Page 87 of Sting

“Most of the blood on your clothes must be Kinnard’s because it’s fresh. But some of those stains aren’t that recent. Bolden’s?”

She glanced down at her front, closed her eyes briefly, and murmured, “He washed it off my face.”

“Come again?”

“I don’t remember it. I was still unconscious.”

“He knocked you unconscious?”

“I don’t remember that, either. He told me later. A tap, he said. When he stopped to switch license plates, he washed the blood spatters off my face.”

Joe and Hick exchanged another look, then Joe settled more comfortably into his front seat. “We’ve got a long drive ahead of us, Ms. Bennett. Why don’t we pass the time by you talking Agent Hickam and me through the past thirty-six hours, minute by minute. You don’t mind if I take notes, do you?” He held up Hick’s iPad, and she shook her head.

“Okay then…” Joe opened up a word processing app. “What were you doing in the bar? Why’d you go there Friday night?”

Her immediate response was a soft, but humorless laugh. It wasn’t the reaction Joe had expected. He peered at her over the seat and was aware of Hick suspiciously eyeing her in the rearview mirror.

Sensing their interest, she said, “You’re not the first to ask me that,” then after a pause, said, “I got a phone call, directing me to that place.”

“Call from who?”

“I don’t know.”

“Your brother Josh?”

“If it was Josh, I didn’t recognize his voice.”

“Could it have been Panella?”

“I suppose, but Mr. Kinnard didn’t think so. He said Panella was behind the hit, not my going to the bar. It was a surprise to him and Bolden when I showed up there.”

They went round and round about that unexplained call for five minutes or so, but she insisted she couldn’t identify the individual who’d summoned her to the bar.

“Mr. Kinnard didn’t believe me, either,” she said with obvious weariness.

Eventually Joe decided to let it go for now and asked her to move along to when she arrived at the bar.

In a drone virtually devoid of emotion or inflection, she related her story. Her description of the sequence of events coincided with the testimonies of witnesses, in particular Royce Sherman’s account.

Joe said, “You didn’t know him?”

“No.”

“He admitted to slipping something into your pocket. He said it was his phone number. That true?”

“I guess it was his number. I wasn’t aware that he’d given me anything until Sh— Mr. Kinnard took it out.”

“Took it out of your seat pocket?” Joe asked.

She divided a look between him and Hick, then bobbed her head once.

Following an awkward silence Joe asked for details about Bolden’s murder. Her recollection matched the evidence they’d retrieved and what they’d surmised. Then he asked about her overnight drive with Shaw Kinnard.

“After I regained consciousness, he stopped and let me relieve myself. One other time he stopped to put on the blindfold.” Shortly after that, they arrived at Kinnard’s destination. “He said, ‘Today it’s a hideout.’ It wasn’t until we got there that he put the battery in the phone so Panella could call.”

“Call Bolden’s phone?”

“Yes. If you hit the Redial, Panella will answer. He’s waiting to hear that Mr. Kinnard went through with it.”

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