“I’m dreading this.” Izzy walked into Arlington PD with Piper by her side.

Piper nodded. “I know, but after giving it some thought, I think we need to get out in front of this. Even if the sergeant deleted those texts, there’s a chance they could get them from your phone through a subpoena, and I don’t want to be put in that position—I don’t want to put you in that position—given we can explain this. It will be better if we set the stage as opposed to the other way around.”

Izzy reluctantly agreed, but those texts were damaging. Once she realized the sergeant had been following her, a flood of emotions had gone through her. It started with fear, but then it quickly turned to red-hot anger. And when he had tried to touch her, the rage inside her was just too much to contain. She’d lashed out in the texts. But she had not killed him, even if she had wanted to.

Detective Stewart met them in the lobby. “Agent Cole, Ms. Alexander, what can I do for you?”

Piper didn’t hesitate. “We have some information we’d like to provide.”

“Let’s go to the conference room and talk.” Detective Stewart led them down the hallway.

Izzy started feeling sick again but tried to keep her emotions in check. She took a seat beside Piper and let her take the lead.

Piper looked directly at the detective. “When we were here last, you laid a lot of information on Agent Cole. She was clearly disturbed by the information you provided about the sergeant’s home.”

“Yes, and again, I’m sorry for that,” Detective Stewart said.

“In the interest of full transparency and cooperation, we wanted to provide you with some additional information regarding recent interactions between the sergeant and Agent Cole.”

Detective Stewart raised an eyebrow. “I’m listening.”

“Izzy, you can explain,” Piper said.

Izzy swallowed. It seemed she had no other alternative. “After the sergeant showed up on my jogging trail, he started texting me.”

“Really?” Detective Stewart said.

It appeared the detective hadn’t known that tidbit. “Yes, and I responded. I told him to leave me alone, and in those texts, I did threaten him.”

“Are you willing to turn over those texts voluntarily?”

Izzy shot a glance at Piper. “That’s up to my lawyer.”

Detective Stewart gave her a slight smile. “Ms. Alexander, what do you think?”

“I’m inclined to advise my client to cooperate because she has nothing to hide. Yes, she was incredibly angry at the sergeant, but there is a big difference between making a threat in a text and acting on it—especially when you’re talking about someone who has a sterling record in law enforcement.”

“I feel a catch coming on here,” the detective said.