Oh, how angry he must be. Yesterday, upon leaving the police station, she’d found Graham’s car idling in the parking lot. “B-But your shoot,” she stammered when she hurried to his window. “It’s your episode.”

“Just get in the car, please,” Graham said stonily, staring straight ahead.

On the drive from the station, Graham didn’t say a word, gnawing on his bottom lip like he wanted to chew it off. “It’s all a misunderstanding,” she’d pleaded. “You can go back to work. I’ll be all right.”

“That ship has sailed,” Graham had said emptily.

“I didn’t do anything,” Lauren said. “Please go back to work. I hate that you had to leave. Is Gracie upset?”

“Lauren, leave it.”

“We just wanted to talk to Piper.” Should she have been offering up that information? “About . . . volunteering. It wasn’t a big deal. I certainly didn’t plan on appearing at a crime scene.”

Something about her voice must have tipped him off, because when they halted at a stoplight, he gave her a strange, devastated look. “What?” she asked.

“Is that really what happened?”

“Of course it is.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

The light changed; Graham rolled through it slowly. Lauren’s cheeks burned. She knew what he wanted to ask her, really: Is this like that night in the kitchen?

She hovered in the doorway now, full of shame and confusion. But then Matthew looked up. “Ma!” he exclaimed, his smile a gummy triangle.

“Hey, baby.” Lauren rushed forward and slid to her knees so she could be next to him. “My baby,” she whispered, pulling him onto her lap, holding him close. She never meant to hurt anyone.

Daringly, she touched Graham’s bare knee as he tapped on the laptop. “Good morning to you, too.”

Graham moved his knee away. Lauren felt a sting. “Graham,” she said softly. He didn’t look at her. “Graham?”

One of the plastic ring toys clattered against the other, and Matthew let out a bleat. “Graham,” she said again, feeling defensive. “Okay, I’m going to assume that you not talking to me means you think I’ve done something. Even though I told you I didn’t.”

Graham shut the laptop with a snap. There were puffy circles beneath his eyes. His lips were cracked and dry. “You went behind my back. You wrote to Piper about the thing you said you wouldn’t—in no uncertain terms, either.” He shook his head. “Why would you tell her about your . . . issues?”

It took a moment for Lauren to find her words. She’d forgotten all about her email to Piper. “H-How do you know about that?”

“The police called.”

Lauren blinked. It hadn’t occurred to her that the police would get Piper’s emails so quickly. “. . . When?”

“This morning. Why would you tell a total stranger about a personal thing we’re going through?”