The police spun Graham around and placed handcuffs on his wrists. As they nudged him out the door, he shot Lauren an exasperated look, as if to say, Why did you do this to me? Why did you overreact again? The look he gave her, time and again, since she’d had Matthew.

She just stared steadily back at him. She wasn’t overreacting. Maybe she never had been.

Thirty-One

Thirty minutes later, the sun had set, and the only lights on the street were the bright blue and red ones from the tops of the police cars and ambulances. Andrea sat on the tailgate of a police SUV. Ronnie was drinking from a big bottle of water the EMTs had brought. Lauren was sitting on the curb, a blanket slung over her—the emergency workers were afraid she might be in shock. Detective Allegra, the baby-faced police officer Andrea had completely written off initially, was taking her statement. They were softball questions—about what had happened, what she’d witnessed. Allegra had been interested in Graham for the past few days, he told her, ever since he found out that he was Piper’s ex-boyfriend.

Apparently, the cops had been keeping tabs on Piper’s property, too—turns out, Carson had mentioned the whole “Piper’s afraid someone’s stalking her” bit shortly after her assault—which may have been why they hadn’t jumped to arrest Andrea and the others. The cops had arrived at the property for a routine check after Lauren, Andrea, and Ronnie had already gone inside, though when they saw Ronnie and Andrea scurry to the front porch—when they saw Graham in the foyer, aiming a gun at Lauren—they rushed in.

The images of Piper battered and bruised were scattered all over the foyer floor for the cops to find. So was a USB stick, which contained several video files of Piper documenting the injuries she’d sustained from Graham back in the day. They were old, grainy files, recorded on an ancient digital camera, but they were good enough. Piper had been creating a narrative for what was happening so that when she went to the police, she’d have proof.

Except Piper never did go to the police. She just ran away.

Allegra closed his notebook and looked at Andrea curiously. “While I have you, Ms. Vaughan: you’re quite the investigator. Anything else you figured out you want to tell me?”

Andrea opened her mouth, then shut it again. There was a whole piece of this the police didn’t know; Carson was holding it hostage. It didn’t seem fair that Carson was going to get off scot-free, yet there was no other reason for the police to search Piper’s office or her home. Even though Graham insisted he hadn’t hurt Piper, the cops had their guy.

And now, they’d never find evidence of the embezzlement.