Page 61 of The Silent Hour

Fine.

Now I understood.

Katerina closed her notebook.

"We need to be careful about what we assume."

My gaze shifted toward her.

She continued. "He claims Lila knows things. He also admitted she does not know he intends to put her on his defense. Those are not the same thing."

"No," Eric agreed. "They're not."

That distinction mattered.

Lila had crossed professional boundaries with me. That was fact.

She'd made Julia uncomfortable.

Fact.

Her behavior had already been enough for me to decide she no longer belonged at the Marcelli Group.

Also fact.

Her being Dominic Cortez's daughter changed the landscape.

It didn't magically tell me what she knew.

Or whether she'd done anything for him.

Katerina exhaled through her nose. "We need to find out whether he's telling the truth.”

“Quietly,” I agreed. Nobody contacts Marino. Nobody tips her off. And nobody assumes she's involved until we have evidence that says she is."

I pulled out my phone.

First, I texted the group we'd assembled for the Cortez review.

Conference room when we get back. ASAP.

Then Julia.

We need to talk tonight. Just left Coleman.

Her response appeared almost immediately.

We need to talk tonight.

My phone rang before I could decide whether that coincidence was funny or terrifying.

Julia's face filled the screen, a picture I'd taken on Sanibel Island last winter. Her hair had been everywhere from the wind, and she'd threatened to throw my phone into the Gulf if I didn't stop taking pictures of her.

I answered.

"Should I laugh or be afraid we sent the same message?" she asked.

Despite everything, the sound of her voice loosened something in my chest.