He opened his badge and held it steady. She studied it for a minute, then stepped back to let him in. Her condo had glossy wood floors and bay windows, and the kitchen, dining room and living room were all sort of the same big space. She pulled out one of the stools that was pushed up to the kitchen counter. She sat and pointed to the other one. He took it and got out his notebook and pen.

“I wanted to talk with you about your relationship with Leah Whitman.”

“Leah and I don’t have a relationship. We’re both paralegals working under the same supervising attorney at Bailey Shepherd. But I suspect you already know that.”

She didn’t say it with an attitude, just very matter-of-fact. He decided to get more direct. “How do you and Leah get along?”

“For the most part, it’s fine. She’s a very competent paralegal and I don’t generally have to pick up much of her slack.”

“For the most part, you say. What about the other part?”

She smiled. “Mostly everyone loves Leah but she isn’t as nice as she wants everyone to believe.”

He wondered if Martha knew about Leah videotaping her mother at the casino. “Can you give me some examples?”

“I’ve seen her take credit for other people’s work. Not mine. She knows that I’d call her out on it. But other people. I’ve heard her on the phone with her husband. Quite frankly, I’m not sure how they’re still married. But when the partners are around, she is sweet. Yeah, Sweet Leah.”

“I understand that Leah was recently promoted at work to a senior paralegal. How did you feel about that?”

“Not great. It should have gone to me. But I’m not as good as Leah in managing people’s perception. That leaves me the choice of voting with my feet. But I like the work and I really like being able to walk to work. So for now, I’ll stay.”

“Where were you last Wednesday, at about 7:15 a.m.?”

“Just finishing my workout. I run on the treadmill every morning for thirty minutes.”

“Anybody be able to verify that?” he asked.

“There’s never usually anybody else in the gym but everything is on camera, like most of this building. Behind our doors is about the only privacy we get.”

He was pretty confident that this was her way of telling him that she hadn’t snuck a five-year-old up the back stairs.

“Thank you for your time, Ms. Johnston.”

“You’re welcome. I feel badly for Leah and her husband. A missing child is something that no parent should have to go through. But my only advice is, don’t be fooled. There’s more to Leah than you’ll first think.”