On the Job Assistant Ch. 03

"It appears you paid the bill," he asked.

"Detective, the man was sitting in what used to be my office. I really didn't feel like accepting his charity," Stephanie responded stiffly.

"You don't sound like much of a fan," the detective observed.

"I think it is safer to say I hated him," Stephanie corrected.

"May I ask where you were a week ago last Sunday?"

"I was in Chicago until late then took the Red Eye. My flight landed around 4 a.m. I was home around seven Monday morning," Stephanie recited after a trained moment of hesitation. After all Nathan had made sure she was on planeload of people when Peter died.

"Can you give me the names of anyone who may have seen you?" he asked.

"My assistant can give you the names of the nine other people who were at the training conference with me from this office if that will help. We all flew back together. I suppose you can check with the airlines as well."

"That will be great," he admitted.

"I'll have my person e-mail you the names and my flight number. This is really such a tragedy. It seems so senseless; no matter how much we didn't get along, Peter was a decent human being at his core. I hope he didn't get caught up in something bad."

"We are still looking into the matter," he responded. "I'll let you know if I need anything else."

Five minutes later Detective Mullins had his information from Stephanie. Thirty minutes after that he scratched Ms. Lamborne off his list of possible suspects. She's been a long-shot anyway, nothing more than a stray contact before Peter Bartowski met his untimely demise.