He wasn't worried about being discovered, not at all. It just wasn't going to happen. He was too unlikely, probably in the bottom 5 percent of the people the police might suspect. That comforted him, thrilled him, actually. God, he had done it- caused all of this to happen, and he was only just beginning. He had never experienced anything like this feeling, and neither had the city of San Francisco. A businessman was coming out of the Hyatt, and reporters and other people were asking him questions as if he were a major celebrity. The man was in his early thirties and he smirked knowingly. He had what they all wanted and he knew it. He was lording it over everyone, enjoying his pitiful moment of fame. "It was a couple- murdered in the penthouse." He could overhear the man. "They were on their honeymoon. Sad, huh?" The crowd around Phillip Campbell gasped, and his heart soared.


ChapterS


WHAT A SCENE! Cindy Thomas pushed her way through the murmuring crowd, the loo ky-loos surrounding the Grand Hyatt. Then she groaned at the sight of the line of cops blocking the way. There must've been a hundred onlookers tightly pressed around the entrance: tourists carrying cameras, businesspeople on their way to work; others were flashing press credentials and shouting, trying to talk their way in. Across the street, a television news van was already setting up with the backdrop of the hotel's facade. After two years spent covering local interest on the Metro desk of the Chronicle, Cindy could feel a story that might jump-start her career. This one made the hairs on her neck stand up. "Homicide down at the Grand Hyatt," her city editor, Sid Glass, had informed her after a staffer picked up the police transmission. Suzie Fitzpatrick and Tom Stone, the Chronicle usual crime reporters, were both on assignment. "Get right down there," her boss barked, to her amazement. He didn't have to say it twice.



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