“I can’t believe you let an old man get the upper hand on you,” she said, deciding that expressing sincere, genuine concern was not something she was up for in that moment.

“From what I hear, I could probably take him now,” Hernandez replied, before sensing that the comment might be out of bounds. “I mean, um, what I mean is…you know what? I’m on a lot of medication right now so you’ll have to give me a pass.”

“Pass granted,” she said, walking over and taking a seat beside him. His joke had broken the dam of reserve inside her and she decided not to hide her concern. “How are you doing, Ryan—for real?”

Hernandez appeared about to make another quip, then stopped himself.

“You really want to hear this?” he asked.

Jessie nodded.

“Okay—not the best,” he admitted. “Even with the meds, it hurts every time I, you know, breathe. My arm feels like it’s on fire all the time. And I can’t seem to sleep for more than two hours at a time. So that kind of sucks. But at least my personal life is falling apart.”

“How’s that?” Jessie asked, reticent to get specific.

“Well, Shelly hasn’t stopped by. I guess if you’re separated and your wife doesn’t visit you in the hospital after you’ve been stabbed, it’s time to put a nail in that coffin and make it official. I will shortly be a divorced thirty-year-old—just what I always wanted.”

“I’m really sorry, Ryan.”

“That’s okay,” he said unconvincingly. “I thought my luck had changed briefly when a nice-looking woman came into the room for a while. But it turned out she was just your body double, here to draw out your dad. Once they found him, even she bailed on me.”

“Too bad,” Jessie said. “She might have been ‘the one.’”

“I’ve got a couple of months of physical therapy to take my mind off it.”

“Way to stay positive there, young fella,” she said, deciding it was time to short-circuit the pity party. “Once you’re up and moving, I have this great dating website to introduce you to. It brings together hot chicks with wealthy, powerful men…oh, wait, never mind. That doesn’t really apply to you, does it?”

He started to laugh, which quickly turned into a groan of pain. When he finally recovered, his spoke more slowly than before.

“I heard through the grapevine that it doesn’t just pair the girls up with rich men. Powerful ladies partake as well.”

“Yeah,” she said, “but the success rate on that is decidedly lower. I don’t think they’ll be advertising that side of the business anytime soon.”

“Seriously, Jessie. Congratulations. Solving a murder case while being protected by US marshals because you’re in hiding from two serial killers? That’s real gold star material.”

“Thank you,” she said, unable to come up with anything clever in response.

Ryan picked up the slack.

“And I hear that in the process, you saved the career of a mediocre actor who almost certainly would not have fared well if incarcerated.”