Keegan nodded. “She thought it was a birthday present for her, Lou,” he said, “but it was Merrill’s evidence—and it got her killed.” He found himself rubbing chills from his arms. “Call over to The Times. They’ve got the clippings all laid out for you.”

The lieutenant sat back in his chair. It was clear he was giving Keegan’s story some credence. “What about Ormsby?”

Ormsby. That seemed eons ago. A small, sad accident he’d managed to blow up beyond all recognition. What would have happened if they’d just done what Eve had wanted? “That was an accident,” he said. “Eve thought someone was after her.” He laughed bitterly. “Turns out they were.” He could taste the blood from his lip as he spoke. “She was a bundle of nerves,” he said, “and I handed her a loaded gun.”

“Where is it now?”

“The ocean,” Keegan said. He waved the question away. What did it matter now? “A diver could find it.”

“And the break-in?”

“That was me,” he said. “I was just trying to keep her out of trouble.”

Moore nodded grimly. He held his tongue, and Keegan was grateful.

“Start to finish,” Keegan said, “Eve didn’t really do a thing.”

Moore straightened up and looked at his watch. The man looked spent, vanquished. It was hard to know what he thought of the jewel story, but it was clear he’d work the whole thing through again. “You could have told me all this,” he said. “You could have told me, Jimmy, and none of this would have happened.” Moore slipped the photos back into the folder and closed it, and then he regarded Keegan wearily from across the table. “We’re going to need to talk some more,” he said. “We’ll hold onto you for now while we check out the story. If what you say is true, we’ll have to rethink this whole mess.” The lieutenant shook his head. “Maybe you didn’t kill anyone, Jimmy,” he said. “But you sure as hell didn’t help anybody out.”

THE COP ESCORTING Keegan back to the cells paused before a set of steel doors. Keegan was in cuffs again, and the cop held him by his elbow, unnecessarily. Keegan could barely summon the will to keep breathing, let alone run. A woman behind a caged window looked them both over and pushed a button somewhere. Locks clunked open. The officer pushed Keegan through the doorway and then down a steel staircase towards the holding cells. The temperature chilled with each step they descended, and goosebumps rose along both Keegan’s arms. Outside, there was relentless heat and sunshine, but it might as well have been another, distant planet.