Garcia: That’s a very strong charge. Are you saying she suggested to you that Kyle and Iris Pollitt should not have been given their son?

Frimpong: I think Danielle would not stand by if one of the kids she helped get adopted found himself in a dangerous or unstable situation.

Garcia: Did she tell you that was the situation?

Frimpong: Did she have to spell it out? We weren’t married long, but we were married and I knew her well. I knew how careful she was in speaking about a parent. But imagine you’re her and you decide one of your client families was wrongly approved. What do you do? I can tell you Danielle wouldn’t have stayed quiet.

Garcia: Are you suggesting she would have taken steps to involve the authorities in removing a child from a former client?

Frimpong: I am.

Garcia: Did you get along with the Pollitts?

Frimpong: What does that matter?

23

Julia

Julia watches the press camped in front of the house. They’ve returned because Gordon Frimpong, upon arrival, has said he and his son will stay in his son’s home. The house is, after all, not a crime scene, despite that it might hold the clues to whoever killed Danielle and why, and the investigative team has done its work.

The chicken enchiladas are in a casserole dish, hot against her palms. Her mother has taken over a dish to Mike and asked her to take dinner for Gordon and Ned. Julia takes a deep breath and walks from her house to Ned’s house, going around the press, ignoring them. One reporter peppers her with questions about having found the body and she ignores the woman. Julia knocks on the door.

Ned answers, and the press call out to him a barrage of questions. He ignores them, and she hands the foil-covered casserole dish to him. Then she turns to face the reporters. “What’s wrong with you?” she asks. “His mother is dead. If he has something to say, he’ll say it to people who aren’t standing in the street. I know you’re just doing your job. Isn’t there another way to do this? And by the way, I’m a minor, and my parents and I don’t give you permission to air what I’m saying to you.” She turns back and goes inside.

“Wow,” Ned says.

“Hey,” she says. She wants to tell him about what she’s done in the game and about Marland threatening her, but then she sees his father looming in the dining room that connects the foyer and the kitchen.