Frames put his hand on the file in front of him. “We have some photos here of the victim in the park. I’d like you to look at them and tell me if this is your graphic artist. Just so you know, it might be rough to see her this way.”

Lerner swallowed. “I understand.”

Frames slid two close-ups of the victim’s face across the table.

“Oh, boy.” Lerner stared at the photos. He slowly shook his head. “Wow. That’s Elise. I mean, shit, it really is. What happened to her?”

“We’re still working on that. But I need you to tell me for certain. Is this your graphic artist?”

“Yes, it’s Elise. No question. What do you want me to do? Do I sign something?”

No tears, Frames thought. Interesting choice. “Let’s start with her full name.”

“Oh, sure. Elise Durand.”

“Could you spell that?”

Lerner spelled it out. “The first name is French for Elisabeth. I think her father was French or something.”

“We’ll need to get any personal information you have on file for her. So we can notify the family.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Lerner’s attention locked on the photos. “Poor Elise.” Finally he pushed the pictures back to Frames.

Lerner took a phone from a blazer pocket and began tapping at the screen. After a moment, he handed the phone to Frames. “That’s Elise’s address and the phone number for her apartment. I’ll have my admin look up her family’s contact information. She moved here from Pennsylvania. Her mother still lives there, I think.”

“How’d she act on Monday?” Frames wrote down the address and phone number.

“I’m not sure what you mean. Normal, I guess. I didn’t notice anything.”

“Did she happen to say where she was going that evening?”

“Not that I remember.”

“Was that unusual?” Frames asked.

“Not really. We try to keep it pretty professional.”

“Did she have a boyfriend?”

“Boyfriend?”

“Someone she saw regularly.”

“You know, I think so. But we didn’t really talk about that kind of thing.” Lerner’s face reddened.

Frames watched him. Of course you did, you lying son of a bitch.

Lerner straightened and tried to recover himself. “You should know Elise was an unusual young woman. Very attractive, but high-strung.”

“High-strung?”

“Yeah. I probably shouldn’t say this now, but in some ways, I’m not surprised something happened. She had this side to her that was—I don’t know, sort of—unpredictable.”

“In what way?”

Lerner puffed out his cheeks and exhaled. “Oh, man. Look, I am…or was…her employer. We didn’t really socialize outside the office. So I may be talking out of school. Maybe you should talk to my admin. It’s just, it was my impression that she liked…you know, in a sexual sense, what you might call—” He searched the walls for the right word.