Piper tapped her pen on the table. “We need to be careful with how we play this. I want you to be honest if asked. But I’m not sure I’m at the point where my legal advice is for you to just spill your guts.”

She had to put her trust in Piper right now. Izzy wasn’t an attorney, but she realized that these facts didn’t look good for her.

Piper took a sip of water. “Let’s get back to the details. You know he was killed, but nothing else?”

“Nothing. Jay wouldn’t tell me.”

“Okay, don’t go investigating. Let’s get through the interview in the morning. I have a feeling you’re not going to know the answers to most of their questions anyway, but it’s time for some ground rules.”

“I’m listening.”

“Don’t answer any question immediately. Give me a second to make a determination about whether you should answer it. There’s a tendency to want to get your story out there. Don’t do it. Answer just the question asked. I think our discussion on the text messages shows you how important this can be.”

“Should I be taking notes?”

“I’d prefer you just listen. Any notes you take could potentially be discoverable in any litigation.”

“Okay.” She hoped she could keep this all straight. She’d never been on this side of questioning before. “How much detail am I going to have to go into about the attack?” That was one of the biggest things bothering her.

“The attack is your motive. I’d prefer to minimalize the discussion as much as possible, but I have to be forthright with you and say that’s probably not going to happen. They’re going to ask for details. The worse the attack was for you, the stronger the motive you would’ve had to kill him. They know that. It won’t be any type of secret strategy.”

Izzy bit the inside of her cheek. “I don’t know how I’m going to handle that.”

“Just do the best you can. And while we’re on the topic, you’ll need to walk me through it. That way I can know best when to cut off the questioning.”

For the next half hour, Izzy powered through and told her story in painstaking detail—going to the sergeant’s office, what started out as a friendly career discussion, and then when he first touched her. She’d immediately backed off and tried to pass it off as a misunderstanding, but he would have none of that. The violence that ensued was as vivid today as it was when it happened. She didn’t sanitize anything. She told every detail exactly as she remembered it, including how violent he had become and how much he had hurt her. As she finished up, she realized fresh tears were flowing down her cheeks.