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renovation crowded in the street, watching too. A news van was parked there, a cameraman moving in for the kill, live cam balanced on his shoulder.
    I turned back to the house and shock made my heart stop beating. Two uniformed officers were leading Melanie from the house. Her hands were cuffed behind her back.
    The news camera captured her perp walk to the police car. I thought she would be embarrassed and mortified, instead she lifted her chin and glared defiantly into the camera.
    "There's been a terrible miscarriage of justice committed here today," she declared hotly. "And I'm going to sue everybody involved."
    Meriweather's gripe on my arm tightened, preventing me from going to her.
    "Who is the victim?" I asked him.
    "Joey Fielding. Shot in the head. Fatally. She's really done it this time, Miss Wilkes," he told me sorrowfully. "This is no traffic ticket I can fix for her."

5

    What did the police know? Why did they think Melanie had shot Joey Fielding? These were the questions I asked myself as I followed the Wrightsville PD cruiser to the sheriff's detective division.
    At the first stop light I picked up my cell phone and called Walter Brice, an outstanding defense attorney, and a friend of our late father. I was put through immediately and felt lucky that Walt was not in court. I explained the situation to him and he assured me he would meet Melanie at the Detective Division downtown and be present during her interrogation.
    "She knows better than to say anything without me there," he reassured me. "Melanie is smart. And tough. So don't worry, Ashley, I'll take care of everything and if they arraign her I'll have her out on bail. I promise you. But it might not happen until tomorrow morning, so prepare yourself ."
    Melanie was no flight risk, that was a certainty. She had strong ties to the community. She was a billion dollar real estate producer, for pity sakes. If the D.A. was ever dumb enough to take this case to trial, he'd be hard pressed to find twelve jurors Melanie had not sold houses to or for. She was that well-known and that popular.
    How could they think Melanie was capable of killing anyone? Oh, she was temperamental and headstrong. She had her own way of doing things -- she was certainly not conventional -- but that did not make her a killer. No way.
    My next call was to Cam Jordan. Again I was put through right away. Cameron Jordan is the president of Gem Star Pictures which he founded. I like Cam. He is good for Melanie and I could never understand why she dropped him. He'd moved to Wilmington from Los Angeles where he'd been the executive vice president of programming at HBO. He'd wanted out, he told us, wanted his own production company, and he built one too, and successfully, starting with the overnight sensation, Dolphin's Cove, getting it into production when no one else believed a series about a group of high school seniors could succeed. The others were wrong. The series had run for three years, actually rather remarkable for the fickle television industry. After L.A. and New York, Wilmington ranks third in the nation for the production of movies -- and television shows, like the long running Matlock series that had been produced and filmed here as well."Ashley , hi! Long time and all that. I take it there is a purpose for this call," Cam said pleasantly.
    Cam and I always had seen eye to eye, we'd shared an unspoken vow to look after Melanie.
    "I assume you do not have the television news on," I said.
    His voice grew alert and tense. "No. What's happened?"
    I told him the bad news.
    "Where are they taking her?"
    I told him the Detective Division at Fourth and Princess.
    "Okay, I'll meet you at there. I'm on my way, Ashley."
    He was gone.
    Jon called then. "I saw the whole thing on TV. Where are you, Ashley? Are you okay?"
    "I'm almost downtown." I gave him directions. "I'm meeting Walt Brice there. And Cam Jordan."
    "And me," he said. "I'm not far behind you. Wait for me there. Melanie will