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Dan, who must have been admiring more of his nephew’s deepfake videos for he was looking at his phone and chuckling softly before himself, took off his reading glasses and rubbed his eyes. “What is it?”

“The article about Rose Wimmer. Did you approve it?”

“What article? What are you talking about?”

“It’s on the website, Dan!”

“Is it?” When she practically shoved her phone in the man’s face, and after he’d put his glasses back on and peered at it for a moment, his face cleared. “Oh, now I remember. Great piece of writing, Odelia. Excellent stuff. Who would have thought the daughter did it, eh?”

She gritted her teeth, having to fight back the urge to hit her editor over the head with her phone.“I didn’t write this, Dan. Kimberley did.”

A look of confusion mantled the man’s features. “She did? Well, I’ll be damned.”

“This was my story, Dan. My case and my story. So why did Kimberly—”

“I wrote the story because you wouldn’t,” suddenly a voice spoke in Odelia’s ear. Her junior colleague had silently opened the door and walked in.

Odelia whirled around.“What are you talking about?”

“It was obvious to me that you were protecting Rose Wimmer, and when I heard what happened I decided to write the story you wouldn’t.” When Odelia just stared at her, Kimberly passed by Odelia, placed both hands on Dan’s desk and said, “I told you this would happen, Dan. I warned you. That’s what you get when a reporter starts taking on clients. Her priorities get scrambled, her allegiances blurred. Instead of writing a killer piece on this girl’s murderous tendencies she wasn’t going to write a single thing. Instead she’d probably have written a piece to defend the murderous wench.”

“You snuck behind my back!” said Odelia. “Talked to cops who had no business divulging this kind of information. Rose Wimmer may very well be innocent—or not—but it’s not up to us to give her a trial by media. She is still innocent until proven guilty, or didn’t they teach you that incollege?”

But Kimberly stuck her chin in the air and faced off against Odelia.“I think you should decide once and for all if you’re a reporter or a private detective, Odelia. Because it’s obvious to me that you can’t be both. What do you think, Dan?”

“Yeah, what do you think, Dan!” said Odelia, who’d crossed her arms in front of her chest and had raised her voice.

The aged editor scratched his scalp with a pencil.“Ladies, ladies,” he said, trying to defuse the situation.

“Look, I can’t work like this,” said Odelia. “This is not the kind of behavior I expected from a colleague.”

“At least I’ve got my priorities straight,” said Kimberly. “The paper always comes first.”

“Oh, please,” said Odelia. “You have no idea what’s going on here—no idea at all.”

“I think you’re the one who’s floating around in space, completely untethered from reality,” her young colleague countered. “You still think Rose Wimmer is innocent, don’t you? Pretty little innocent Rose. Well let me break the news to you, Odelia. She’s not. Your little friend is a cold-blooded vicious killer who’s murdered twice now, and we owe it to the public to make sure that they know all about it.”

“Dan?” said Odelia. “Say something.”

“Um…” said Dan, clearly out of his depth.

“Oh, for crying out loud,” said Odelia, and said, “You know what? It’s obvious to me that you want my job. Well, you can have it.”

“No, but…” said Kimberly, frowning.

Odelia then turned to Dan.“I quit!”

“Wait, what?” said Dan, his eyes widening.

“Odelia, I didn’t mean to…” Kimberly began.

“Yes, you did,” said Odelia, and stalked out, then slammed the door—hard.

It was only when she’d stepped out of the office and was out on the street that she realized what she’d just done.

She’d quit her job!

Chapter 29

It took us a while to find Odelia but we finally found her in the park, sitting on a bench, and looking a little shell-shocked.

“What happened?” I asked. “We dropped by the office but you weren’t there. Dan looked like a bomb had just dropped on his head.”

“I quit,” she said. “I quit my job, you guys, and now I don’t know what to do.”

“But why?” I asked. “I thought you liked that job.”

“I do. But Kimberly stole my article, and then she accused me of neglecting my duties to the Gazette and instead going off gallivanting around town trying to save Rose, even though she’s obviously guilty. And Dan, instead of standing up for me, seemed to take Kimberley’s side, so I told him Iquit.”

“Kimberly stole your scoop?”

“She did. She knew I was working on that article on Dino Wimmer’s death and she purposely went into the precinct to interview officers connected to the case and wrote the story. And Dan hadn’t even noticed! Or seemed to care,” she added with a touch of bitterness.

“I’m sure that if you just talk things through with Dan…”

“I’m never speaking to that man again,” she said. “He’s chosen his side. He’s got Kimberly now. He doesn’t need me anymore.”

I smiled. She looked so much like a kicked puppy I would have stroked her head if I’d been a little taller.