“I saw the state he was in. It wasn’t the kind of reaction I’d expect from a man who had just killed his so-called soul mate. It was more like he couldn’t believe it till someone else had confirmed it. Besides, if I’d told the truth, Jett wouldn’t have been cluttering up our answering machine all night. He’d be down the nick in an interrogation room.” I knew it sounded weak even as I told it, but the strength of my own gut feeling about Jett’s innocence didn’t allow for compromise.

“I trust your instincts, Kate. But the cops sure as hell won’t. We’ll have to make damn sure they don’t find out the truth. And I suppose that means you’ll have to stay close to whatever’s going on,” he added. He chewed his beard restlessly, a sure sign that he’s worried.

“At least Jett seems to want that,” I tried. It wasn’t much of a consolation, but it was the only one I could see right then.

“Jett might, but I don’t,” Bill flashed back. “We don’t do murders, Kate. We do white-collar crime. We’re not geared up to compete with the police on something like this. Besides, I’m not happy about putting you in the front line when there’s someone out there killing people.”

“I can handle myself,” I replied huffily.

“I know you can. It’s the other poor fuckers I’m worried about,” he said with a tired smile. “Seriously, though. I really wish you hadn’t got us involved. But now we are, you’d better brief me fully.”

I gave him a quick résumé of events, leaving out only my glimpse of Maggie. I don’t know why I held that back; maybe I was worried about her being the obvious scapegoat, even to a supposedly new man like Bill.

“Jackson wanted to know the nature of the job we did for Jett,” I finished up. “I hid behind client confidentiality.”

“You did right. Leave Jackson to me. You’d better have a listen to Jett’s messages then get yourself over to Colcutt.”