Stalked by Allison Brennan

DeLucca.” She answered. “What do you have?”
    â€œJust met with the faculty advisor for Weber’s research assistant. Up to interviewing the kid and grabbing all her research?”
    â€œWhen and where?”
    â€œButler Library, twenty minutes.”
    â€œThirty.” She hung up and turned to Tony. “Why don’t you join me?”
    *   *   *
    It was just past noon when Suzanne and Tony met up with DeLucca outside of Butler Library at Columbia University. Suzanne introduced the two men.
    DeLucca said, “Weber brings on a research assistant for each project through the university’s grad program. Prof Duncan Cleveland is the faculty advisor for the program. It’s a win-win for the student—they get a stipend and college credit. Weber’s current assistant is Kip Todd, and Cleveland says he’ll be here. He has a small office on the sixth floor.”
    â€œWhat do we know about him?” she asked as they walked up the wide steps to the main entrance.
    â€œGrad student, got his undergrad in Buffalo in English Lit with a minor in communications. The victim picked him from nineteen applicants to be her assistant—according to Cleveland, she was demanding but fair, and liked to mentor.”
    â€œWe should talk to her former assistants,” Tony said.
    DeLucca opened the heavy door and Suzanne stepped into the air-conditioned foyer. The cool air raised bumps on her skin. “I have the list. One is in the city; one has relocated. Kip Todd is her third.”
    â€œI thought she was working on her fourth book?” Suzanne asked.
    â€œShe wrote the first book while she was working as a reporter in Newark. Sex, Lies, and Family Secrets.” DeLucca rolled his eyes.
    Tony said, “Unfortunately, I’m very familiar with that case.”
    â€œSuzi said you were one of the investigators.”
    Suzanne punched DeLucca in the arm. She hated when he called her Suzi in public.
    Tony stopped them and said quietly, “Have you identified the ‘RB’ Weber wrote she was meeting the night she was killed?”
    â€œI have uniforms checking them out right now.”
    Suzanne said, “Tony thinks it was a setup, that the killer used the meeting to get her alone.”
    â€œSeems too dumb,” DeLucca said. “Too easy to trace.”
    â€œMeaning,” Tony said, “that the killer isn’t the RB she was supposed to meet.”
    DeLucca considered his theory. “I can see that. But how would the meet be set up? Wouldn’t she recognize the voice? There were no e-mails on her hard drive, though I have techs going through deleted messages now.”
    â€œAny of the RBs on your list affiliated with the Cinderella Strangler investigation?”
    â€œYes,” DeLucca said, pulling out his notepad. “Rob Banker. He was the lead reporter covering the investigation for the Times and according to Detective Panetta, he seemed to have inside information.”
    â€œA leak from NYPD,” Suzanne said.
    DeLucca shot her a nasty glance, but she didn’t care. He had called her “Suzi.”
    â€œWherever the information came from, he had it,” DeLucca said. “The other three don’t appear to have any direct involvement with that case.”
    â€œA fellow reporter—I can see Weber meeting him in a parking lot,” Tony said.
    â€œHe lives in Queens—not far from Citi Field. But why would he set her up?”
    â€œI don’t think he did—I think the killer used his name.”
    â€œToo many what-ifs,” DeLucca said. He pulled out his phone. “I’ll check him out myself, as soon as we’re done here.”
    He sent a message, then pocketed his phone. “We can’t find Weber’s phone, but she uses a digital planner that she backed up on her computer. The last back-up was two nights before she was murdered, and there was no scheduled