Page 51 of Innocent Intent

“Ms. Wright, I presume.”

“Yes. Who are you?”

“Detective Davis with Atlanta PD. I’d like to ask you a few questions if that’s okay.”

She glared at him. “Do I have to?”

Davis glanced at Cassidy to make sure she didn’t intervene and quietly shook his head. “No, you don’t, but I would appreciate it if you did. You’re not in any trouble, and the questions are about someone you know, not necessarily about you.”

“Atlanta PD. That means you don’t have jurisdiction here, right?”

Davis smirked and shrugged. “Depends on the situation. But for now, let’s just consider this officially unofficial.” His eyes subtly shifted to Cassidy before he continued. “I’d like to ask you about Niles Anderson.”

“Niles Anderson. I don’t know that name.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, why? Should I? Did he say he knows me?”

Cassidy spoke up. “Not exactly. Niles is dead now, so you’ll have to take our word for it, but you knew him or at least one of his aliases. Possibly not that one, but you had dinner with us years ago. You and your husband.”

Her expression revealed an overwhelming sense of irritation. “I’m not married, so that can’t be true.”

“Well, maybe not, but you pretended to be. To a guy named Jake.”

Recognition flashed on her face. She remembered.

“You’re the wife. That doctor he was engaged to.”

“Yes, that was me.”

“I remember now. He paid me five grand to pretend we knew him.”

“You and Jake?”

“Yes.”

“And you didn’t?”

“No. Never seen the guy before. He showed up at an acting class that Jake and I took evenings at a community college. Asked if we wanted to make some extra cash.” She shrugged. “I needed the money.”

“And you didn’t think about the consequences of lying to someone? Lying to me?” Cassidy screeched.

“What I was thinking about was that my rent was due. Seemed harmless. It was only dinner.”

“It wasn’t harmless,” Cassidy hissed, lunging forward. Davis managed to insert himself between the two women before Cassidy made matters worse.

“Was at the time. We didn’t do anything wrong. There’s no law against pretending to be someone you’re not. Right, Detective? We didn’t commit a crime.”

Davis shook his head. “No, you didn’t. However, you did help a criminal convince someone of a false identity where he committed a crime. More or less an accessory.”

It was a stretch but worth the threat if that got what he needed from her.

“Not my problem. He paid, and I played the part. I didn’t commit a crime.”

Cassidy scoffed. “Right, and rent got paid.”

“You’re damn right it did. And if you have a problem with that, take it up with him.” Zoey argued back defensively.

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