“This is crazy. Last night you basically told me to hang up my magnifying glass and step away from the Sherlock Holmes novels because I was a horrible detective.”

“I didn’t want it to be true, Beckett. I still don’t. And I certainly didn’t want you jumping to unfounded conclusions. But then I checked the shirt out of evidence today and I saw that rip again. Right after that, the governor scared the crap out of Doug, and Chief Stoddard basically told us to test every kid who bought one of those shirts until we find a familial match. Since there was no crime, we can’t get a warrant, so we’d need voluntary samples or parental permission. And if I’m going to put all those other parents through this, I kind of have to start here at home. Especially if it’s really Penn’s shirt.”

“Okay, but that doesn’t mean you have to spring a DNA test on him. You could just show him the shirt. Or ask him if he got some other girl pregnant.”

My mother gives me an odd look.

“You think he’ll lie.”

“No,” she insists. “But I feel obligated to verify whatever he tells me. With the test.”

I have no idea what to say to that. And it turns out I don’t need to say anything, because I can hear Penn’s truck—my dad’s truck—pulling into the driveway. I can see the blur of motion through the thin front curtains that tells me he’s opening his door. That he’s about to walk into the shock of his life.

At least, I hope it comes as a shock.

Both truck doors slam, and my mother flinches. “I was hoping you and Landry wouldn’t be home for this.” She rubs her palms on her slacks, then she stands, and Detective Bergen is back with us. My mother has left the building.

And for the first time in my life, I realize that she isn’t just putting on her professional face when she does that. She’s putting on a costume. Like maybe it’s easier, in moments like these, to pretend the mother half of her doesn’t exist.

I wonder what would happen if she were forced to be both at once, the same way I used to wonder what would happen if you pressed both the brake and the gas pedal at once. Because those are opposites, right? A car can’t go faster and stop in the same instant. Just like Julie Bergen can’t be both police detective and mother at the same time.

I think I’m about to witness the implosion of the entire planet.