The One That Got Away by Simon Wood Page A

you tell me what you were doing between 10:00 p.m. and midnight?”
    “Just hitting a bar,” she said and instantly regretted the answer. “Ferdinand’s.”
    He nodded at her dress. “With friends?”
    She was slow to answer. “No.”
    “Alone?”
    She nodded.
    She watched his expression change as he tried to work that one out. She willed him not to press the subject. She had information that would help their investigation. It didn’t matter that she’d gone barhopping alone; she could help them find a killer. Thankfully, Greening heeded her mental urging and let the subject die.
    “Can anyone confirm you were at Ferdinand’s at that time?”
    She was sure Rick Sobona and a few others could provide her with an alibi, but not the kind she needed right now. “It was busy. I doubt anyone would remember me.”
    “So, you were having a night on the town and you just happened across the crime scene.”
    More credibility testing , she thought. “No, I was in the bar and I saw it on the news. The second I did, I made the connection and came down.”
    “What connection?”
    “The person who killed this woman tonight is the same person who killed my friend Holli and . . . abducted me.”
    “What makes you think that tonight’s events are linked to your own?”
    Christ, isn’t the scar enough? He was testing her. If he’d checked her out, he knew what had happened to her. She guessed she’d have to jump through his hoops. “The news reported the woman was naked and suspended by her wrists. That was what he did to Holli.”
    An image of Holli hanging from that damn hook flashed through her mind. Now another woman was dead, and this time, in the city where she lived. The status quo had been broken. Her future was uncertain because her safety was uncertain.
    She suddenly became aware of Greening’s gaze on her. It was sympathetic, but she didn’t feel any less uncomfortable under its weight.
    “Tell me about your abduction, Ms. Sutton,” Greening said.
    Another cop, another retelling , she thought. Besides Jarocki, it seemed police were the only people who ever heard this story. She wasn’t sure if it was the booze overtaking the waning adrenaline in her system, but a sudden wave of lightheadedness washed over her. She asked Greening for some water.
    When he left to get it, she took the moment to compose herself. She needed to do this.
    Greening returned with a bottle and cracked the top before handing it to her.
    She unscrewed the cap and drank. The water touched her somewhere inside that produced a shiver.
    “OK, Ms. Sutton, I’ve spoken to the Mono County Sheriffs, and I have the bare bones of what happened, but I’d like you to walk me through it. You and Ms. Buckner had gone to Vegas.”
    Zoë was silent for a minute. She felt the weight of Greening on her as she steadied herself against the past before speaking.
    “Holli and I had driven there for a long weekend. We drove back on Sunday. The AC in my car wasn’t all that great, so we set off late. We stopped at this little town to get something to eat. That’s when he abducted us.”
    She found it a little easier to say the A-word this time around.
    “And this was in Mono County?”
    Zoë went silent again.
    “Ms. Sutton?”
    Her hands balled into fists.
    “Zoë?”
    She smashed her fists on the table, toppling the bottle of water onto its side. “I don’t know,” she bellowed. “I don’t know, OK? It happened. I don’t know where. I don’t know when. And I don’t know with whom.”
    Zoë saw the shock and surprise on Greening’s face and regretted her outburst. It made her look unstable. And just to underline her mistake, it was all on tape for everyone to see. She could almost feel Jarocki’s disapproval at her display.
    “It’s OK, Ms. Sutton. There’s no need to get upset. We’re just talking.”
    “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to fly off the handle. I just remember so little from that night, and it pisses me off.