“It’s okay,” I said. “The case is over. I’ll cover stuff.”

She shook her head then. As if I wasn’t following her.

“The case with Lena,” Remy said. “Under the liquor store. I said I’d go all the way with you. But I can’t now.”

“I’ll wait,” I said.

“No,” Remy said. “After this. And the school shooting. You’re never gonna be as high as you are now. And you’re gonna need to break some rules to take down Hartley.”

I stared at her, our faces close.

“Maybe I don’t need to,” I told her. “Like you said, maybe I just need to ignore the past. Stop chasing ghosts.”

Remy put out her hand to quiet me. “That’s important,” she said. “All that shit I told you when we were under that liquor store.”

“But?”

“But Hartley took out that building the next day because we went there,” she said. “We visited an abandoned building, and he blew it up. So you’re gonna have to be smarter than him, P.T. One step ahead of him.”

I held my gaze on her. “Yeah.”

“And you’re never gonna have more equity to burn than you do now,” she said. “So I want you to do something for me, okay?”

“Anything.”

“Go home. Walk the dogs. Rest that big brain of yours because we’ve been up for twenty-four hours, P.T. But then get up. Tell Senza you need a couple days off. And go like the wind, partner. Find out who hired Tarticoft. What they were doing under that liquor store. How Hartley’s involved. And fucking get ’em all.”

“Okay,” I said. “Yeah.”

But I could tell Remy wasn’t done.

“Somebody needs to tell you that you’re worth betting on, P.T. That you deserve good things.”

I nodded.

“So maybe it’s the drugs talking—but I gotta be straight with you. You listening?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re not at fault for that shit that went down with Lena. You worked late, P.T. You took a case. You worked late a million other nights. It’s what we do.”

I could feel a tear moving down my cheek, but Remy kept going.

“If you attracted the wrong type of attention, it was ’cause you were trying to help someone,” she said. “And Lena knew that about you. Probably why she loved you.”

I sniffed now, my nose clogging up.

“So you find these fuckers, P.T. But then you gotta be over with it. Y’understand?”

“I do.”

“All right,” Remy said, giving my hand a squeeze. “So what are you still doing here?”

I tapped the edge of her bed and took a step back. Turned and left.

Out in the lobby I crossed the room toward Darren Gattling.

“I know what you’re gonna say.” He put up his palms. “When you came in. You saw us holding hands.”

He stopped talking and stared at me. My face was probably still covered in tears.

“Take care of her, Darren, okay?”

I patted him on the shoulder and left.