shouting questions. Annja sat there, staring at the television in shock.
On screen, Tamás waited for the clamor to die down and then said, “I can answer a few brief questions.”
A reporter in the front row raised his hand and Tamás indicated that he should go ahead.
“Can you tell us what happened, Detective?”
“Both Miss Vass and Miss Polgár are students in Budapest. We believe they were traveling together when an argument broke out and Miss Polgár killed her companion in a fit of rage with a vicious blow to the head. At that point she stripped the body and pushed it over the side of a ridge to try to hide it. Unfortunately for her, another individual came along at that moment and Polgár was forced to improvise, pretending to assist with recovering the dying woman in order to throw law enforcement off her tracks.
“The victim received medical treatment upon arrival at the hospital here in Nové Mesto, but the doctor’s efforts were ultimately unsuccessful.”
“Is there an official cause of death yet, Detective?” a reporter asked.
“Yes. According to the medical examiner, the victim was struck in the back of the head with a blunt object. This caused massive internal hemorrhaging, which eventually led to her demise.”
Annja shook her head in disbelief. She’d held that woman in her arms and hadn’t noticed any such injury. Nor had the autopsy report mentioned anything even remotely similar.
What was going on here?
“Can you tell us who the third party is?” a reporter shouted, while another asked, “How do you know this other individual isn’t involved, as well?”
“I am not at liberty to reveal her identity at the moment. Her story checks out and we’re confident that she was being a Good Samaritan when she stopped to assist Miss Polgár and Miss Vass. If you want to speak to her, you’ll have to track her down yourselves.”
Gee, thanks, Detective, Annja thought. Now every journalist in Slovakia would be looking for her!
Hopefully, they would assume the so-called third party was a local and start there, giving her some time before she had to start dodging reporters. If not, she’d deal with it. Right now she needed to talk to Tamás. She
knew
Csilla was innocent, and now that Tamás had followed through with his half-witted theory, she felt an obligation to help the woman.
On screen, Tamás answered a few more questions and then ended the press conference, disappearing back into the police station. Annja thought about calling him, but every reporter in the country would be doing the same thing right about now, trying to get the inside scoop on the charges against the alleged killer. If she were Tamás, she’d have some of the rank and file taking the calls until things quieted down. She thought she could get through to him without too much trouble—she was, after all, a material witness in the investigation—but something told her she should do this in person. She wanted to see his face and gauge his reactions.
The question was how to get in a room with him without bringing the press down on her head. Going to the station didn’t seem like the smartest choice, as she had little doubt the media would be scrutinizing anyone who entered for the next several days. It wouldn’t be hard for an enterprising reporter to match her photograph with one of the publicity stills from the show and wind up wondering what the star of
Chasing History’s Monsters
was doing here. That would bring its own media frenzy and simply exacerbate the problem.
A meeting at her hotel—either in the restaurant or her room—was out of the question for the same reason. There were too many staff members milling about.
No, she needed somewhere that was easily accessible but a little more private.
After a few minutes of thought, she came up with the perfect place.
* * *
“ D ETECTIVE !”
Annja had been waiting in the underground garage beneath the police station for the past half hour. The entrance
On screen, Tamás waited for the clamor to die down and then said, “I can answer a few brief questions.”
A reporter in the front row raised his hand and Tamás indicated that he should go ahead.
“Can you tell us what happened, Detective?”
“Both Miss Vass and Miss Polgár are students in Budapest. We believe they were traveling together when an argument broke out and Miss Polgár killed her companion in a fit of rage with a vicious blow to the head. At that point she stripped the body and pushed it over the side of a ridge to try to hide it. Unfortunately for her, another individual came along at that moment and Polgár was forced to improvise, pretending to assist with recovering the dying woman in order to throw law enforcement off her tracks.
“The victim received medical treatment upon arrival at the hospital here in Nové Mesto, but the doctor’s efforts were ultimately unsuccessful.”
“Is there an official cause of death yet, Detective?” a reporter asked.
“Yes. According to the medical examiner, the victim was struck in the back of the head with a blunt object. This caused massive internal hemorrhaging, which eventually led to her demise.”
Annja shook her head in disbelief. She’d held that woman in her arms and hadn’t noticed any such injury. Nor had the autopsy report mentioned anything even remotely similar.
What was going on here?
“Can you tell us who the third party is?” a reporter shouted, while another asked, “How do you know this other individual isn’t involved, as well?”
“I am not at liberty to reveal her identity at the moment. Her story checks out and we’re confident that she was being a Good Samaritan when she stopped to assist Miss Polgár and Miss Vass. If you want to speak to her, you’ll have to track her down yourselves.”
Gee, thanks, Detective, Annja thought. Now every journalist in Slovakia would be looking for her!
Hopefully, they would assume the so-called third party was a local and start there, giving her some time before she had to start dodging reporters. If not, she’d deal with it. Right now she needed to talk to Tamás. She
knew
Csilla was innocent, and now that Tamás had followed through with his half-witted theory, she felt an obligation to help the woman.
On screen, Tamás answered a few more questions and then ended the press conference, disappearing back into the police station. Annja thought about calling him, but every reporter in the country would be doing the same thing right about now, trying to get the inside scoop on the charges against the alleged killer. If she were Tamás, she’d have some of the rank and file taking the calls until things quieted down. She thought she could get through to him without too much trouble—she was, after all, a material witness in the investigation—but something told her she should do this in person. She wanted to see his face and gauge his reactions.
The question was how to get in a room with him without bringing the press down on her head. Going to the station didn’t seem like the smartest choice, as she had little doubt the media would be scrutinizing anyone who entered for the next several days. It wouldn’t be hard for an enterprising reporter to match her photograph with one of the publicity stills from the show and wind up wondering what the star of
Chasing History’s Monsters
was doing here. That would bring its own media frenzy and simply exacerbate the problem.
A meeting at her hotel—either in the restaurant or her room—was out of the question for the same reason. There were too many staff members milling about.
No, she needed somewhere that was easily accessible but a little more private.
After a few minutes of thought, she came up with the perfect place.
* * *
“ D ETECTIVE !”
Annja had been waiting in the underground garage beneath the police station for the past half hour. The entrance
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