“We went to college together,” Parker said. “I knew him well. He could never have done this. Never.”

He knew him in college? That was the best he had? He was a prosecutor. Surely he knew how little weight that held.

“I thought the police had yet to find her body,” I said. “Why are they so sure she was murdered?”

“The amount of blood found in the car,” Parker said. “There’s simply no way she could’ve survived the attack.”

“And all of it was hers?”

“Every drop,” Mr. Adams said, his voice cracking. “Every precious drop.” The pain that welled up inside him stole my breath. It was so apparent that even the Asian woman stopped trying to hit my lamp and looked at him. He sobbed into a handkerchief, and I couldn’t stop the welling of tears if I’d superglued my tear ducts shut.

I took a deep breath as Parker placed a hand on Mr. Adams’s shoulder. I had no idea the man had a tender bone in his body.

“There was nobody better,” Mr. Adams said. “Not in this whole world. She was everything to me. But I—I wasn’t the best father. She deserved so much better.”

He broke down again, his shoulders shaking so hard I thought he’d shatter. We gave him a moment, but when he couldn’t stop, he stood and strode out of my office, not stopping until he was outside on the front balcony.

It would give me a chance to grill Parker in a less delicate manner.

I leaned forward. “Why are you here, Parker?” I said, my tone accusing.

He let out a long, resigned sigh. “Because you get the job done, Davidson. No matter what I think about you or your methods or your … habits—”

What the hell?

“—you do what you set out to do. You prove people innocent when they are destined for the needle. You see evidence where no one else does. You see the good when others only see the bad. I need you on Lyle’s team. He didn’t do it, but the evidence against him would strongly suggest otherwise.”

He handed me the case file, and even though I didn’t trust him as far as I could drive him down a golf course with my dad’s nine iron, he presented a good argument. Then again, he was a prosecutor vying for the DA’s corner office. And he was just young and ambitious enough to get it. Someday.

“Where’s Lyle now?”

He relaxed, though just a tad. “They’re holding him for questioning.”

I perused the folder he gave me. “They must have something good. They wouldn’t have arrested him without a body unless they were convinced there was a murder and that he did it.”

“I know. It’s unprecedented. But, just between you and me, they’re hoping for a plea bargain. A confession is just what this case needs.”

“Will they get one?”

He glared up at me. “No, Davidson, they won’t.”

Fair enough. “Did you know Emery Adams?”

He shook his head. “No. I’d never met her, but from what I understand, she was a very good person.” He dropped his gaze, his expression hard. “She didn’t deserve this.” When I said nothing, he refocused on me and continued, “Look, I know we don’t exactly get along, but everyone is right about you.”

“Everyone?” I asked, knowing precisely what he was going to say.

“You solve crimes. You close cases.”

“That I do,” I agreed, putting the pen down and bracing myself. The woman finally gave up on the lamp and noticed me. She gazed longingly. Lovingly. Wanting to go home. Wanting to see her family again. I wanted that for her, too. I really did. Just not at that precise moment. But she was going to cross, and she was going to cross now, and there was nothing I could do about it.

I stood and walked around my desk to buy myself a few seconds. “Who’s prosecuting?”

He cleared his throat and shifted uncomfortably. “I am.”

“Come again? I thought Fiske was your friend.”

“He was. Still is.”

What game was he playing? “Then you need to step down. You’ll be fired. Hell, you could be disbarred if they find out, not to mention the fact that it will cause a mistrial and cost the state tens of thousands.”

“You let me worry about that.”

“Parker—”

“Look, no matter what I think of you or what the rumors say about you—”

“Rumors?”

“—Lyle didn’t do it.”

“What rumors?”

“You have an uncanny ability to get the guiltiest person who walked the face of the earth off when they have everything stacked against them. Prove to me it’s not just blind luck.”

“That could be a bit difficult. Luck plays a big part in my daily life. And I don’t get guilty people off, Parker.”

He stood, too, and rounded the desk until we stood toe-to-toe.

Ballsy.

“I need this case solved,” he said.

“I’m getting that.”

“Quickly and quietly.”

“I’m not really the quiet type. But you still need to step down.”

“No,” he said, a sly grin curving his mouth. “I’m the contingency plan.”

“The what?”

“The contingency plan. You fuck this up, I’ll make sure things go our way from my end.”

Even saying something like that out loud was so damning—in the legal sense—I got light-headed. I whispered my next words, worried someone would overhear. “You’re going to throw the case?”

He lifted a shoulder. “I’m going to make sure Lyle Fiske is acquitted.”

“On purpose?”

Without responding, he waited for my reaction, his expression calculated.

“Isn’t that against your code of conduct or something?”

“Very.”

“And what makes you think I’ll go along with it?”

Again, his only response was the barest hint of a smile.

Son of a bitch. He had something on me. He was way too confident and way too smart to just drop something like that in my lap, something that could end his career and possibly send him to prison, without having some kind of insurance. A backup plan to make certain I’d play nice.

The woman stepped closer, my desk no hindrance to her whatsoever. I stepped back, and Parker thought I was shying away from him. He took another step closer. Other than his spatial boundary issues, he was daring me to threaten to go to the DA.