Marino wouldn’t allow him to accompany the twins to the police station, and the cocky and annoying investigator is still here, trying to watch everything I do while pretending he’s not. Maybe he’s hoping to learn something that might make him better at his job. Maybe he’s waiting for me to screw up.

But most likely he’s simply behaving in character—a magpie carrying every glittery bit of gossip back to his nest. Information is his currency, and while he may not mean any harm, people like him are dangerous.

I GET UP FROM a chair bolted to the stainless-steel diamond-plate floor, and the mirror-polished metal is cold beneath my bare feet.

I was able to ditch my silk blouse, my skirt and suit jacket for a pair of teal-green scrubs but sadly I’m stuck with my scuffed clammy pumps. Storage bins in here include scene gear for all conditions except the Sahara Desert, which is what it feels like in Cambridge of late. But in general the CFC isn’t prepared for unrelenting extreme heat because it almost never happens in New England.

I can’t exactly trade my uncomfortable shoes for what’s available, which are rubber hip waders and waterproof fire boots, one size fits all. Opening a cabinet, I find a fresh pair of shoe covers with grip soles. I step back into my damp pumps, and the thin leather linings have become unglued and feel slimy against the bare soles of my feet. I pull on the booties but I won’t bother with coveralls or gloves yet. I check my phone again, and still nothing.

I’ve let Lucy know that I need her help, but I haven’t said why. I’m not about to immortalize my suspicions in writing or voice mails no matter how safe I’m told my communications are. Especially when my phone has been acting up the way it has, and Lucy is even more careful about leaving an electronic trail than I am. I wonder what she’s doing. I wonder if she’s working in her lab or the Personal Immersion Theater, the PIT.

Or maybe she’s with Janet and Desi, and as I envision the three of them I think what an extraordinary family they’ve become. Janet is an environmental attorney. She’s former FBI, and her history with Lucy includes college and Quantico. They practically grew up together, and I couldn’t ask for a better partner for my niece. I would choose Janet time and time again were it up to me. She’s humane, smart and gentle—as was her sister Natalie, who died a year ago this past summer.