Angie caught the smile and hand-grazing on film. And my assumption changed.

The guy with the goatee walked up Brighton toward Union Square, while Jason walked back to Bryce.

Angie and I spread her photos on her kitchen table that night and tried to decide what to tell Diandra Warren.

This was one of those points when my responsibility to my client was a bit unclear. I had no reason to think Jason’s apparent bisexuality had anything to do with the threatening calls Diandra had received. And I had no reason, on the other hand, not to tell her about the encounter. Still, I didn’t know if Jason was out of the closet or not, and I wasn’t comfortable outing him, particularly when, in that one photograph, I was looking at a kid who, in all the time I’d observed him, looked purely happy for the one and only time.

“Okay,” Angie said, “I think I have a solution.”

She handed me a photograph of Jason and the guy with the goatee in which both were eating, neither really looking at the other, but instead concentrating on their food.

“He met him,” Angie said, “had lunch, that’s all. We show this to Diandra, along with ones of Jason and his women, ask if she knows this guy, but unless she offers, we don’t bring up the possibility of a romance.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“No,” Diandra said. “I’ve never seen this man before. Who is he?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. Eric?”

Eric looked at the photo for a long time, eventually shook his head. “No.” He handed it back to me. “No,” he said again.

Angie said, “Doctor Warren, in over a week, this is all we’ve come up with. Jason’s social circle is pretty limited and until this day, exclusively female.”

She nodded, then tapped the head of Jason’s friend with her finger. “Are they lovers?”

I looked at Angie. She looked at me.

“Come now, Mr. Kenzie, you don’t think I know about Jason’s sexuality? He’s my son.”

“So he’s open about it?” I said.

“Hardly. He’s never spoken to me about it, but I’ve known, I think, since he was a child. And I’ve let him know that I have absolutely no problem with homosexuality or bisexuality or any possible permutation thereof without mentioning the possibility of his own. But I still think he’s either embarrassed or confused by his sexuality.” She tapped the photo again. “Is this man a threat?”

“We don’t have any reason to think so.”

She lit a cigarette, leaned back in her couch and watched me. “So where does that leave us?”

“You’ve received no more threats or photos in the mail?”

“No.”

“Then I don’t see that we’re doing much more than wasting your money, Doctor Warren.”

She looked at Eric and he shrugged.

She turned back toward us. “Jason and I are going up to a house we have in New Hampshire for the weekend. When we come back, would you resume watching Jason for just a few more days, put a mother’s mind at rest?”