Authors: Allison Brennan,Laura Griffin
She stayed in a hotel on her daddy’s credit card for a few days while she figured out what she wanted to do with her life. Enjoy the city. Visit a couple museums. Eat good food.
He couldn’t lose. Not after five perfect murders.
The trunk was silent, but he still didn’t relax. Three cars remained in front of his. They each slowed to a roll, were waved through, and then disappeared onto the bridge.
He rolled, slowed, and one of the cops waved him through. He pressed the gas pedal.
A piercing scream came from the trunk.
He froze. He wanted to press the gas to the floor, find a hole to drive through, keep going until he drove off the bridge. Ending his life, and the life of the girl in the trunk.
Maybe they hadn’t heard her.
He glanced at the two cops. They were walking quickly toward him. Their guns were already in their hands.
“Sir! Keep your hands where we can see them!”
Instead of fleeing, Adam put his hands on the steering wheel and forced himself not to cry.
II.
Present Day
“Tenacious bitch!”
Maxine Revere stood in the doorway of Ben’s office while he finished his conversation with the New York City district attorney.
Max took the D.A.’s verbal attack as if it were a compliment. After all, she had a love/hate relationship with him. In fact, she had a love/hate relationship with most of the people in her life.
“Yes, she is,” Ben concurred, putting his finger to his lips as he leaned over his speakerphone. “I’ll give her the good news. Thank you, Richard.”
He pressed the
off
button before the DA could change his mind—or Max could give him a piece of
her
mind.
Ben’s huge grin threatened to swallow him. He jumped out of his chair and squeezed her arm as he grabbed his blazer off the coat rack.
“I don’t know what you said to him, Max, but it worked.”
“It was as much you as me,” she told her producer. She’d played hardball with Richard and Ben played Mr. Nice Guy; between them, they got exactly what she wanted. An interview with Adam Bachman, the twenty-seven year old bartender on trial for five murders.
“You’ll have twenty minutes,” he said as they walked to the elevator. The
Maximum Exposure
offices occupied half the eighteenth floor of a skyscraper on the Avenue of the Americas south of the heart of Times Square. “Make them count.”
She didn’t respond to his comment, too energized about this interview to be irritated over Ben’s habitual lecture. She’d been maneuvering for time alone with Bachman ever since she figured out that the missing person’s case she’d been investigating since last summer followed the same pattern as Bachman’s killing spree.
Max was covering the trial for the station’s news programming. She’d been NET’s on-site reporter for several high profile trials. NET wasn’t CNN or FOX, but they were making a name for themselves. They’d exclusively been an Internet news show until three years ago, shortly before Max joined them. Now, while 75% of their programming related directly to up-to-the-minute news, they featured several original daily, weekly and monthly programming including Max’s true crime show
Maximum Exposure
, which Ben produced. She liked that NET was independent and run by a close-knit family who all had sharp business sense.
“No cameras,” Ben said as he pounded the down button several times, as if the repeated motion would make the door open faster. “But you can record it.”
“And that makes you mad,” Max said. She was teasing Ben, but he’d have done the same to her. Max didn’t care half as much about the visual, not with this case. She’d been fighting for this interview for too long to quibble over the details. Months of talking — with the D.A., the defense lawyer, cops, the victim’s families, everyone she could get access to, but not the killer himself.
Until now. Exclusive. Just her. One-on-one, pen, paper and an audio recorder. An old—fashioned interview. Because, as the DA had said, she was a tenacious bitch.
“Get him to agree to go on camera after the trial,” Ben said. He peered at his reflection in the shiny metal elevator doors and adjusted his tie. Such a Yuppie, she thought. “A follow-up after he’s convicted.”
Max glanced at Ben as the elevator doors opened and interrupted his preening. “Innocent until proven guilty,” she said as they stepped inside. They were the only people. The doors swished closed behind them.
“You don’t for a minute believe that bastard didn’t kill those people.”
She’d seen some of the evidence, enough to believe the prosecution had a solid case. But she was a reporter first and foremost; she wanted the truth out, no matter what. And while her instincts told her New York’s finest had caught the right guy, anything could happen.
“He’s not going to admit his guilt to me the morning his trial begins,” she said. “I’ll push for the follow-up, but these twenty minutes were hard-fought.”
“If you wanted it you could get it,” Ben mumbled.
