“When I first suspected someone had been in my house—pictures moved, books out of place—I called the police. When I had flowers left inside for me, I called the police. Uniformed officers always showed up, took my statement, suggested I get a security camera, a bodyguard, that sort of thing. Then one day, this detective knocked on my door. He had a badge. He had a card, it looked official.” Dani tucked her hair behind her ears in a nervous gesture. “He told me he was taking over the case and that I should call him from now on if anything happened.” Dani looked at her. “The first time I called him was when a doll was left in the kitchen during the night. I was totally freaking out and I called him. He came right away. But it was always the same. No evidence. Nothing on the security camera. I got the impression that he didn’t believe me.” She shook her head. “How funny that must have been to him, huh?”

“I called LAPD,” Harper said to Reid. “Verified that they have no Detective Zapalac and they’ve never assigned anyone to Danielle Stevens.”

“What about the jeweler? Maybe they’ve got him on a security camera. We should check. We need to get Mize involved.”

“No. If we go in, then they’ll take Dani away, I’ll be removed from the case. LAPD will get involved. The FBI will get involved.”

“Hell, Harper, you’ll be lucky to still have a job. You know you’re looking at a suspension. I’m telling you, he was pissed. They found your car in Five Points. It was stripped so bad, the dash wasn’t even in one piece.”

“I don’t care about that right now.”

Reid looked at Dani. “What do you want to do?”

“I stay with Harper,” Dani said firmly. “I don’t trust anyone else.”

Reid sighed and shook his head. “You’re right, Harper. As soon as you go in, they’re taking your service weapon and shield and putting you on paid leave. They’ll whisk Dani away. And yeah, they’ll get LAPD involved, the FBI too. We’ll be out of the loop.”

“That’s not going to happen. Not until we get this bastard.”

Reid met her gaze. “What do you want me to do, Harper?”

“Be my backup.”

He stared at her for a long moment, then let out a deep breath. “Sure. We might as well both be suspended at the same time, right?”

She reached across the table and squeezed his hand. “Thank you. And I’m assuming they’re running a trace on my phone.”

“They are.”

“So as soon as I put the SIM card back in, they’ll get me.”

“They will.”

“So when we really need the troops, I’ll do that. Until then, it’s you and me.”

He nodded. “So? There’s a plan?”