pat, but I’m not privileged to that information and neither are you. Abby, I looked at the report you prepared for Ryan as well as the photographs. You admit that you were following Melody the entire day at his request, and that you had a confrontation with her a short time before she died. I’m not sure you understand what a truly precarious situation you’re in. If the police can make a case against Ryan, you could be charged as an accessory.”
    “What?” If I’d thought I’d been in shock last night, it was nothing compared to this. “How could they possibly...”
    Of course, they could. The case would be purely circumstantial, but a good prosecutor could make me look like Lizzie Borden without the axe.
    “Do you understand now?” Norton said. “Why you and Ryan can’t be seen together, talking about anything together, without it looking to the police like you’re covering for each other?”
    “God, Norton.” My hand was trembling holding the cell phone. “She had a damn stalker. She might have had two of them. Stalkers are seriously whacked out people. You know that. I know that. Why aren’t the cops focusing on them?”
    “They will. That’s why I’ve got Ryan’s permission to show them the report, and I’d like yours regarding the rest of the information you didn’t put in the report, including all the other photographs you sent me.”
    I’d interrupted the writer the night before when I’d stopped at my office to email Norton a copy of everything I had regarding my surveillance of