“I am being honest.”

“No,” Hazard said, jabbing a finger at him, “you are a fucking liar. And you know what happens to liars? Every fucking lie eventually comes apart, Darnell. Jesus Christ. Did you really think you could get away with this?”

“Did something happen to Gray?” Darnell’s gaze moved to Somers. “Did he get hurt? You can’t think I had anything to do with that; I couldn’t hurt him.”

“You automatically assume something happened to him,” Hazard said. “That’s very interesting.”

“Of course that’s what I assume. He’s a police officer. That’s all I think about when he’s at work: he could get shot, he could get killed, some crazy drunk could push him down a flight of steps. I can’t breathe sometimes because I know he’s in so much danger, and there’s nothing I can do about it. You show up here, you’re . . . you’re making accusations, and I don’t know what happened to him. So will you just tell me?” The last words exploded out of Darnell, and then he hinged at the waist, his face ashen, supporting himself on his knees.

“Great fucking performance,” Hazard said.

“It’s not a performance,” Somers said, and the blond man looped an arm around Darnell, helping the bigger man sit. “Call an ambulance.”

Darnell’s head dropped forward, his chin against his chest, and he was taking gasping breaths like he couldn’t get any air.

Hazard made the call.

“Oh God,” Darnell said. “Oh my God.”

“Hey,” Somers said, “stay with me, ok? Stay focused, Darnell. Gray’s ok. You’re going to be ok too, all right? You just need to breathe. Try to relax.”

“Oh shit,” Darnell said, one hand pressed to his chest, “oh shit that hurts.” Sweat had broken out across his waxy features, and then he gave a sigh. His arm dropped back into his lap. He was still breathing, but it was those awful, erratic breaths.

“Jesus Christ,” Somers said. “How long did they say?”

“They didn’t. Darnell, can you hear me?”

Somers was shaking his head, but Darnell answered in scratchy whisper, “Yeah.”

“You lied about Princeton Law. Princeton doesn’t even have a law school.”

Darnell’s head came up; his eyes were half-closed, and he mumbled, “Scared. Dumb thing to say.”

“He said that when we were about to arrest him,” Somers explained. “I said something stupid about him playing a lawyer on TV, and he came back at me with that. It shut me up pretty fast.”

A smile ghosted across Darnell’s lips. “Wanted to look good for Gray.”

“And this?” Hazard said, drawing the SquibSquab business card from his pocket. “Another lie?”

“Startup,” Darnell said. “Guys, I’m really tired.”

“I know,” Somers said. “I need you to stay awake until the ambulance is here.”

Darnell nodded, but he might have just been bobbing his head. “Just a startup. I work—” One big hand lifted and then fell again. “Phone.”

Patting the man down, Somers located the phone and pulled it out. Darnell unlocked it and tapped the screen a few times. He passed it to Somers, and Somers passed it to Hazard. On the screen, Darnell’s personal contact info was displayed, including an email address and a work address both connected to a company called Astrolabe/Welkin in San Jose, California.