“She showed them to me today. I never knew they existed or what she’d done. I swear, nothing happened between us. My eyes are closed in all of the pictures. They’re staged. She’s a sick woman. If I don’t get her a job, she’s going to send the pictures to you, to Foster Shore, Leland Slaughter and post them online along with the claim that I stole her work. It’ll destroy everything.”

Seconds passed with Lisa staring hard at him as if he were a stranger, her face fracturing with anguish. “Did you fuck her?”

“No, Lisa—God, no! I swear.”

She scrutinized him for deception through her hot tears. “I don’t know what to believe,” she said. “If you’ve got nothing to hide, if you’ve done nothing wrong, then tell your bosses, and tell Cruz and Reddick.”

“I can’t. If Vida’s lies got out, they could destroy everything.” He took her shoulders. “Can we sit down, Lisa, please?”

She shrugged him off.

He blinked several times, searching for the right words. “You have every right to be angry with me, to think I’m a fool. But I swear with all my heart, I never slept with Vida. I know you’re scared. I am, too. This is a nightmare. As for Vida knowing where we live, I’ll talk to Cruz. I’ll say we’re still a bit jumpy, which is true, and ask for extra patrols. As for Loften, he’s locked up. Besides, I think the detectives would have come to us if he had any connection to Vida, right?”

Lisa said nothing.

“Lisa, look at everything we suffered through when we were kids. Things that scarred us. Things we’ve never told anyone. You know how I lived, how I really lived, after my dad was shot, and how it shaped me, and how I carry everything from that day—you’ve felt similarly shaped by a childhood tragedy, right?”

She closed her eyes and nodded because it was true.