Free To Catch the Moon by Diana Dempsey

in
California?”
    “What motive would Treebeard have for killing
Daniel Gaines?”
    It went on for a while, and there was only
one notable thing about it, in Milo’s opinion. More than once,
Penrose did a subtle check with Alicia Maldonado before he answered
a question. She would give a barely perceptible nod or shake of the
head, and he would proceed accordingly. Once she even corrected
him, on a bit of minutiae regarding special circumstances, or death
penalty, cases, of which this was one.
    Milo hadn’t yet asked a question, but after
all the back-and-forth between the D.A. and his deputy, one
occurred to him. He raised his index finger and Penrose looked in
his direction.
    “Milo Pappas,” he said by way of standard ID,
“WBS News.” He consulted his spiral-bound reporter’s notebook, then
again raised his eyes, his deliberate pause drawing everyone’s
attention. “Should this case come to trial,” he asked, “who will be
the prosecuting attorney?”
    He saw a glimmer of amusement flicker in
Alicia Maldonado’s lovely dark eyes, and a shadow cross the
patrician features of District Attorney Kip Penrose.
    “I will, Mr. Pappas,” the D.A. declared with
some heat, but Milo couldn’t care less about the answer. He might
have asked several follow-up questions, plumbing the same obviously
rich vein, but he didn’t. No point getting the lead prosecuting
attorney on the story he was covering all riled up.
    Besides, Milo’s instincts told him he’d
already gotten what he wanted. He’d made progress toward winning
himself an intelligent, not to mention highly attractive, inside
source.
    *
    He’s a slick one , Alicia thought. No man with those looks could be anything but.
    She’d known who he was, of course, before
he’d said a word. She wasn’t a big TV watcher but hadn’t been
living under a rock, either. He certainly hadn’t needed to say his
name before he asked his question. It was kind of like Brian
Williams introducing himself, or Robin Roberts. But it was
endearing, too, Milo Pappas acting like Joe Reporter.
    Penrose was driving her nuts, so it was
highly satisfying to see somebody else get a rise out of him. Not
only had he made her postpone her trial, he’d also insisted she
accompany him that night to update Joan Gaines on the case.
    As if she could care less whether Joan Gaines
was “apprised,” as Kip put it. Let him do the fifty miles
round-trip to Pebble Beach. It was his campaign her family was
funding.
    Then she thought better of letting Kip have a
clear field where the widow Gaines was concerned. It might be
valuable to get another close-up look at her, see if she’d started
showing any regret that her husband had gotten skewered by an
arrow.
    A few interminable minutes later, Penrose
ended the press conference. He always let them go on forever,
seeming to think that would get him more face time on the evening
news. “We’ll hold a follow-up press conference when events
warrant,” he was saying now. Right, like when he broke a nail.
“Thank you all for coming.”
    Alicia was up the stairs and almost at the
courthouse door when she felt a tap on her left arm. She stopped
and couldn’t believe who had waylaid her.
    “Milo Pappas.” He held out his hand and
smiled. No wonder mythology came out of Greece. Apparently gods
were born there.
    “Alicia Maldonado.” She took his hand. His
fingers were warm and his grasp just firm enough. She made herself
let go.
    “Seems to me you’re the real expert in this
case,” he said. “I noticed that the D.A. kept looking to you for
guidance.”
    “He values my judgment,” she lied.
    “Apparently he’s not the only one. I’m told
people around here hold you in high regard.”
    What a flatterer this guy was. She arched an
eyebrow. “You’ve been around here long enough to pick that up?”
    He chuckled, then met her eyes and held them.
It struck her that he’d be a hard man to fool, which made her both
wary and admiring at the same