“Not directly.” He stopped pacing and looked up at the sky for a moment. The clouds had slid away, revealing pinpricks of stars. “Remember about six months ago you had that fund-raiser at the Pig? What was it for? Pediatric cancer or something?”

“Yes, pediatric cancer. I remember.”

“Do you remember you left early?” he asked.

I did. Henry had been born just a few weeks earlier, and Amanda’s mom had come over while the two of us went to the fund-raiser. But not long after the event started, her mom called, saying she thought Henry had a fever. So we left and went home, and Henry ended up being perfectly fine. We called our pediatrician, who told us what to do, and Henry was asleep in fifteen minutes.

“I remember,” I said.

“Well, Jen was there. Hell, you invited her.”

“I didn’t invite her,” I said. “Maybe someone else at the office did. We have twelve employees at the firm. I don’t know everyone who gets invited somewhere.”

“Whatever it was, she was there. And you were gone. And I showed up, and she and I started talking. Once she found out I knew you, she perked up. I got the feeling . . .” He gave me a sideways look, one corner of his mouth curling up a little. “She asked me a lot of questions about you, to be honest. I was clearly her second choice.”

“Just tell me what happened.”

“Well, she knew how to have a good time. We drank together. We went home together. That’s how it started. She and I shared a cynical sense of humor. It wouldn’t be any good for me to be with someone like that forever, but for a short time while I was broken up with Sam . . . Yeah, it was a lot of fun. But I always hoped to get back with Sam. I love her. I need her.”

“I’m not arguing with you.”

“What are you saying about Facebook requests? You were raving about something when you were standing over me.”

“When I was in her house, I got a friend request from Jennifer. How the hell did that happen? And then I just got another one while I was sitting inside. Right before you came to the door.”

“How could I send a message from her account? I’m not even on Facebook.”

“Do you have her laptop or another device? The cops will find out.”

“You’re nuts, Ryan. All of this is getting to you and making you unable to think.”

I took a step toward him. “Okay, then let’s clear this all up. Let’s call the police right now. We can tell them everything we know, get it all out in the open, and put this behind us. You can marry Sam, and the cops can deal with this mess.”