Stalked by Allison Brennan Page A

meeting.”
    â€œWhat was her last appointment?” Tony asked.
    â€œThe morgue,” DeLucca said. “She made a notation to pick up files. We checked with the staff, and she’d filed an FOIA for the official autopsy reports of all Cinderella Strangler victims.”
    â€œI talked to Panetta this morning,” DeLucca continued, “and she’s been hounding him. He keeps sending her to you, Suz, since it became an FBI case when your SWAT team took out the suspect. She’d pulled the initial police reports of each Cinderella Strangler victim from the responding precinct.”
    Tony said, “I’m going to talk to the librarian and ask them to pull the archived manuscripts and catch up with you.”
    Suzanne and Joe went up to the sixth floor and asked for directions at the information desk to Cleveland’s grad student office. They found Kip Todd sitting at a table with several books open in front of him. He was twenty-six, attractive, blond. By the way his legs were folded under the table, he was at least six feet tall and rail thin. He glanced up when they entered, surprise in his eyes.
    â€œMr. Todd? Detective DeLucca, NYPD, and Special Agent Madeaux, FBI. We have a few questions about your employer.”
    He blinked rapidly, then sighed. “I’m still in shock.” He closed his books after marking his place. “Professor Cleveland said you’d probably want to talk to me.”
    Suzanne sat across from Kip while Joe stood. “You spent a lot of time with her. Whatever you know may be helpful in finding out who killed her,” Suzanne said.
    â€œI really liked Rosemary. She was tough, but I learned so much.”
    â€œYou were her assistant for the book she was currently researching?”
    â€œThe Cinderella Strangler—” His eyes widened. “You’re Suzanne Madeaux. Oh, wow. Rosemary really wanted to talk to you. She said without you her book wouldn’t happen.”
    â€œThen it wouldn’t have happened.”
    Kip looked at her quizzically.
    Suzanne said, “It’s up to my boss’s boss, and they usually assign a media rep to work on these things.”
    Joe said, “Did you know who she was supposed to meet at Citi Field last night?”
    Kip shook his head. “I didn’t know anything about the meeting, but that’s not strange. She assigned me specific projects.”
    â€œLike?”
    â€œShe had me pulling records. Do you realize that four different morgues handled the victims and the suspect, depending on where they were killed?”
    â€œI’m aware,” Suzanne said.
    â€œThat’s a lot of groundwork. Then verifying all the information—Rosemary was a stickler for details. Everything had to be verified and reverified.”
    â€œWhere were you Tuesday?”
    â€œTuesday I went to the Jacobi Medical Center, in the Bronx. Yesterday, before I knew she was killed, I was taking pictures outside of the suspect’s art gallery.”
    Joe asked, “What about Rob Banker?”
    â€œThe Times reporter? They were friends.”
    â€œWas he consulting on this particular book?”
    â€œShe talked to him about it. I wasn’t part of those conversations.”
    Suzanne asked, “Did you or Ms. Weber contact anyone involved in the Cinderella Strangler case who seemed agitated or angry about the prospect of their lives being dragged through the mud?”
    â€œRosemary handles these situations carefully. She’s very fair. Have you read her books?”
    â€œNo,” Suzanne said. And she didn’t want to, though she thought she might have to now. Lucy was reading them; maybe Suzanne could rely on her analysis.
    Joe asked, “Did you go with Ms. Weber on the interviews?”
    â€œShe hasn’t even gotten that far. She sent preliminary communications to the key people in the case—like you,” he said to Suzanne, “and Detective Panetta,