Doyle and Amanda silently ate salads at Rafferty’s in Nisswa. Doyle wasn’t very happy with how things were going, and not just with the bland veggies he was munching on. The whole case stunk. They’d been making progress on Wilde’s murder. The bite marks on his thighs, the provocative photos, the threatening note on their motel door, the kidnapping of Eva—all of it made it feel like they were getting close.
Now, with William’s stabbing and Eva tossed into the woods, it felt like the whole Wilde case was getting sidetracked.
Doyle stopped eating. He was staring at the lettuce leaf at the end of his fork.
“Something wrong?” asked Amanda.
Doyle dropped the fork on to the table with a loud clank. “She faked it,” he said.
“Who?”
“Eva. She faked the whole thing,” he said, shaking his head.
“That’s what I figured,” said Amanda. “I was just waiting for you to come to that same conclusion.”
“You were?” asked Doyle.
“She’s an actress, but she’s not that good an actress. All that ‘William, are you there?’ nonsense when she ‘awoke’ was just ridiculous.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” asked Doyle.
“Well, when you slapped her, I assumed you already knew. I mean, that’s a clever way to snap her out of her role. But now I realize that you had no clue, which suggests we really need to go over standard medical response procedures.”
Doyle shrugged his shoulders. “Eh?”
“What finally clued you in?” asked Amanda.
“Well, the fact that there was blood all over her trailer, but no discernible injury on her body. For her to bleed that much, there’d have to be visible lacerations somewhere.” Amanda nodded.
“And all of this conveniently makes her look innocent,” said Doyle.
“So you think she’s guilty? You think she killed Wilde?”
“I do,” said Doyle.
“If I had to take a guess, she probably staged her trailer incident first, drove to our hotel to post the note … somewhere in that time, she most likely called the police and reported a disturbance in one of the trailers in Nisswa Park. That would leave plenty of time for the police to investigate and set up a perimeter. Then, after they have it blocked off, she sneaks in through the woods, drops to the ground, and waits for someone to see her.”
“Whose blood is in her trailer?” asked Amanda.
Doyle thought about it. “I really have no idea.”
“Do you think she acted alone?”
“Could’ve. I still don’t know why she would have killed Wilde, unless it was somehow related to the photographs, or simply a relationship gone horribly wrong.”
“Do you think she stabbed William?”
Doyle shook his head. “No, that wouldn’t make any sense. She wouldn’t take the chance of being seen like that, especially when the police were conducting a search for her. Someone else did that.”
“But who, and why?” asked Amanda. “Either it was a random stabbing, or someone was working with her.”
“Or against her,” said Doyle.
“That could be,” said Amanda. “But if it’s someone working with her, then we better get to the hospital.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because if Eva wants William dead, then she has the perfect opportunity right now. They’re at the hospital together.”
“Oh, shit.”
“Indeed.”
“Hey, that Mike Cameron is there, too, isn’t he?”
“He is. Hopefully he’ll be willing to talk to us, too. But first, we better make sure that William’s okay.” Doyle nodded.
Amanda was about to stand up, but Doyle grabbed her hand. She sat back down.
“Yes?”
“Will you stick close to me? I can’t imagine what I’d do if you got stabbed like William.”
“That’s very sweet, Doyle. Don’t worry, I know how to protect myself.
I’m a cop, you know. But I’ll still stick close to you.” Doyle gently patted her hand. “Good. Thank you.” She smiled at him.
“All right, let’s go save William’s life from his ex-wife.”
“Sounds like a plan,” said Amanda.
Doyle threw a few bills onto the table and within seconds they were heading down the highway.