“But all that file had were my notes! And I’m very concerned that my client’s attorney-client privilege-”

“That’s the least of your problems. It’s not going to protect you. You’re finished, and you finished me along the way. I just wanted you to know how much you have hurt me. You may not have even thought about me. I’m just a faceless bureaucrat who you scammed. I’m going now. You’ll hear plenty more, but not from me. You ruined my life.”

“Don’t go! There’s been a misunderstanding. I haven’t done a thing wrong, except maybe allow confidential files to fall out of my care. Look, Marilyn, pretend for just one second that I don’t know what you’re talking about. Tell me what I did. Please. Please, Marilyn.”

“This is ridiculous. As if you don’t know. Well, now we do. We know you knew all about who set that liquor store on fire-your client, Kao Vang. He set it on fire himself to collect the insurance. You knew it when you called me about the claim, you knew it when you put together that big package of fraud and deceit you brought me. You knew it this whole time and you deliberately acted as his accessory. It says so right there in your file.”

“Marilyn,” Nina said from a throat that felt ashen and weak, so cold had she become, “my file says nothing of the sort.”

“In your own handwriting. There’s no wiggling out of this one. At least you should be honest with me, honor our relationship, and admit it between you and me-”

A colder wind blew through Nina and she thought, they’re taping this, or someone else is listening. “I didn’t try to defraud the company or hurt you, Marilyn. If there’s something in that file that purports-”

“Purports-ha!”

“… purports to be my handwriting, saying that Kao Vang set that fire, then it’s a forgery. A forgery, all right? A forgery!” But she was talking to dead air.

Sandy came in a few moments later. Nina stood at the window, eyes open, blind. “Here,” Sandy said, holding out two ibuprofen and a shot glass of the Courvoisier a client had given the office the previous Christmas. “Come on, drink it down. You look like the phlebotomist just drained all your blood out. Sit down. Come on.”

“It’s a forgery.”

“I called Paul and Jack. I canceled your meeting at the health department. You’re going home.”

“Someone. Is out to get me. What Paul said, cautious until proven paranoid. No need to be cautious. Too late for that.”

“Did Vang really torch his own store?” Sandy had heard enough of the phone call.

“No! I mean, not that I know!”

“So she’s all mixed up. Maybe there’s something you wrote in there that she misunderstood?”

“I certainly didn’t write anything like that in my notes. That’s the point, Sandy. If there is a note in the file now, I didn’t put it there. Someone else did. Someone stole the files to get me.”

“It always was a possibility.”

“Someone evil. It’s evil. People hurt besides me. Collateral damage.”

Sandy pulled her into the reception area, closing Nina’s office door behind her. “You don’t look well. I’m gonna drive you home.”

“That’s just what they want. To destroy my livelihood. Make me close the office. Take control out of my hands. Make all my decisions for me.”

“Here’s your jacket. Put it on.” She held the jacket open and Nina stepped into it. “Let’s go.” Locking the door carefully behind them, she led the way into the parking lot, Nina following behind. Sandy put her in the brown car and drove her home to Kulow Street. Marching up to the front door, Sandy found Nina’s keys, opened the door, and pushed her inside. “Now go lie down. I called Andrea. She’s gonna bring you some lunch. Sleep it off. You never get enough sleep. Go on, upstairs. Do I have to tuck you in?”

“I have to figure this out. I have to.”

“Not right this second you don’t.”

“Someone is out there.”

“Are you afraid?” Sandy said.

“Yes.”

“Do you want me to stay down here until Andrea comes?”

“It’s not that kind of fear.” Nina went upstairs automatically, welcoming the relief of numbing shock. She pulled the curtains shut on the sun. Zombielike, she dropped her jacket, blouse, and skirt on the floor. Then she got down under the covers and held her hand across her mouth. But there were no sobs, no tears. She had reached a place where tears couldn’t reach.

A good long stretch of vacancy passed during which she inhabited her body and her mind, but they glided along without her, her body under the covers: warm. When she came out of her suspended animation, rose and threw water on her face, she smelled soup and heard Andrea banging pans around the kitchen.

Downstairs she greeted her sister-in-law, and made her sit down. Nina poured the soup into bowls, found crackers, sat down and made small talk, deflecting any questions about why she had returned home at ten in the morning to be put to bed like an invalid. Andrea refused to leave until Nina told her what had happened, so Nina did, without going into detail about the cases.

Hand on her slightly swelling stomach, Andrea said, “You seem almost nonchalant.”

“I’m not. Someone is trying to hurt me. Has hurt me.”

“What’s next?”

Nina hadn’t thought that far. “I don’t know.”

“Maybe the worst has already happened.”

“There were three files. We’ve only heard from two.”

Andrea grasped her hand. “You’ll get through this. You always do. Whatever happens, you have me, and Bob and Matt and your dad. Nina, you have us. You’ll always be okay.”

Comforted by what sounded like a blessing, Nina fought off tears. So, she could feel again. Progress.

She sent Andrea home. Upstairs, she brushed her hair carefully, put on lipstick, got a fresh suit jacket, and put on her work heels.

Then she called a cab and went back to work.

Sandy looked startled to see her. “You okay?”

“Fine,” she said. “Let me have a look at my calendar for this afternoon.”

“Three appointments I was just about to cancel, one court appearance. Last but not least, a meeting with Kevin Cruz.”

“We better get busy, then,” she said, closing the door to her office and on Sandy’s expression, which showed a newly active fault line in the center of her forehead. Of course, there had to be a meeting with Kevin. That would complete this disastrous day.

“Paul’s on the line.”

“Later.”

“Says he won’t wait.”

She picked up.

“Nina,” Paul said. “I’ve got to tell you a few things I found out this weekend from Sergeant Cheney. I had lunch with him at Heidi’s on Sunday.”

She felt disoriented. “You’re here?”

“No. I’m home. I drove back to Carmel on Sunday night.”

“You didn’t let me know you were in town?”

“No point, unless I found something out.”

“You did, didn’t you?”

“He looked into Cody Stinson’s record. Stinson was in fact charged with auto theft once, at the age of eighteen, although he pled down to a lesser charge. Now he’s twenty-six. I think he’s discovered drug trading is more lucrative and easier to hide. They caught him for that just once.”

“He might have stolen my car, then,” Nina said. “He knows how.”

“That’s right. If he was caught once, you can bet he did it more than once.”

“You think he did it?”

“I just don’t know,” Paul said. “And I talked with Lisa Cruz’s neighbors. Turns out, she got in trouble with one of the neighbors. He cut a tree down that blocked his sun. She claimed the tree was on her property. She sued him. When she lost, his house mysteriously caught fire. Nothing ever proved, but he bought himself a Rottweiler and hasn’t had any more trouble.”

“She tried to burn him out?”

“He was away at the time. All the neighbors knew he spent Christmas with his aunt in Montana. Another time, the windshield on a neighboring teenager’s car was broken. His family’s trash ended up decorating the street. Lisa didn’t like the noise he made coming home late. Everyone incriminates Lisa, although no one says it to her face. Since her father died, she’s had a pretty tenuous hold on sanity, sounds like. She’s not popular in the neighborhood. Does a lot of screaming. They worry about her.”