When they’d caught the little shit who had tried to hurt Carly, John let the adrenaline divert fully to the Donna problem. He let hope tamp down the immediate concern about the video, about its being out there on the police website. The cops had kept the media down at the end of the block, and the case was solved fast. It would sink. Everyone would be well on their way to the next thing in hours, if not sooner. It would be great if a celebrity death or a terrorist attack or something else happened in the next ten minutes. But either way, this was over. That part of it, anyway.

But he was exhausted. There wasn’t enough juice left in him to be as good in the fight as he needed to be.

As fast as he could make it up and say it out loud, the playback began, with a twinge at every point he could’ve been smarter. He saw—just too damned obviously—all the moments as they sped by when he could have made a better choice of words or gestures.

Donna, in a slow spot in the argument, made him show her all the cameras. When they came back inside, she’d gone quiet, but opened a bottle of wine. She poured two glasses. He took that as a good sign.

“I don’t get it, though. Why did you only put one camera in the front hall?”

Most people didn’t realize the value of not speaking when they didn’t have to in a tight spot. Vacuum, meet nature. John wasn’t most people. He fought that little fact of the universe and always tried to keep his mouth shut when it served him well to do so.

He squinted at what she’d asked and shook his head, a perfect picture of innocent confusion. At the very least, the maneuver bought time. Seconds were money in a tricky conversation. And sometimes a bewildered look made a generous person discount their own questions as nonsensical or unfair before they’d let the other person feel too bad.

She looked away from him and into her wine. “I mean, what if somebody, that guy you’re so worried about or someone else, what if they broke in through the back door? Or had come in through the garage?”

Shit. He was tired and dull. “I don’t know, babe. I didn’t think about it. I put that one camera in to cover the front door, and then I just realized how much money I’d spent and how maybe it was overkill already. . . .”