This question confused her even more. “What do you mean? I don’t think he ever went out. Why?”

This seemed to throw him. “Kouretas is saying that Seth assaulted him at The Blue Suede Shoe.”

She’d heard Seth refer to that bar before. That was where he’d seen Kouretas for the first time. But...had he gone there again? “When? What time?”

“According to the report, it was late, almost midnight.”

Tia’s mind was racing, trying to determine if it was possible that Seth had left the house after she went to bed. When she’d first seen him this morning, it looked as though he’d crashed on the couch. But...was that after he got back from the bar? “And?” she prompted, a hard knot forming in the pit of her stomach. “What happened?”

“There was an altercation in the parking lot.”

“A fight.”

“Yes. Seth was just arriving and Kouretas was leaving when they ran into each other and had a few words.”

“Words,” she repeated hopefully.

“That was how it started. Then it got physical. According to the report, Seth attacked him.”

“If that’s true, there must be a good reason.”

“I hope so, because he’ll have to explain that reason to the judge.”

“This is crazy,” she said. “I—I don’t believe it.”

“You might believe it if you saw Kouretas’s face.”

“How bad was he hurt?”

“See for yourself.” Crocker handed her a picture that showed Kouretas with a swollen eye and a cut lip.

She blanched as she gazed at the damage. “No. Whoever did this, it wasn’t Seth. Like I said, I’m pretty sure he was here all night.”

“Pretty sure?” he said skeptically.

She wished she would’ve stated that with more conviction, but she didn’t know. Not really. She’d assumed Seth hadn’t left the house. The alarm would’ve announced if the front door had been opened. But maybe he’d left after she was asleep and she didn’t hear him. He had been at that bar before. And he was angry with Kouretas. “If...if something like that happened, Seth would’ve said something about it this morning.”

“He didn’t?”

“No. Not a word.” This, she could state with absolute conviction. “He...he seemed the same as he was last night. And there wasn’t a scratch on him.”

“That’s because he used a board he grabbed off the ground.”

Tia swallowed hard. “No way. I don’t believe Seth would ever do that.”

“For Aiyana’s sake, I’d like to believe you,” Crocker said. “But we have a witness.”

Tia was so shocked by this news she nearly dropped the photograph. “You do?”

“We do. And it’s someone I’ve known for years, someone who’d have no reason to side against Seth.”

Tia gaped at him. “Who?”