A few minutes later, she heard two voices approaching, a man and a woman, chatting about where to buy the better coffee. When they walked in, Lila recognized the woman and held out a hand. “Lila Nash, I’m working with Andi on this case.”

“Niki Vang.” The detective shook hands with Lila. “And this is Detective Mateo Lopez.”

“Matty.” The detective gave Lila a kind smile as they shook.

Lila turned her attention back to Niki. “I believe we’ve met before—kind of. The Ben Pruitt case?”

Lila watched as recognition slowly took hold, although Lila didn’t know whether this was a good thing or bad. Niki Vang and her then-partner, Max Rupert, had been the investigators on the Pruitt case, and Lila had been at counsel table with Boady Sanden as he picked their case apart.

To Lila’s great relief, Niki’s face lit up. “Lila Nash. Of course. I thought the name sounded familiar.” They took seats, leaving an empty chair for Andi. “I haven’t seen you around here before,” Niki said. “You just start?”

“They had me in White Collar since March. I just started with Andi this week.”

Niki looked at Gavin Spencer’s file in front of Lila. “What do you think of this one?”

Lila almost answered honestly but thought better of it and said, “The lineup is strong?”

“I think so,” Niki said. “The victim had a visceral reaction once she recognized him.”

Lila thought about asking Niki to clarify what she meant by “once she recognized him,” but Andi entered before she could, nodding to Niki and Matty as she joined them at the table.

“What have you got for me?” Andi said.

The detectives shared a glance before Niki spoke. “I wish we could say we have a lot more than what we had yesterday, but…” Niki slid a piece of paper to Andi. “We had them rush the tox report and they confirmed the presence of GHB—enough to incapacitate a person.”

“Any GHB in the house?” Andi asked.

Matty said, “Crime scene techs covered every inch. Didn’t find a thing.”

Andi laced her fingers into a church and steeple and touched them to her chin, her gaze fixed on the middle of the table as she concentrated. “Maybe the house isn’t the crime scene.”

“We’re pretty sure it is,” Niki said. “Gavin went to the salon at six o’clock on Monday. Add up how long it might take to slip the victim the drug and get her home and we’re looking at about an hour. We have a neighbor saying that she thought she saw the black Bronco drive by around seven. It fits.”

“Did he take his phone to the salon? Can we trace his whereabouts?”

Niki shook her head. “As far as we can tell, the phone never left the house.”

Andi leaned in, keeping her focus on that same spot. “What about computer forensics?”

“Odd thing there,” Matty said. “Preliminary forensics show that the guy used his home computer that day—looking up email and stuff, nothing that helps us—but we couldn’t find a router. He used the internet but had no connection. We think he threw the router away as part of the cleanup. If nothing else, it suggests he had something to hide—that he knew we were coming.”