“That’s good. And I know at least one other person who’s supportive of your career.”

I frowned. “You do?”

“Yes. Tim Wellington.”

I hadn’t mentioned bumping into Tim the previous morning. In fact, I rarely brought him up at all. “You talked to Tim?” I said.

“A few days ago. Lieutenant Henderson filled me in on Tim’s involvement with the case, so I thought it might be good to touch base with him. I’ve gotta say, Shana, he’s a fan.”

“Of what?”

“Of you. He respects you as an investigator, and he values the contributions you’ve made to the troop since your arrival. He made that very clear.”

Tim talked to Gasko and didn’t tell me? We’d been alone at Nelly’s, had even discussed the counseling I was receiving. Why wouldn’t Tim mention he got a call from Gil?

“If it were up to Tim, you’d be reinstated already. There’s just one thing bothering him.” Gil twirled his stir stick between his stumpy fingers. “He wanted me to ask you about the connection between Blake Bram and your hometown.”

Son of a bitch. The tips of my ears burned with anger. I choose not to divulge something personal, and Tim tries to force it out of me? It was a jerk move, but a smart one. Tim figured my counselor stood the best chance of bringing me to my senses. He didn’t believe I was done with Bram, and he wasn’t going to take my evasion lying down.

I shouldn’t have expected anything less from a fellow investigator. On Tern Island I’d listened to the Sinclairs dismiss the local police force as blundering small-town cops, and watched as Tim purposefully lived up to their expectations. But it took skill to fool witnesses and suspects into seeing him as affable and benign. Initially, Tim hadn’t struck me as the silent-but-deadly type, but I knew better now. He specialized in befriending witnesses and suspects, but wouldn’t hesitate to use that against them for the sake of a case. Tim was a lot sharper than people gave him credit for.

“It’s like this,” I told Gil. “Based on data acquired through the dating app Bram used to attract his victims, and patterns in the similarities between witness accounts, my former colleagues with the NYPD believe Bram spent time in Swanton, same as me. Whether he was raised in the area or only lived there for a while, they don’t know.” Don’t, and won’t. Back in New York, the detectives in the Seventh Precinct had moved on from Blake Bram. They still hoped to apprehend him, but it had been a year and a half since the first murder, and fourteen months since my abduction. Without anything new to go on, the case was growing cold. “Does it bother me that Bram has history there? Of course it does. Swanton’s my hometown, so I guess I see it as a violation. That’s probably why Tim thinks I’m obsessed with Bram. Finding him, I mean.”