She laughed. “I love that you have such confidence in me.”
“NET will be set up to do a live interview with you during the court’s lunch break,” Ben said. “What happened the first morning of the Bachman trial, yada yada, then again when court recesses for the evening. They’d like you to post comments on your Twitter feed.”
“No can do—I told you the judge’s rules.” The judge had met with lawyers and reporters Friday afternoon about trial conduct. While court was in session, there would be no social media posts from inside the courtroom or the reporter would be banned for the duration of the trial. Commentary would be allowed only during official court breaks. “No electronics inside at all. If you need me, call David or Riley.”
“Where
is
Riley?” Ben asked. He sounded irritated, but it was his usual demeanor when he couldn’t immediately order someone to do something. Though he hadn’t liked Riley Butler when Max first hired her last month, the Columbia grad quickly earned her way into his good graces. Ben cared about two things: competence and speed. He expect the job to be done well, and to be done fast. Riley had picked up on that immediately and ingratiated herself with Ben in less than a week. A new record.
Max just wished her right hand man David felt the same.
“I sent her on an errand. I’m picking her up on the way to the courthouse.”
He glanced at his watch. “Isn’t that cutting it close?”
“It’s important.” She had Riley doing a bit of undercover work with Bachman’s former friends and neighbors. She didn’t want to go into the details with Ben because he didn’t like that she’d been sending Riley out into the field. Ben felt an office assistant should be in the
office
assisting
.
Max countered that an office assistant should be
assisting
in whatever needed to be done. If said assistant could take care of basic footwork, that gave Max more time with research and interviews—and more time to write.
The elevator doors opened. They stepped out and headed toward the exit. Voices echoed in the cavernous lobby, so Ben lowered his voice. “Are you going to ask him about the partner?”
“Of course.” She caught Ben’s eye. “Why?”
“I kind of told Richard that you weren’t pursuing that line of inquiry,” he said, clearing his voice at the end.
“Why would you say that? You
know
that’s the primary reason I wanted this interview.”
“I thought you wanted to find out if he killed the Palazzolo’s.”
“I know Bachman was part of their disappearance; I want proof. And you damn well know that I’ve been working on this killing pair theory for months.”
“When you’re not flying down to Miami to annoy your ex, or flying off to California to screw your lover.”
“Screw you,” she said. Sometimes, Ben acted like the little brother she never had. “You had no
right
telling Rich I’d dropped that theory. I’ll ask Bachman whatever I damn well please.”
COMPULSION coming out in hardcover, ebook, and audio in April, 2015
Also: NOTORIOUS, the first book in the Max Revere series, is available in hardcover and e-book now, and in mass market December 30, 2014!
http://www.lauragriffin.com/books/
BEYOND LIMITS (2015)
FAR GONE
EXPOSED
SCORCHED
TWISTED
SNAPPED
UNFORGIVABLE
UNSPEAKABLE
UNTRACEABLE
WHISPER OF WARNING
THREAD OF FEAR
ONE WRONG STEP
ONE LAST BREATH
New York Times and USA Today
bestselling author Laura Griffin
started her career in journalism before venturing into the world of romantic suspense. She is a two-time RITA Award winner (for the books SCORCHED and WHISPER OF WARNING) as well as the recipient of the Daphne du Maurier Award (for UNTRACEABLE). Laura currently lives in Austin, where she is working on her next book.
For more information, visit Laura’s website:
http://www.lauragriffin.com
Coming in 2015
NOTORIOUS (mass market, January)
COMPULSION (April)
UNTITLED LUCY #9 (Summer)
NOTORIOUS
DEAD HEAT
COLD SNAP
STOLEN
STALKED
SILENCED
IF I SHOULD DIE
KISS ME, KILL ME
LOVE ME TO DEATH
CARNAL SIN
ORIGINAL SIN
CUTTING EDGE
FATAL SECRETS
SUDDEN DEATH
PLAYING DEAD
TEMPTING EVIL
KILLING FEAR
FEAR NO EVIL
SEE NO EVIL
SPEAK NO EVIL
THE KILL
THE HUNT
THE PREY
New York Times
bestseller and award winning author Allison Brennan has written twenty-four books and numerous short stories. She lives in Northern California with her husband Dan and their five children. You can learn more about her books at
http://allisonbrennan.com
.