Katie went very still.
Across the table, Scout straightened.
“Interview?” he said.
Eleanor glanced at him briefly. “Apparently, Ms. Martin gave Ms. Grant a forty-minute interview at her apartment last week. Off the record, according to Ms. Grant. Although that seems to mean something different to her than it does to the rest of us.”
“I didn’t tell her anything I hadn’t already said,” Katie snapped.
“You hadn’t said anything,” Eleanor replied. “Not to the sheriff’s department.”
Silence.
Scout leaned forward slowly now, eyes on Katie in a way that made it clear he had, in fact, missed that.
“You talked to Lila Grant before you called us?”
Katie crossed her arms tighter.
“She asked questions,” she said defensively. “She listened.”
“And she put a camera in your face,” Eleanor said quietly. “Those aren’t always the same thing.”
“Let me ask you something,” Eleanor said. “In that moment—when he said, ‘I buried her’—did you believe him?”
Katie met her eyes.
“No.”
“Do you believe him now?”
“Yes.”
“What changed?”
“I already told you.” Katie’s voice rose. “The way he acts. The way he talks about women. The way he thinks he can do anything and walk away.”
Eleanor’s tone stayed soft.
“That describes a lot of men,” she said. “Does it make all of them murderers?”
Katie’s expression hardened.
“He threatened to do to me what he did to her.”
“And yet you stayed,” Eleanor said. “For two more months.”
Katie shot a look toward Scout.
“You going to let her talk to me like this?”
Scout’s voice was even.
“She’s Mercer’s attorney, Ms. Martin,” he said. “It’s her job to ask questions.”
“Right now it’s my job to find out whether you’re a witness or a weapon,” Eleanor added, still calm.
“So let’s keep going.”
