Badeau and Graham escorted Sutton back to her flat in the 7th, where she packed her small new life into her small new used suitcase and ruefully accepted the fact that she was never going to be allowed back into France again.

Despite this, she counted herself lucky.

Badeau drove them to the airport herself. Along the way, Badeau and Graham shared what they felt was appropriate for Sutton to know about the case, Badeau reciting the facts animatedly in her staccato accent; Graham supplementing with her side of the story. Sutton couldn’t help herself; she really wanted to make both of them characters in her next book. Assuming she’d ever sell one again.

Sutton learned Ivy Brookes had gone to ground. No one knew where she was. After her incident with Ethan, who was sporting a wicked black eye and a broken nose, she’d departed the house on Third Avenue and disappeared.

Constantine’s real name was Hank, and the only thing he’d allowed Sutton to see that was real were the bones under his skin. The entire conceit of the man she knew as Constantine Raffalo was a carefully manufactured persona designed specifically to attract Sutton, a bee to honey, from his worldly accent to their intimate conversations. Sutton had always been easily seduced; with three years of friendship confessions to Ivy, Hank was playing with a full deck of information on how to work Sutton to the core.

Sutton was embarrassed. She’d been had by a brilliant con, yes, but she’d been searching for something to break her from her life and had seized upon the first available dick to do so. It was beneath her. The indignity of it rankled.

When she mentioned it, Badeau told her not to worry. Lesser women had been felled by lesser men. Sutton got the sense Badeau may have known whence she spoke, and left it alone.

The deal negotiated meant Badeau saw them onto the plane and then waved them away. Graham wasn’t much of a talker, so once they were buckled in their uncomfortable, last row window/aisle seats, Sutton accepted the headset from the flight attendant and plugged in, pretending to watch a movie, and instead stared out the window at the darkening sky, trying to come to grips with her new normal, where she was escorted onto flights by police officers, and probably faced severe punishment at home.

After takeoff, once the meager meal had been served, it was clear to both women that neither was truly resting, and so they began to talk. Cautiously at first, but Sutton soon realized the blonde cop knew more about her than any woman she’d ever met, and so she let down her guard completely, and told her the whole story, start to finish.

Shine a Bright Light in the Corners

SHINE A BRIGHT LIGHT IN THE CORNERS

Then