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“Wherever the fuck you are, Patty, I’ll find you.”

I went back to the morgue. I sent another e-mail to Reah, wondering if she had even seen the first one—I hadn’t gotten any reply yet. I pulled notes and old articles about the Strangler, studying the case from the beginning, unraveling the threads that had once been obscured.

I understood how she worked. Logan might not be her only accomplice.

When the time to leave came, I stood up and stretched just as someone knocked.

“Come in.”

It was Detective Hall.

“Detective? Is there something I can help you with?”

“About Victor…” Nia said, tugging at her braids.

Oh, here we go again.

“Yes?”

“Your autopsy said it wasn’t planned. But after Leo Kesler, do you think it might be staged? To implicate Millicent?”

“I already told you. With this new evidence, it could be a million things. I could theorize all day about it, but I don’t.”

“You don’t what?” she asked, brown eyes burning with curiosity.

“Make assumptions.”

“You don’t like me, do you?” she whispered, her gaze keen. “You look at me like you’re wary of me. Like you don’t—” her mouth tightened, “—trust me. Why?”

“I don’t even know you,” I said.

Detective Hall was digging, and she knew exactly where to dig. I admired that. Intelligence was attractive—no, intoxicating—and women who wielded it without apology were very few.

She dragged a manicured nail against her dark, sun-kissed skin.

“That’s what confuses me,” she said. “Only people who have something to hide hate cops.”

“I like cops,” I said with a shrug. “I like Detective R.”

“But you don’t like me. Are you hiding something, Doctor West?” she asked. She looked perfectly at ease asking the question, as if the answer wouldn’t unsettle her in the slightest.

I smiled.

She was trying to throw me off balance, to pull at threads and see which ones frayed.

“There was someone who once came around asking questions just like you,” I said, my smile lingering.

“And then he stopped,” she said. “Why? Because he got his answers? Or—”

“Or because he became my boyfriend?” I finished, still smiling. “Oh, Ryden isn’t someone who’d give up because of a woman.”

“But I don’t think you’re an ordinary woman, Dr. West,” she said.

“Thanks. I suppose that’s a compliment?”

“Whatever you want it to mean.” She turned toward the door. “I’ll see you soon, Doctor.”

Oh, Nia Hall was dangerous, not only because she was a cop, but because she was smart. And worse, because I liked that about her.