Violet nodded.

His gaze slid quickly to the officer to his right. When he glanced back at Violet, the gentleness in his face had been replaced with something less than compassionate. “You must be mistaken.”

“Mistaken? About what?”

The man’s smile was just this side of condescending. “Ma’am, Jay Malone is one of Sugar Bend’s most upstanding citizens.”

“I suppose that depends on your definition of upstanding.”

“We all know Jay,” he said. “He’s a good man. He supports other businesses, he’s a friend to everyone, he’s a model example of what makes this town great. You’re probably just misunderstanding the situation.”

“I’m not misunderstanding anything.” Violet fought to keep her voice under control. “It’s hard to misunderstand the bruises.”

“Look, I don’t mean any offense, honey, but maybe your sister’s just clumsy. And if he’s abusing her, like you say, why isn’t your sister in here talking to us about it? Even if it were true, we couldn’t do anything about it unless the victim asks for help. But trust me, we’ve known Jay Malone a long time. He’s a friend to this police department. He’s not that kind of man.”

“With all due respect, you may know what kind of man Jay is with his friends, but you have no idea what he’s like when he’s home with his wife.”

“Miss Figg, you are crossing a line.” Officer Hutchins’s voice was cold now. Hard. “And you should think twice about coming in here and placing blame on an innocent person. If anything should ever happen to Mr. Malone—even just a smear on his name—we wouldn’t take too kindly to that sort of thing.”

A few minutes later Violet was ushered out the door with a frosty, “You have yourself a nice afternoon, ma’am.” She had to sit in her car for ten minutes before she trusted herself to crank the engine and drive away. Her hands trembled and her breath came in short spurts. It’s up to me. The realization dawned like a bracing north wind. There really is no one else.

Some days it was all Violet could do to get through her classes for the day, sending her students home with assignments to label cell diagrams or identify simple machines or explain seasonal weather patterns in Alabama, before she hopped into her car and raced to Jay’s home on River Ash Road. She’d wait down the street from the house, a sweet two-story cottage with white trim, dormer windows, and a lattice arbor, under the dappled shade of an oak tree with limbs that brushed the ground. She’d wait until she saw him walk across the grass to their dock and step down into his boat, a little green thing with a bright blue horizontal stripe down the side. Violet had nearly memorized every detail, as often as she’d watched him motor away in it, as he headed down the river while she headed inside to try to save her sister.

One particular night, just after the new year, Violet had jogged up the driveway as soon as Jay left. She had a few hours before she was to meet Emmajean at the Sandbar, a popular hangout overlooking a bend in Little River. Emmajean had set Violet up on a blind date, though Violet had zero interest in being set up. Plus, if she was successful in convincing Trudy to leave, she’d be a no-show at the bar.