Snapped by Laura Griffin Page A

you doing there?”
    She crossed her legs. “Enrolling in classes.”
    “So, you’re a student?”
    “Just taking a few hours. I’m trying to beef up my résumé before September.”
    “What happens in September?”
    “The assistant director of public relations is leaving to have a baby,” Sophie said. “They’re going to need a replacement, and I want a chance to interview. Right now, my work experience doesn’t exactly get me there.”
    “What’s your work experience?” Allison put her pencil down. She didn’t really need this info, but it didn’t hurt to have a more complete picture of her interview subject. If this witness was credible, she stood to knock a hole the size of a barn door in this case.
    “Well, let’s see.” Sophie leaned back and drummed her manicured fingernails on the table. She had pretty hands. Of course, given that she also had a body to die for, hands probably weren’t the feature most detectives noticed about her. “There was a six-month stint atthe mall,” she said. “I graduated from peddling hair extensions to cell phones. Then I decided I might do better working for tips, so I waited tables at a nightclub in Dallas until I got my big break and started singing there. Only it wasn’t such a big break when the manager told me I needed to get down on my knees to collect my paycheck.”
    Allison looked at her, startled.
    “Don’t worry, he got busted soon after that.”
    “For sexual harassment?” That was a tough charge to prove.
    “Back child support,” Sophie said. “
Then
I went to work for the woman who busted him. She was a PI with a specialty in computer crime and deadbeat dads. That was my first real office job. Then I followed Alex here—”
    “I’m sorry, Alex is …?”
    “The private investigator. Alexandra Lovell. She’s a genius with computers, so Delphi recruited her for the cyber crimes lab, and she was nice enough to get me my first gig here, which was working in the accounting office as a file clerk.
Extremely
boring, if you want to know the truth. But the pay was good, so I wasn’t complaining. Plus, I didn’t have to spend a lot of money on clothes then. The dress code gets stricter the closer you get to the front door, as you can see.” She gestured to her black linen dress and patent-leather slingbacks. “And then the receptionist left. I’m much better with people than filing, so I interviewed and got
this
job, which I’ve had for the past year. That enough background?”
    Allison looked down at her blank notebook page. She didn’t have time to write it all, so she’d have to rememberit. She glanced at the clock on the wall and realized Sophie Barrett had just seamlessly eaten up half of their interview time. Intentional or not? Allison wasn’t sure, but she was annoyed with herself for letting it happen.
    “Okay, so … you were on campus Wednesday. What time did you arrive?”
    “About twelve twenty-five.” She smiled. “I spotted the open parking space at twelve-thirty.”
    “You’re sure about that?”
    “Absolutely.”
    They walked through the next critical minutes, step by step, from the time the driver of a green VW allegedly took Sophie’s spot until the first rifle shot rang out. Allison made careful notes—not just of the events as they were being told to her but of Sophie’s mannerisms.
    “And did you get a good look at the driver?”
    “I didn’t see much,” she said. “It was only a glimpse.”
    “Okay, what about the car? Any other details you didn’t mention?”
    Sophie’s gaze moved up and to the right, which according to body language experts meant the subject was recalling a fact, not constructing a lie—assuming Sophie was right-handed, which Allison knew from watching her sign for the delivery a few minutes ago. Of course, it also assumed the shrinks who wrote those textbooks weren’t full of crap. Allison had her suspicions.
    “Like I said, a dark green VW. An old-model Beetle.”
    “What