Andi considered her answer for a moment before saying, “Give what I said some thought.” Andi’s words took on a gentler tone as she continued. “I’ve seen people fall apart doing this job. Busted marriages, alcoholism—a good friend of mine got marched out of court for showing up drunk. If you have any doubts—”

“I don’t.” Lila’s words finally landed sharp and hard.

Andi appraised Lila and gave her a nod. “So, you want to tell me why Frank Dovey has taken an interest in you?”

“Frank?”

“He stopped by my office on Thursday. He saw you…freeze in court. He wants a report on your work. And he said that he’ll be doing your next quarterly evaluation. I have to go through him to put anything into your personnel file. That’s outside of the norm, so do you have any idea why he gave me that order?”

The answer that came to Lila first—that Dovey was out to get her—sounded over-the-top paranoid, even to her. Instead, she said, “The only time we ever met was when I worked with Boady Sanden on the Pruitt case.”

Lila saw what looked like a twinkle of understanding in Andi’s eyes. Then she nodded. “He wants me to draft a letter for your file regarding Thursday’s incident. I told him I’d give it some thought. Well, I’ve given it some thought, and I don’t think I’ll be writing any such letter. I’m taking you at your word that it was an aberration and won’t happen again. But, Lila, if this thing—this attack—isn’t an aberration, I’ll have no choice. Are we clear on that?”

“We’re clear.”

*  *  *

Lila ate lunch at her desk, finishing up on the more pressing of Andi’s assignments. She passed the afternoon working on a research memo that she could have done in her sleep, her attention continually wandering away from her task and to her meeting with Dr. Roberts. Something he said—a minor point that Lila hadn’t given much thought to at the time—had become a pebble in her shoe, growing in size until she could no longer ignore it.

Had the investigators, eight years ago, interviewed a man with a lisp? She remembered giving Detective Yates her account of the party and waking up in the bean field, but after that, she never heard from him. Now she couldn’t help but wonder how far he had gone to find her attackers.