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"I have a signed complaint, documented injuries, two corroborating ear witnesses, a vehicle identification, and a prior conviction for substantially similar conduct in the same location. There's also a motive." Hutchins's voice never changed. "That is more than an accusation under the law, Mr. Calloway. You know that."

The scar through my eyebrow pulled tight though my face hadn't moved.

Same location.

Derek had chosen the alley where the town already believed I became a monster after dark. He'd stood in the Bluebird and let me show him exactly how hard I was to provoke in public. Then he'd gone around back of the old lie and climbed inside it.

"What did he claim I shouted?" I asked.

Hutchins checked his notes. "'Stay away from her.' Both witnesses agree on that portion. One reported additional words but couldn't state them with confidence."

Exactly what a man protecting Josie might shout. Exactly what thirty people had watched me not say at noon.

Wyatt looked at me. Cash did too.

I gave them the fact.

"I was home with Josie. All night."

The sentence landed clean.

Hutchins's gaze shifted past my shoulder.

I turned then.

Josie stood in the barn doorway holding the box too tightly. Her face had gone bloodless. Not the face of a woman frightened by an accusation she knew was false.

The face of a woman remembering something.

A cold line went through me from throat to gut.

The porch.

One until ten to three.

The empty bed.

I had told myself I was guarding her.

Hutchins took his pen from the notebook spiral. "Miss Marsh," he said gently, "was Mr. Calloway with you continuously between midnight and two this morning?"

Josie looked at me.

The whole barn waited with her. Heifers shifting in the close-up pens. Heat lamps humming. The generator still running its test extension because Wyatt believed thirty minutes meant thirty minutes. Big John's capitals on the whiteboard behind her. My own lie beneath them, fresh enough the marker probably still smelled.

I'm all right.

I slept well.

She knew what answer would save me.

I watched her know it.

Three months ago, Josie would have managed the room. She would have found the version that kept everybody calm and cost her the most. She would have said yes because yes was what the biggest man needed, and then she would have carried the lie alone until it bent her around it.

I had taught her out of that.

Honesty when she was slipping. Hurt reported same-day. No hiding a bruise and calling it kindness. No lies with good posture.