Marge said, “You’d want to pick up with a person who’d been blackmailing you?”

Beltran said, “I fail to understand where this is leading.”

“Yeah, maybe I would!” McKay said. “She looks real good now.”

“As I recall, didn’t you say she was a little off?” Marge said. “You said it repulsed you to have sex with her.”

“She looked and acted different back then,” McKay insisted. “She was so fat, I couldn’t even tell she was pregnant.”

Decker threw out, “That’s because she wasn’t.”

“What?” McKay whispered. “What’d you just say?”

Beltran said, “I think we’ve had enough of this interview—”

“Wait a minute!” McKay shouted. “I want to know why you said that, Sergeant!”

Decker paused. It was an offhand comment. By McKay’s reaction, he knew he’d touched upon something big. “When did she tell you she was pregnant, Leek? Was it around two years ago…September, October?”

McKay opened and shut his mouth. “How do you…?”

Beltran said, “Sergeant, I’m putting a stop—”

“She wasn’t pregnant, Leek.” Decker turned to Marge. “That was when she went to the doctor with her pseudocyesis—her false pregnancy.”

“That’s right,” Marge concurred.

“False pregnancy?” Leek cried.

“Let’s go, Mr. McKay,” Beltran said.

“No, wait a minute!” Leek rose to his feet. “Just wait a fucking minute! What do you mean, Tandy wasn’t pregnant?”

“Mr. McKay, I strongly advise you—”

“Shut up!” Leek shouted. “Just shut up and let me talk to this guy for a second. Let me figure something out, okay?”

Beltran bit his lip and folded his hands.

McKay sat down and said, “I’m sorry, Mr. Beltran. But this is really, really important. What do you mean Tandy wasn’t pregnant?”

Decker said, “When did she tell you she was pregnant?”

“Around…” McKay exhaled into his hands. “Around two years ago. Halloween time—just before or just after. I remember because she told me at the home’s big Halloween party. I almost threw up on the spot.”

Marge said, “Leek, as of November, two years ago, Tandy Roberts was not pregnant. When she told you, she may have thought she was. But she wasn’t.”

“You can prove that?”

“We have proof.”

“Holy fucking shit!” McKay blanched. “I got screwed for nothing!”

Decker waited.

“I can’t believe…all this time.” McKay kept shaking his head. “Shit! That little…” He looked at Marge, then at Decker. “She told me she got an abortion. You mean to tell me she was never pregnant?”

Marge said, “As of November two years ago, Leek, she was not pregnant.”