When she reached them, she didn’t bother with an introduction. The look on Pryce’s face told her he knew exactly who she was.

“We need to talk, Detective Pryce,” she said. “I know my father’s real name was Brad Ferezy, not Tony Shaw.”

Pryce nodded gravely. “Yes, we do need to talk.” He turned to his partner. “Vic, this is Jessica. She’s the daughter of an old school friend of mine. We have some stuff to sort out. I’m going to have to take a raincheck on lunch.”

“Okay, no problem.” The other detective set off down Wilcox, but not before throwing Pryce a look over his shoulder that made it clear he would be expecting an explanation later.

Pryce watched him go, then turned back to Jessica. “Can you give me five minutes? There’s something I need to find.”

“Sure,” she said. “I’ll wait in the truck.”

Pryce was back in front of the station seven minutes later.

Jessica knew exactly how many minutes she had waited because she had watched every one of them click by on the dash’s clock, wondering if he was going to show or not. Pryce jogged across the street, nipped around the rear of the truck, then slid into the passenger seat beside her. He was holding a sealed white envelope in his hand. Sweat dampened his brow and upper lip, and Jessica nudged the AC up a few notches.

“Thank you,” he said. He shifted in his seat to face her. “You look well. I know you might find this hard to believe, but despite everything, it’s good to see you. To meet you properly after all this time.” He was drumming his fingers nervously on the envelope.

“What do you mean, ‘despite everything’?” she asked.

Pryce sighed. “First off, I apologize for not offering to take you someplace for lunch or coffee, but I don’t think this is a conversation that should be happening around other people. Secondly, I apologize for being so evasive when you called these last couple of days. I guess I panicked. I was thinking about what was best for myself, not what was best for you.”

“And what’s best for me?”

“The truth, I guess. I’d always agreed with Brad when he said the less you knew about your past, the better. Now? I think you’ll be safer if you do know.”

With that comment, he glanced in the rearview mirror, then checked the side-view mirror. Jessica did likewise. There were no folks hiding in the shadows. No black SUV with tinted windows.

“I’m listening,” Jessica said.

Pryce shifted awkwardly in the leather seat and nodded.