Tonight I Said Goodbye (St. Martin's Minotaur Mystery) by Michael Koryta

digital camera to the computer. They were pretty decent shots, showing a good angle of the cars as well as shots with a tight zoom on each license plate. The green Oldsmobile had a South Carolina plate.
    "He's come a long way to watch the Russians," I said to Joe. "Must be about something important."
    "The car's come a long way," Joe said. "Doesn't mean the driver came with it."
    Once the photographs had been uploaded, I e-mailed them to Amy, and Joe printed out a few copies. Then we returned to Brecksville.
    We spent half an hour combing houses. Everyone regarded us with suspicion, and everyone denied having seen the Navigator. After the fourth house, Joe began showing them photographs of the green Oldsmobile, too.
    "Why not?" he told me. "As long as we've got the photographs, it doesn't hurt to ask."
    It didn't hurt. Five houses later, a woman who lived opposite theWestons and a few houses down nodded her head as soon as she saw the Oldsmobile.
    "Well, sure," she said. "He's a police officer."
    "A police officer?" Joe said.
    She smiled. "Yes. He came around yesterday, asking about the same type of questions as you. Wanted to know what cars we'd noticed, all that type of thing. We really didn't have anything to tell him, though." She looked at us sadly. "It's so tragic. The little girl was so sweet."
    "This officer," I said, "did he give you his name?"
    She squinted, trying to remember. "Davis, maybe? Davidson? Something like that. He had a badge, though. He showed it to me."
    We thanked her and walked back down the driveway. Joe kicked at a few pebbles in the street, and we stood with our backs to the house.
    "No Cleveland cops are driving little Oldsmobiles," he said. "It's an Alero, for crying out loud. That's not a department-issued car. No antennas on it, even."
    "You know of any detective named Davis or Davidson?"
    "Nope."
    "Me neither. Looks like we've got a fake."
    He nodded and gazed back across the street, at the Westons' house. "What we've got is an unknown third party," he said. "Could be significant."
    We finished up the block and talked to two more neighbors who'd been visited by "Detective Davis" the previous day. They'd all seen a badge, but he hadn't been in uniform, and he hadn't been one of the cops they'd talked to in the early days of the investigation.
    It was dark by the time we left. Joe wanted dinner, but I made him drive back to the office first. I wanted to call Amy and ask if she'd seen the photographs. It was late, but Amy typically went to work late in the morning and stayed until the early evening hours. I caught her at her desk.
    "That's the SUV," she said immediately.
    "You're sure?"
    "Absolutely. Those fancy alloy wheels stand out." I could hear keys clicking on her keyboard as she typed furiously. "You have any idea what their tie to Weston is yet?"
    "No, but I do have another favor to ask."
    "I don't know, Lincoln. My car's still in the body shop from the last favor I did you."
    "Okay," I said casually. "That's fine. I don't blame you. Well, I'd better be going, but thanks for checking the photographs."
    "Wait, wait, wait," she said, and I grinned. "I was just giving you a hard time, Perry, don't freak out about it. What do you need me to do?"
    "You know who Jeremiah Hubbard is?" I asked.
    "Of course."
    "Good. I want to know everything he's been up to in the last six months. He's in the paper pretty regularly, but I want to know why, when, and who he was involved with."
    The typing on her end of the line stopped. "You think Hubbard's got something to do with Weston?"
    "He might."
    "Lincoln," she said, "you've
got
to give me this story."
    I sighed. "Amy, we've been over this a thousand times. It would be very bad for business if I kept turning confidential cases over to you. I know you want a good story, but I can't do that."
    "Bastard. Oh, well. As long as you keep me updated." The typing resumed again. "I'll check it out and get back to you."
    As I hung up someone rapped loudly on the