“What’s that supposed to mean?” Had she caught Sam buzzed at noon?
“Well, among other things, I could tell he didn’t have a clue who I was.” She lifted her chin and leveled her bloodshot eyes at me.
I moved my mouth to say something. But what?Please can we not do this now? Can we not do it ever?Millie seemed to register the panic in my eyes. Her face softened.
“Anyway,” she went on, “I would have postponed this nonsense by a day if you’d told me you were going to go yourself.”
“It couldn’t wait,” I said, then motioned to the hospital room.“And you couldn’t postpone this.”
“It can always wait. Trust me. This guy isn’t worth risking your life for.”
“It couldn’t wait,” I said again. “For my sake.”
“What does that mean?”
I took a deep breath. I was out of places to hide. “Zach Grayson is extorting me,” I said. “He’s using some compromising information to make me stay on the case until he’s cleared.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously.”
“Tell him to fuck off then!” Millie shouted.
“You do know how extortion works, right?” I asked. “You tell them to fuck off, and then they do the bad things you don’t want them to do.”
“Wait, this isn’t about—”
“No, no,” I said. “Zach doesn’t know about that. At least, as far as I know.”
“Then what the hell else could he possibly have on you?” She sniffed. Then she leaned in, an eyebrow raised again. “Wait, you didn’t go to one of those sex parties, did you?”
I shook my head. “It’s Sam. He’s an … alcoholic.” The word tore at my throat even now. “That’s where the problem started. The rest spirals out from there. There’s a lawsuit relating to a car accident Sam had, and now we owe a lot of money. I lied about it on a financial disclosure form when I took the job at Young & Crane, because I was worried they wouldn’t hire me. And we so badly needed the money to dig us out of debt. For sure, they’ll fire me if Zach tells them. I could be disbarred. It would ruin my career.”
“That motherfucker.” She shook her head in disgust. “How the hell did he even find that out?”
I shrugged. “Who knows. Other detectives?”
“Bet he pays them.” She smiled.
A nurse came in then with a tray of needles and small bottlesof medicine. She set it on the counter behind Millie and, without making eye contact with either one of us, moved about, methodically adjusting various tubes. “You ready to get started in ten, sweetheart?” she asked Millie in a voice that was two parts robot, one part genuinely kind.
“Sure thing,” Millie said. “Soon as I’m done with my friend here.”
“Okay, sweetheart,” the nurse said distractedly as her phone buzzed. “I’ll be right back.”
She hustled out then, already on her phone.
“All right, we’ll figure out how to deal with Zach Grayson in a second,” Millie said once she was gone. “In the meantime, what did you find upstate? You have the prints? Not to reward your dumb-ass judgment, but as soon as I found out you went up there, I reached out to the lab. Got them to agree to run one more comparator sample for us on a rush basis whenever we have it. Just the one, and only to the print on the stair, and maybe the golf bag. But at least they agreed to bill us after the fact. All I need to do is call and say the word.”
“What about Vinnie?”
Millie waved a hand. “It’s one sample. He’ll survive.”
“You didn’t tell him.”
“Not yet.”
“Thank you,” I said with a dejected exhale. “But unfortunately all I discovered in St. Colomb Falls was that everything I thought I knew was wrong. Turns out Xavier Lynch is Amanda’s uncle, not her father. And Amanda’s father couldn’t have killed her because he’s dead. It happened twelve years ago. The father attacked Amanda’s friend; Amanda intervened. Her father and the friend both ended up dead.”
