“No celebrations, everyone,” I say, as I walk through the door. Still, my buddies at the station are all clapping. Odd, since they were the ones who were “worried about” me. I’ll keep in mind how fickle my relationships are down here. “I’m here to do my job. Adam, update me.”

“He’s not talking,” he says. “He says he wants to talk to you.”

“To me?” I laugh. “Why would he want to talk to me. He spit in my face, remember?”

“Hell if I know,” he shakes his head. “But he wants to talk to you. His lawyer is here. He keeps advising him against it. Our first court hearing is tomorrow. We better act fast before he gets bail.”

“He won’t get bail. I’ll make sure of it,” I say. “Alright, I’m going to go talk to the kid. Wish me luck.”

“Don’t do anything stupid,” he says. I ignore him. This whole thing has been stupid.

I walk through the door and sit down, facing him. He smiles. “You wanted to talk to me?” I ask him.

“I figured you’d want to talk to me. You know, after everything went down the other day,” he says. His lawyer next to him is an unkempt man, but he’s well known around here as Lenny Krunnman. He’s a damn good lawyer.

“I have nothing to say. At this point, I’ve come to terms with the fact that I won’t be getting any more answers out of you,” I admit. “So be it. That’s the way things gotta be sometimes.”

“And the girl involved? You don’t want to know anything about her?” he asks. His lawyer advises him against it, whispering in his ear, but he ignores him. I’m starting to feel like I might get something from him and that pleases me.

“I don’t care,” I lie. “Look, I told you. We’re going to prosecute and accept the judge’s decision.”

“I loved her, you know,” he ignores me. “That’s why I did this. I thought we’d run away together. To Europe. Thought we’d start a family. I guess that’s all finished now.”

“I guess so,” I say.

“That’s all you have to say? You know, she’s beautiful. She could blend in real well in this town. No one would suspect her,” he says.

I nod. “But you, they’d suspect,” I say. “You’re an obvious choice.”

“Hell yeah, I am. You look at me and you know what class they’ve put me in,” he says. “But you look at her, and you have no idea. She could have gone to fucking Harvard. That’s how captivating she is.”

His lawyer turns red and looks completely stressed out. “I would advise you to—”

“Shut up,” he says. “I’m saying something.”

“Go on,” I urge him. “You’re not saying much.”

“I’m saying more than you know,” he smiles. “If anyone will win this, it’ll be her. If she met you, you’d never know. She’d make sure of that. But Craig. You’ll have to search for Craig.”

It’s like he’s rung the fucking bell. “Craig?” I lean forward. “Who’s Craig? The other guy?”

“Craig Richardson. The motherfucker who left without me.” He just goes on and on, giving me a pile of gold. “He would have left her too, but she’s too smart. She took the third option, a safer route.”

“We’ll have to end this conversation now,” Lenny Krunnman says, completely outraged by his client.

I smile and give an arrogant wink, enough to piss off the guy. “Yes. I believe we do.”

I leave the room and everyone in the station is dumbstruck. I smile to myself and soon, I’m wondering where the damn champagne is. Still, there’s more to be done. We have to find the guy before any celebrating can happen.

I look at the team and throw my hands up in the air. “Well, get to work, guys. Let’s find him,” I tell them. They hurriedly get into their positions. Some leave the station to patrol and scour the streets, while others get on the computers and look through databases. Adam, however, is standing in front of me with his arms crossed, looking sour.

“You win again,” he says.

I shrug. “I’m just lucky. You know the guy who’s never played roulette before, but wins on his first try? That’s me,” I say.

“Whatever,” he huffs. “Look, man. We have to talk about what just happened in there.”

“What about it? Seems to me we just got ourselves a second suspect,” I laugh. We really won. Or, at least, we’re winning more than we were. This will be breaking news, once we find the guy. There shouldn’t be any doubts about that.

“Right. Well, he dropped a big bombshell in there, don’t you think?” he asks me. I’m not catching his drift.

“What about the girl?” he asks. “He said she’s smart. He said she would’ve outsmarted you right from the get go. What the hell does any of that mean?”

“Son, I’ve been asking myself the same fucking question for at least three days now. I don’t know,” I admit. “I wish I did.”

“That girl,” he says. “The one who was at your place on the night it happened…”

“What are you getting at?” I ask him. He’s crazy. Her? No fucking way.

“You don’t think she could have been involved in any way?” he asks. “I’m thinking we need to bring her in. Shit, we should bring in any woman you’ve been with in the past month or two.”

“You’re out of your damn mind,” I say. “The line would be out the door and around the block.”

“I’m not crazy,” he says. “I’m observant. Sometimes I’m wrong, I’ll admit. But this time, I feel pretty certain about it.”

“That’s what you said about the bank job,” I groan. “Look, man. Why don’t you stay in your area of expertise? Let’s find this guy and question him. Then, we’ll worry about which woman I’ve been with and when. Cool?”

“Whatever you say, boss,” is his passive response. He’s not happy, of course, but I’m not about to go and violate these women’s privacy. Plus, no one knows about my Vi. No one needs to. As far as I’m concerned, she’s not a suspect.

Virginia? A bank robber? Hell no. She’s quickly becoming the love of my life. There’s no way I’m going to let anyone ruin that. I’ll die protecting her if I have to.