“Wendy, he isn’t cheating. He’s at school. I’ve followed him every other place he’s been. He simply heads home at night. Sometimes he does go to a restaurant. He eats. You should end this before it goes badly. Do you really want him to possibly discover you hired me because you don’t trust him?”

Wendy stood, somewhat indignant. “You’re paid not to let him know.”

Dan shook his head. “He won’t know from me. That’s not the point.”

“He told me he had some kind of a business meeting, something that might bring a lot of good into our lives. But he wouldn’t tell me what it was. He was so silly about it. Then he was just... I don’t know...weird. And then he said he wanted to forget all of it.”

“Maybe it was just a bad opportunity, and he felt weird about it,” Dan said wearily.

“A week, just another week,” Wendy said.

Dan knew he was good at what he did. Nathan Lawrence would never know he had been watched and followed. Dan didn’t need this client. He was solvent; he had money in the bank. But he did do this for a living—as much as he was coming to loathe it—and Wendy did pay her bills.

He was nodding as his phone rang. He had his cell on silent, but it was vibrating on his desk.

Ryder was calling him. Detective Ryder Stapleton, NOPD.

“Excuse me. I have to take this,” he told Wendy. It was probably a social call, as Ryder was a friend, but it could also be something more interesting.

She nodded and rose to leave. “One more week. I’ll pay Marleah on the way out.”

She headed to the door to exit his office. He watched her go, wondering for a moment just how he had managed to do this to himself. He’d been a good detective with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement once upon a time.

And he’d let bitterness over a case cause him to resign. Well, here he was—a licensed private investigator. Following errant husbands and wives, looking for rebellious teens and dealing with the emotional baggage of humanity.

Ryder was his one salvation: his longtime friend asked him in on a case now and then as a consultant for the New Orleans PD.

“Hey. Tell me you need me. Please, I’m begging you,” he said into the phone.

Ryder was silent for a moment. “I need you.” He seemed to be taking a deep breath before plunging in. “Dan, it’s happened here. I need you to meet me in the Marigny.”

“What’s happened here?”