“That’s okay,” she said, though it wasn’t. “The captain has kept me looped in. Besides, he told me you were helping on a triple homicide in Topanga Canyon so I know you’ve been busy.”

“You think that’s why I’ve been out of touch?” he asked, sounding slightly offended. “That’s not it at all. I wouldn’t let something like a few murders stop me from contacting you.”

“What then?” she asked, surprised at his directness.

“Decker ordered me not to. He said that any kind of communication could put your security at risk. He said that, until Crutchfield and Thurman are caught, he wanted you completely off the grid.”

Jessie couldn’t help but feel relieved. Even though she knew it was ridiculous, some primal part of her had started to wonder whether he’d just forgotten about her. At the same time she was immediately pissed at Captain Decker for doing that and not even telling her. She planned to have a discussion with him on that matter when things settled down.

“Why the call now then?”

“I heard about Ernie Cortez’s murder and the note from Crutchfield,” he said. “I figured you had to be bouncing off the walls. So I said ‘screw it.’ I called Decker and demanded to check on you. I told him that I’d drop the case if he didn’t let me.”

“He must have loved that,” Jessie said because she didn’t trust herself to say much more.

“Yeah, he threatened to fire me and hung up. But then he called back five minutes later and said he’d patch me through to you if I called the main number and asked for Marshal Murphy. Who’s that?”

“He’s part of my security contingent,” she explained. “I don’t think I’m supposed to even say that, actually.”

“Right. Need to know, I get it. So how are you—really?”

Jessie was fine up until that last word. Really. Suddenly a floodgate of emotion opened and she felt a sob rising in her throat. At the last moment, she covered it with a cough.

“I’ve been better,” she said, her voice on the verge of cracking but managing to hold steady. “It’s hard dealing with all this without much of a support system around. After the escape from NRD, Kat is off finding herself in Europe. I haven’t been able to see my therapist for security reasons. I haven’t been allowed to talk to you. And until today, I’ve been essentially locked up in a safe house. The marshals are good at their job. But they’re not exactly chatty Cathys. And I haven’t been sleeping great, mostly because I’m in constant fear that one of two serial killers is going to find me.”

“That sounds like a super fun time,” Ryan replied with mock enthusiasm before returning to his normal voice. “I’m really sorry, Jessie. That sounds hellish.”

“Thanks,” she said.

There was a long pause that was just starting to get awkward when she broke the silence.

“How are you doing?” she asked, keeping things general though she was particularly curious about the state of his marriage. He had recently mentioned that he and his wife had separated.