“Wait,” I said. I held my hands up, palms out. “Just wait.”

He froze, staring at me, wild-eyed. I pulled my door closed slowly, its weight agonizing for my bruised arm. We were sealed in silence, closeness. I fancied I could hear his heart beating, a smashing rhythm that reverberated through the car around us—but maybe it was my own. I carefully pulled the folded yellow envelope out of my back pocket and held it between us, a peace offering wavering over the handbrake.

“You forgot this,” I said.

“I don’t want anything from you.” His jaw was twitching, teeth clamped together. “I need you to get out of this car. Right now.”

“This is what my partner has been able to find out about—”

“Get out of my car!”

“—about the man who raped your fucking daughter!”

Our voices swelled against the roof of the car. Neither of us could look at the other. We sat staring ahead, panting, two passengers in a vehicle going nowhere.

“I did not rape your daughter,” I said after a time, chancing a glance in his direction. “I don’t expect you to believe that until you’ve looked at this.” I threw the envelope into his lap. “I hope you’ll look at it. But I don’t expect you to do that, either.”

He didn’t move.

“Why did you come here?” he asked eventually. “Why did you follow me?”

“Because I want him caught too. Can’t you understand that?” Suddenly I was on the edge of shouting again. Thumping my sore chest. “I. Didn’t. Do. This.”

He was stiff, the muscles of his neck pulled taut, eyes locked on the dashboard. His hands were in his lap, under the envelope, one raw, bloody knuckle visible. It was my turn to put my head in my hands.

“I don’t even know your name,” I said.

“How the hell do you not know my name?” His voice was a low, dangerous monotone. “How did you not recognize my face?”

“Because from the moment I was arrested I was in terror for my fucking life,” I said. “I lost my family. I lost my job. I lost my house. I was put in chains and thrown in prison with a bunch of psychopaths. My own colleagues interrogated me. My friends. The whole world was upside down. My brain didn’t have room for you. Or your wife. Or your daughter, for fuck’s sake.”

He shifted at the mention of the child. I took a breath and continued carefully.

“I saw Claire for a few seconds on the side of the highway that day, and I never saw her again. You understand? I had no idea who she was. I didn’t even remember seeing her, in the beginning. All this has been just a fucking idea to me. It never actually happened.”

I stared at the side of his head. I wasn’t sure he understood at all, or if he even should. Long minutes of silence passed.