“Last—” I caught myself before I got the sentence out. Jesus, Jo. But that was unlike Lou, too, to forget a detail that would’ve been so important to the case. I coughed, started over, picking my words carefully. “Last I heard, his campaign isn’t going well anyway. Less incentive to pay us off,” I lied. The last poll still had him up a hair’s breadth in the polls. A perfect setup for our type of sting.

Lou shrugged. “Yeah, maybe.” She didn’t sound convinced.

The bartender set the two coffees down in front of us and asked for our orders: Lou picked waffles. I stuck with yogurt, thinking that would be quick to eat. The sooner we finished, the sooner we could leave. Lou thanked her. I didn’t say anything. The bartender moved away to put our orders into the kitchen.

“So you didn’t go to Jackal’s last night after all,” Lou said.

I drummed my fingers on the bar. Maybe she hadn’t forgotten the standing date for Carrigan’s happy hour. “You’re very nosy about how much time I spend in Jackal’s bed. It’s starting to make me wonder.”

“Wonder what?”

“Are you jealous of him, or me?” The best defense, and all that.

Lou’s fingers froze on the rim of her glass. Her big green eyes met mine—she would’ve never said it, but I know she liked the question, the challenge of it. I held her gaze for a long beat. She looked away first.

“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” Lou said. She slurped her coffee.

“I’m sure you do.” I tried to catch her eye again, but the fun of the challenge had gone out of it for Lou; she wouldn’t look at me.

Instead, she unfolded her napkin, placed it over her lap. She let the pause grow long. Then: “You said you went out to eat. Where’d you go?”

“I . . .” I had no answer. My mind was blank, still wishing for an answer from her. Lou stared at me, eyebrows raised.

The bartender saved me.

“Here you are, ladies,” she said, pushing the plates forward on the bar top. “Enjoy.”

“I went back to that tiki bar,” I blurted. “Like you said I would. I guess . . . I guess I wanted to go back to a moment before everything with . . . you know who.” Back to the moment when the only thing I had to worry about was the money I owed the Lady. Back to the moment when Ellen was still a living pain in my ass.

For the first time that morning, I let myself think of her, really think of her, and it was too much. I knotted my fists into my abdomen, hoping the pain would keep me from sinking back into that Ellen place.