“He’s occupied with other matters. I should tell you first of all that I’m not certain that the man whose name I’m giving you has committed any actual crimes—but there is strong evidence that he has.”

“What kind of evidence?”

“Recordings of his meetings with his psychiatrist.”

“How did you get those?”

“One of the doctors at the facility where he spent some time is a client of mine.”

“A client?”

“A regular one, we’ll leave it at that. Let me just say that from all I’ve been able to glean, the man I’m recommending to you has the potential to be, well, a fitting partner.”

“Potential.”

“As I told you yesterday—no guarantees.”

She tapped the dossier. “And the information is in here?”

He nodded. “And I’d suggest you speak with him soon. Tonight if at all possible.”

“Why?”

“Prudence,” he said simply.

He pressed the garlic rolls aside with disgust as if he were nudging a slug across the table. “Now, I believe that our business in this matter is concluded. It isn’t wise for either of us to spend any additional time together. Good-bye, Julianne.”

“Good-bye, Blake,” she said. For now, she thought. Because she had someone special in mind for her next photograph, and the irony that he had just given her the name of the man who was going to kill him was not lost on her.

++++

The ERT was able to pull some prints from the windowsill at the senator’s house, but they turned out to be his son’s. If someone else had entered the house through that window, he was being extra careful or wore gloves.

The sole impressions outside the house were Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars, size eleven, men’s. The shoes were popular with Tessa’s generation, so I wasn’t sure what to make of that. A classmate or intern coworker of Jon’s? Perhaps.

Also, the team pulled some partials from the woman’s jacket that I’d recovered from the thorn patch in the woods. The prints came up as “unavailable”—a rare category that meant the person had been printed, but then the fingerprints were expunged for some reason, maybe so that a confidential informant could remain confidential, maybe because a cop was working undercover.

Whatever it was, in this case, it added another layer of mystery to what was going on. I sent in a request for an expedited release of the name, but I didn’t know when, or even if, I would get it.

Why did Jon take his life when he did? What clues from his travel patterns and his relationships might shed light on that? Did he intend to be home alone or not?