“Maybe. Maybe I do.” Lucy hadn’t thought about her conflicted feelings about Max like that, but Reed could be right. “But more, I owe Denise Albright and her family justice.”

Twenty minutes later, Lucy and Jennifer were at Robert Clemson’s house. Jennifer knocked on the door and Clemson answered, clearly unnerved to see them.

“Mr. Clemson, do you have a moment?” Jennifer said sweetly.

“I, um, really don’t.”

“I promise, five minutes. Just a follow-up on your statement from September. If you don’t mind?” She motioned if they could come in.

He hesitated, then opened the door, but made no move to leave the large entryway. He looked at Lucy, and she introduced herself.

“FBI?” he said, his voice a squeak. He cleared his throat and said, “What can I do for you?”

Jennifer made a show of flipping through her notepad. “I’m confirming the timeline. You said on September 6, the night that Victoria Mills was killed, that you hadn’t left … then you later recalled that you had drinks with a friend, Melissa Randolph, correct?”

“Yes, that’s right. I just got the dates confused.”

“How do you know Ms. Randolph?”

He blinked. “I— We just knew each other. I, uh, think we met when my lawyer was drafting a contract for my business.”

“So you were dating her.”

He hesitated. “Uh, no.”

“You don’t know if you were dating her?”

“No, no, we just met for drinks. She wanted advice on a work-related matter.”

“Which was?”

“I—I don’t honestly remember.”

“Why would she come to you for advice?”

“What?”

“She’s a young paralegal, you’re not a lawyer, right?”

“No, I’m not, but I run a business, and she wanted to move into a different type of legal work and wanted to know how much businesses pay for legal consulting, things like that. I don’t quite remember the conversation, it was more than two months ago.”

“Okay. That’s fine. And you went to Russo’s.”

“Yes.”

“Okay. Good. And do you remember again what time you returned home?”

“About midnight, take or leave. I don’t really know for certain. Why is this important?”

“You heard about the shooting at the courthouse?”

“Yes, so?”

“The victim was our primary suspect in Victoria Mills’s murder. My boss wants me to verify every piece of information we have related to the the Mills murder, so that’s what I’m doing.”

“Oh.”

Lucy asked, “Did you go to Russo’s directly from your house?”

“What? Of course.”

“Did you make any stops on the way?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“So you went to Russo’s, were there for about an hour, and returned home.”

“Yes.”

Jennifer shut her notebook. “Thank you for your time, Mr. Clemson.”

“Is that it?”

“For now.”

“For now?”

Jennifer smiled. “Yes, I may need to talk to you again, but for tonight I think we’re good.”