“No time for personal stuff on Facebook or Tinder, or Twitter or Instagram or whatever.”

Mendoza rounded the edge of his cubicle to look over Rivers’s shoulder. “James Cahill is pretty damned hot.” She took a sip from her cup as she eyed the image on the screen.

“Save it.”

“Even now, with a bandage covering half his head.” She nodded, as if agreeing with herself. “I hate to say it, but it’s true.” Her gaze assessed the obviously posed and pointedly casual image of Cahill on the screen. “I’m telling you, the guy’s got something.”

Rivers shot her a look as he rolled back his chair to stare up at her.

She lifted her free hand in surrender. “Fine, fine, you don’t want to talk about how sexy James Cahill is—”

Rivers snorted.

“I’m just giving you the female point of view, you know. Why he’s got all these women fighting for him.”

“All these women?”

Nodding, she said, “He runs through them. Like water.”

“And they fight for him?”

“Well, that’s just my take on it. Maybe not fighting literally, but somehow he got pretty damned beat up. And those scratches on his face?” she said, eyebrows elevating. “From a woman. An angry woman.”

“Or a scared one, defending herself.”

“Possibly.”

“So tell me about James Cahill’s women.”

“First off ”—she held up a finger—“there was that schoolteacher in Marysville, Jennifer Korpi. I got hold of her on the phone. She’d already given her statement to the Marysville PD, and they forwarded it. I just called to get some facts. She’s not only a teacher; she also tutors kids struggling in school and helps out at the local animal shelter. She has a steady boyfriend. Also her brother is her alibi. According to the deputy who interviewed her, she was pretty angry that she would even have to come up with one.”

“What happened between her and James Cahill?”

“Short-lived and flared out as soon as he met Rebecca Travers. Korpi said the waning interest was mutual but”—Mendoza shook her head, her black messy bun shining under the overhead lights—“I’m not so sure about that. And they do have a connection, if a weak one. Jennifer’s father used to work for the Cahill family in San Francisco, as a groundskeeper.”

“But James grew up in Oregon.”

“And spent some summers in California visiting Cissy Cahill, even though she’s a lot older than he, by fifteen years or so.” Mendoza waggled her hand to indicate she wasn’t certain of the age difference. “Anyway, according to Jennifer Korpi, that’s where he and she first met—at the Cahill estate in San Francisco.”

“So how did they reconnect and get together here?”