Whatever she had done last night, she had succeeded in finding a vulnerability in the guy’s computer, and the entire contents of his laptop had downloaded onto Leah’s. She had obviously set up a timed data sequence to conduct the exploit. Had she guessed she might not be able to do it herself? Did she have a sense that this whole stupid break-in would go so terribly wrong?

Spook ran into the room and wound his body around Joey’s legs. He quickly shut down Leah’s computer and stuffed it into his backpack.

“Gotta run now, Spook,” he said as he hurried from Leah’s room.

Whatever Leah had done, she had done it because she believed it was the right thing to do.

That was good enough for him.

Spook jumped onto the back of the sofa. The cat began to groom his whiskers as Joey opened the door to the landing and checked to see if anyone was about.

He was glad he had fed the cat.

It might be a while before he could return to the apartment.

“Be good, Spook,” he said, his throat tightening. “And catch some rats while I’m gone.”

The cat’s green eyes blinked at him.

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

11:28 a.m.

It had only taken a few minutes to resign, but it had taken most of the morning to clear any trace of Kate’s presence at McGrath Woods.

A stack of document boxes sat on the floor by her credenza. She had slowly filled them while a steady stream of colleagues dropped by her office. The news had spread of her resignation. Some of her colleagues were bemused, some skeptical, a few genuinely sad to see her go. One openly hinted that she had suffered a nervous breakdown when he had learned that Kate planned to do criminal defense work.

Kate pasted a pleasant smile on her face, and accepted the well wishes. What else could she do? She was not the same person as when she began her career with something to prove and everything to lose. She had had a string of personal failures to her name when she was hired by then-Lyons McGrath Barrett. She had believed that success would be her ticket to happiness. That the stunning corner office occupied by John Lyons—and his successor Nina Woods—was the ultimate destination.

For some, maybe.

But not for her.

She picked up the battered silver clock that had followed her everywhere since she was twelve. It ticked a steady beat against her hand. She set it next to a stack of folders. Time for a new chapter.