Page 103 of Cold, Cold Bones
“For observation.”
I’d have rolled my eyes but knew it would hurt.
“I gotta ask.” Slidell’s tone was not quite gentle, but close. “You knock back a few last night?”
“What?!” Fine. As Katy would say, I’m an alkie. But it had been years since I’d had a drop. Why was booze everyone’s first assumption. “No!”
Slidell raised a hand, palm toward me. “I had to ask.”
No. You didn’t.
“Did I leave an iPhone in my car?” Curt.
“Call that number. Have them check.” Cocking his chin toward the paper. A beat, then, “Do you think the caller was Katy?”
“In retrospect, I don’t.”
“Could your hit-and-run vic be Katy?”
“No. The girl was small and rail thin.”Wasit a girl?
“Did you catch a plate number?”
“It was raining.”
“Get a take on the car?”
“Compact, nothing fancy. Nissan? Ford? Toyota?” Vehicular detail is not my strong suit.
“Got any inkling who clocked you? Or why?”
“No.”
“You think you were set up?”
“Of course I was set up!”
“Take a breath, Doc.”
I did. Said nothing, wondering if the woman on the phone had purposefully imitated Katy. Or if that read had been drama of my making. Either way, the call had been a trap.
“Any clue why suddenly you’re a walking target?” Slidell asked.
“No.”
“Know anyone who would want to injure, not kill, you?”
“No.”
“Suppose it’s connected to all that shit with your old cases?”
“Gee. That never occurred to me.” I knew I was being unkind to Slidell, but my head was hurting so he was taking the hit.
“Think about it,” he said.
I had thought about it. Had come up with only one hideous possibility.
“Katy is still missing,” I said after a brief silence.
