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asked her why, she only shrugged. “God knows why he tells me anything he tells me. He insisted Zach was crooked—said he took a bribe from the real criminal to make it look like John did it."
    "He didn't,” I told her, holding her gaze. “I swear to God."
    "Which would you prefer to believe?” she asked, her eyes narrowing. “That your brother's a sick bastard who's committed multiple rapes, or that Zach is a lying, manipulative sack of shit?"
    Double ouch.
    I decided not to ask her what she'd been planning to do to mess up Pierce's life before he'd broken up with her—I didn't wanna know, and anyway, I felt kinda sad for her. “I'm sorry. I really am."
    "Yeah, yeah.” With a wave of her hand, she dismissed me. “Go run to Zach and tell him whatever you want."
    Compassion and caution staged a swift battle in my mind, and compassion won out. After a brief hesitation, I stepped closer and kissed the top of her head. “Thank you. I mean it."
    "I don't need your pity,” she spat back at me, and I backed off, a little hurt. Vulnerable or not, she still wasn't the Laura I'd thought she was.
    It took only a couple of seconds to zip into the observation room, stop the recording equipment and send a simple text message—'911, observation 1'—to Pierce. I wasn't suicidal enough to call and interrupt his interrogation twice in one day, and our agreed signal for important evidence would be enough to grab his attention, especially on this case.
    It took him less than two minutes to arrive, his eyes darting between me and the one-way glass. “What do you have?"
    Grinning, I cued the playback, and as it began he shot a disbelieving stare at me. “You went in there alone? She could have—"
    "Oh, please,” I interrupted him, my fingertips tingling a little as I realised his irritation masked anxiety. “I have, like, twenty pounds on her, and she already tried that on me once today."
    He looked me over, checking for signs I was hiding injuries, but there was nothing to see. Dropping the subject for the time being, he turned his attention to the video, and slowly he lost his pissed off demeanour as he realised I really did have something.
    His jaw tightened at the end, when I kissed the top of Laura's head, but I wasn't sure whether he was jealous or just worried for my safety. When the tape ended, I waited for his reaction, feeling a slight flutter of apprehension in my stomach.
    Pierce was quiet for a moment, processing the new information, but then he leaned in close, brushing his lips softly across my cheekbone. My knees went weak...and was it my imagination, or did he linger for longer than he should have?
    Before I could work out an answer to that, he was striding towards the door, his parting words sending a jolt of accomplished pleasure through me. “That's good work, Faye."
    Alone again, I leant back against the technical desk, murmuring to the empty doorway, “Thank you, Sir."
    Pierce
    Standing at the door to Interrogation Two, I took a second to collect my thoughts. What Faye had done had been reckless and damn stupid— what if Laura had been serious about killing her? —but the result was something I could work with.
    I'd taken an instant dislike to Morgan, and not just because he was Laura's husband. My instincts had told me from the start not to trust him, and it looked as if I'd just been proved right.
    I stepped back inside the room and slammed the door behind me, drawing on my anger that, even if he was innocent of murder, this guy had committed domestic violence. “Just had a conversation with your wife."
    He hadn't known we had her in custody, and his face paled a little. He was guilty as hell—all I had to do was prove it. “Tell me about your poker ring.” As he opened his mouth to deny it, I held up a hand. “And let's skip the part where you pretend you have no idea what I'm talking about."
    "What about it?” Morgan said. “I get together with a few friends now and then, play a few hands. All