“Oh, fuck. Not you, too. I had this damn reporter calling me every day for the last two months trying to get information.”

“Yeah, she’s been annoying the fuck out of me, too, I just ignored her. But this is serious. Let me lay it out for you. Robert Clemson is the rear neighbor to the house where Victoria was killed. When we first canvassed, he said he was in all night and didn’t hear or see anything. I didn’t think much of it, because the properties are large and there was no evidence of a struggle or fight. But another neighbor who was walking their dog said that they saw Clemson speed out of the neighborhood at ten thirty that evening. So I went back to Clemson—and he said he got his days confused and that must have been when he met a friend for drinks. Gave me a name, Melissa Randolph. She confirmed they met at Russo’s for drinks shortly after ten thirty and talked for an hour.”

“Witnesses get dates screwed up all the time.”

“I’m not done,” Jennifer snapped.

“Sorry, by all means, sell me.”

Jennifer rolled her eyes. “Lucy and I went back to talk to him because there’s no fence between his property and the murder scene. There are natural barriers—trees and bushes—but there is certainly the possibility that someone could have used his property to get to the backyard. And I just wasn’t sold on his forgetting he went out that night. Randolph is a very attractive thirty-year-old; Clemson is not. And he was squirrelly. So Lucy and I watched his house and ten minutes later he went to Russo’s, where he met with a woman for less than five minutes—Faith Parker Monroe, who he said was his lawyer.”

“He told you he had a lawyer?”

“No, we learned it after the fact from a witness in the bar. He was acting suspicious. Then we decided to talk to Randolph again. Because as I thought on it, it just was too … convenient that he had such a ready-made alibi after saying he was home all night. Randolph moved to Chicago.”

“Too fucking cold for me, but who the hell cares?”

“She’s a paralegal for the same law firm that Faith Parker Monroe is a partner in. She worked for Parker. She was transferred to their offices in Chicago only days after I interviewed her.”

“Hmm. Again. So what?”

“I need to talk to her.”

“Uh-huh. And your boss is good with that? Going after someone in a major law firm?”

“I think we need to go up there together and lay it out for her. If she tells the truth, we don’t charge her with obstruction of justice or perjury.”