"Anything at all?"
"I called him last night and just tried to strike up with the usual small talk, but he mainly wanted to talk about the record company and all that stuff. We're trying to find the right studio in Nashville. The record company wants one and he wants another."
"Imagine that," John said sarcastically. "A manager only wanting to talk business."
"I know. Just didn't want to press the issue and make him suspect anything."
"Good move."
"I did, however, get him to say that he was in the area that week. The week Michael died."
"He say why or who he was with?"
"No. He just mentioned the heat and how humid it was. He didn't even offer why he was down this way. I guess he knew I would thin it had something to do with music."
"Anything else?"
"He asked about you."
John smiled.
"He wanted to know if you were still on the case." Tammy said and then paused. "And then he said something strange."
"What was that?"
"He said that he thought you would have been scared off by now." She took a bite of her doughnut and wiped away the white powder from the corner of her mouth.
"That is strange," John agreed.
"And then he kind of chuckled."
John knew what he meant. He was admitting that he had been trying to scare him off with gunshots and threats. "He chuckled?"
"Sort of. I don't know how to explain it. You know how when you're talking over the phone to someone and they yawn?"
John nodded.
"Well, it was like that. You don't actually hear the yawn, but you can tell the person's doing it."
"I got you," John said.
Tammy crossed her legs. She was wearing jeans, cut tight but not overly so, and a white blouse. John found everything about her to be so easy and simple that it was overwhelmingly attractive to him.
"What now boss?"
"I talked with Frank," John started. "Lieutenant Frank Grimm."
She nodded and snuck another bite.
"He gave me these pictures."
Tammy took the photographs John handed to her. He sat back down with a glazed doughnut. "This is from the other night," she said while thumbing through the six pictures.
"Notice anything?"
"This is Hank."