Playing With Love (Hollow Point #3)

CHAPTER EIGHT

It was late when I pulled in front of Liza’s hotel to drop her off.

A day that should’ve been easy—checking in with Allyson, talking to her in a place where she felt comfortable in hopes she’d give us more intel—had turned into a four-hour visit. The first hour of that had been eaten up by Liza having to calm Allyson down. Not only was she freaked, she was mourning the loss of a friend. The next hour had been consumed by Allyson ranting and lamenting her guilt about not knowing what was going on around her. Liza had deftly guided Allyson beyond that, whereupon we spent the last two hours learning everything we could from Allyson, with Jessica sitting next to her sister offering quiet support. By the time we wrapped up the visit, Jessica’s support had morphed into relief when Allyson declared she was moving back to Georgia.

Before we left TC, Liza and Nick worked on Liza’s cover. After some back and forth with a man named Sammy who worked with Liza, (a man I and the rest of my team called “Sam.” No man who was no longer in grade school, and had a voice as deep as Sam’s wanted to be called Sammy. But if he did, he didn’t correct any of us when we didn’t use the name, and actually sounded relieved to be addressed as Sam) it was decided Sam would craft the cover with Dylan’s help. That call had lasted forty-five minutes.