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on your behalf.” He made air quotes around the last three words. “All the while she’s charging you—what? Two hundred dollars an hour? More? I know you can afford it, but you have to ask yourself, do you really think she’s looking out for your best interest? If you go to court, you’re going away for life. I can guarantee you that. But, if we can put this thing to bed now, I believe I could get the DA to drop murder one to manslaughter.”

Liam leaned back in his chair, panic welling up inside him. Still, he knew he was being played. He kept his mouth shut. He’d already said everything he had to say for now.

“No matter how careful somebody is, a murder is a hard thing to cover up,” Bash said. “And it’s never a good idea to try to make it look like a suicide. When you strangle someone, there are a lot of little clues you leave behind. Pressure marks behind the ears, burst blood vessels under the eyelids, stuff like that. Not to mention the bruises you left on her neck. And cutting her wrists after she died?” He shook his head. “Since the body wasn’t pumping blood anymore, that was never going to fool anyone.

“Look, I’ll admit I don’t know what you were doing in Lakeview. But if it was something you felt you needed to lie about, I can be damn sure it’s not going to make your situation any better. And it doesn’t change a thing about what you did to Elise.”

Bash crossed his arms over his chest and stared at Liam until Liam said, “Lawyer.”

“Let me tell you what I think happened. I think you found out Elise was cheating on you. I think you went over there to tell her to cut it out. She said she wouldn’t. Maybe she broke up with you. Either way, you got mad, things got out of hand. You didn’t mean to kill her. It just happened. Then you freaked out. You had to cover it up. So you dumped her in the tub, cut her wrists, and took off. Like I said, the prosecutor’s going to go for murder one. But if that’s how things went down, you don’t need to spend the rest of your life behind bars. People make mistakes, right?”

“Lawyer.”

“I also think I know why you placed the call from your phone instead of hers. After all, if you could get into her phone to delete your messages, you could have dialed 911 instead.”

Liam restrained himself from reminding the detective that he hadn’t deleted the messages. If Bash hadn’t believed him the first time, he wasn’t going to believe him now.

“You nearly knocked over a resident when you were fleeing the scene. Remember her? I think that’s the real reason you placed the 911 call from your phone. Once someone had seen you, you couldn’t just disappear, right? And you want to know something else? I’ll bet you a jury’s going to think the exact same thing. Especially since you were the only one seen going in or out of the apartment.”

An officer opened the door and Patricia stepped inside just in time to hear the end of Bash’s sentence. She introduced herself, then said, “Mr. Parker did ask for his lawyer, didn’t he?”

“I did,” Liam said. “Several times.”

“You mind telling me what you’re doing in here, Detective Wyatt?”

“Passing the time.”

“Uh-huh.” She gestured to the door. “Do you mind?”

Bash looked from the lawyer to Liam and back. He got up slowly and, without trying to hide his disdain for Patricia, left the room. She took his seat and placed her briefcase on the floor beside her. “Did you say anything?”

“No.”

She nodded. “Good.”

“Detective Wyatt said something to me before you came in that doesn’t make any sense though. I encountered only two people when I went to see Elise—the woman who held the door for me and the one I ran into when I was going to my car to get my phone. Both of them were in the lobby. But he said I was the only one seen going in or out of her apartment. Nobody saw me go in or out of her apartment.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.” Liam moved his cuffed arm a little bit, trying to make it more comfortable.

“All right, let me see what I can find out about the building’s security. Maybe they have footage of you on the floor. If they do, and you really are the only one going in or out of that apartment . . .” She shook her head. “Do I need to be prepared for that possibility?”

She’d held his gaze when she asked the question and he held hers when he answered. “If they’ve got footage of that floor, I won’t be the only one on it.”

Liam Parker

Patricia told Liam he’d be arraigned in a couple of days. Until then, he’d have to sit tight. After that, the police fingerprinted and photographed him. The routine was more or less the same as it had been when he was arrested in college. Now, however, instead of being kept in a large room with dozens of other men, he was outfitted with an orange jumpsuit and transferred to the county jail. He was assigned a cell and told he’d get an hour a day to shower and stretch his legs.

There was a small bed and a desk on opposite walls. A sink and a toilet. It looked like something out of a nightmare.

Liam sat down on the bed. The prison smelled like piss and vomit. He was scared and overwhelmed. He wanted to cry, and looked away from the other cells in case he did.

At least he was alone. Everyone on this wing was. It was where the guards housed those yet to be processed. He couldn’t imagine sharing the forty-eight square feet with another man. Especially someone who had committed murder.

Jacob Reed

Jacob found a black-market dealer online. Presenting himself to the public