“I would’ve been ruined, P.T.,” she pleaded. “One of those women who get Law & Order episodes made about them.”

“No,” I said.

“My name would’ve been a national joke,” she continued. “On late-night TV. And for what? It wasn’t going to bring Jed or Leaf back.”

I considered this. Was Kelly right?

“We wouldn’t have allowed that to happen to you,” I said.

“You couldn’t have stopped it. How did it go for you?” she asked. “The media—around your wife’s death?”

A particular image flashed in my head. A photographer who’d jumped the back fence and was taking pictures of Jonas’s empty swing set in the backyard. And me—destroying his camera equipment. I remember planting my hands around the photographer’s neck. And Marvin, who was there at the time, dragging me backward through the crabgrass, my right arm swinging wide.

“I’m calling for a patrol car, Kelly,” I said, pulling out my phone. “This isn’t my case. At a minimum, it’s obstruction of justice. But more than that, I can’t be the one you’re telling this to.”

She grabbed my hand then, her eyes intense. A single streak of resistant red in her hair hung across her cheek.

“I got caught up in something,” she said.

“Apparently,” I said. “Your ex came to the school with a gun.”

“No,” she said. “Something bigger than that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t call the cops, okay? If you do, I’m not gonna tell you anything.”

“Anything about what?” I said.

She was silent for a moment, and I waited.

“I came upon this guy, okay? He was spying on Jed. Outside his house.”

“What guy?” I asked.

But inside, I was thinking one word: bullshit.

“I went to Jed’s,” she said. “A couple weeks ago. Outside was this guy, binoculars in hand. Camera with a zoom lens. He had a gun tucked inside his jacket.”

“A guy you knew?”

“No.”

“He threatened you?”

“Not exactly,” she pleaded. “But a few days later, he showed up at my place. He told me I had to take Jed’s papers.”

I blinked. “What papers?”

“Jed was always talking about publishing some great piece, but he never did. He just talked and talked and accumulated paper after paper. I didn’t think he would even notice they were gone.”

I stared at Kelly.

Was she making this shit up as she went? Abe and I had looked through all of Jed’s papers in those boxes.

I bent my head. “And who was this guy?”

“He never told me his name.”

“What did he look like?”

“Handsome.” She shrugged. “White. Dark hair.”

“A handsome white guy?” I said. Half of Georgia fit that description. “Why didn’t you call the police?”

“I dunno,” she said. “He surprised me outside on the street. And in my house.”

“What kind of car did he drive?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Some SUV. Dark.”

“So you did what?” I said. “Stole Jed’s research? For what reason?”

“I was scared.”