“She also lied about the stolen car,” Lester filled in, “and we think she did it again when she said she used her GPS to find him on the night she picked him up. There’s no street number on the club, and on our way out, I checked the Jeep’s GPS. It doesn’t list strip joints, and she didn’t enter an address. I can see her wanting to save face in the first lie. But the second one? My inner alarm bell tells me she’s doing something she’s not owning up to.”

“To that same point,” Sam said, “she did seem genuinely surprised when we told her a dead body had been found in her husband’s trunk.”

“Leading you both to think what?” Joe asked them.

“Every case leaves you with questions you don’t need answered in the end,” Sam replied. “Could be he knew about Kalfus and she didn’t; could be she’s a great actor. Given that we’ve barely started tracing the loot from Shaw’s car, though—some of which might tell us who killed Don—I’m happy to leave both Shaws on the shelf for the time being. We know where to find them if something more solid comes up.”

“You good with that?” Joe asked Lester.

“Works for me.”

“How’s Angie Neal doing?” Willy asked, almost out of thin air.

The source of the question was as telling to Joe as its subject. The arrival of Emma in Willy’s and Sam’s lives had been unlikely, unexpected, and—just perhaps—lifesaving for them both. Thus, Willy’s interest in a young child he’d never met made better sense than his gruff exterior suggested.

“Fred Houston’s more the expert than I am,” Joe answered him. “But he told me she’s remarkably tough under a sweet and generous surface and that it’s serving her well. I also gather that despite his other disgusting appetites, Trevor Buttner may not have touched her sexually, at least yet. It’s looking like we caught him early in his grooming ritual. He has a history of finding women like Melissa Monfet, with kids Angie’s age, to feed his habit.”

“Is Fred happy to take this one?” Willy asked. “At least the trafficking part of it?”

“He is tied into a well-oiled enforcement network over there,” Joe confirmed. “I’m not going to compete with that. Plus, whatever he does with Buttner for that crime doesn’t damage our murder case. It’s clear Buttner knew Kalfus and had a reason to want to harm him, so adding a homicide charge is still possible. That makes the task force model as solid as ever for our purposes.”

“Not to mention,” Sam added, “that we need to link Kalfus to other people who may’ve wanted him dead. Is Fred still working on the other devices we found?”

“Yes. He’s quite the whirling dervish, which is why I’m thinking this is the best time for us all to catch some sleep. A few hours from now, he’ll have more to chase down, along with what we’ve already got going.”