“I’ve been in this hellhole for hours. I’m being treated like a criminal, and they won’t tell me where Graham is, what’s happening. I need you to find out. My lawyer assures me he’ll have all these ridiculous charges dismissed, and at the very least we’ll be released on bond until we can clear our names. But in the meantime, I need some of my things. I’ll give you a list.”

Fascinating, Emily thought. She’s exactly the same as she’s always been.

But I’m not.

“No, you won’t. You’re under the mistaken impression I’m here to help you. I’m not. And the fact you haven’t asked about your children only cements that.”

“My children—and they’re hardly helpless babies—are conspiring against me, against Graham. Zane’s dangerous, Emily. You have no idea what—”

“Shut up.” Eliza’s head snapped back when Emily lashed out with the two words. “Another word against Zane, one goddamn single word against that boy, and I walk away. You’ll have no one. I know what happened last night, what happened over Christmas year before last. I know everything, so don’t bother with the show, Eliza.”

To help push her temper under control, Emily sat back. “They’ve allowed me to come in and speak with you. It’s just you and me. They can’t listen. It’s against the law. I need to know why. Why you’d do this to Zane and Emily. Why you’d let Graham do this to them, to you. I need to know why.”

“Stop being an idiot and do something useful for once! I need my skin care products. The fact that you’d take the word of a couple of recalcitrant teenagers over your own sister just proves what a fool you are.”

“Cut the crap. I’m not getting anything for you, doing anything for you. Worried about your face, Eliza, your skin tone under the black eye and bruises? Just think what it’s going to look like after a few years in prison.”

“I’m not going to prison.” But her lips trembled.

“You are, how long and what kind depends on what you do, what you say when the police come in.”

“Our lawyer—”

“Stop right there.” To push the point, Emily shot up a finger. “That’s your first mistake, and it’s a big one. You’re not stupid, so think a minute about sharing a lawyer with the man who gave you that eye. You’ve got a chance—but it won’t hold for long. You better get yourself your own lawyer, and the one thing I will do is give you the names of a couple of good criminal lawyers I found when I thought I’d need them to help Zane. He won’t need them now.”

“Zane needs to be locked up. He—Don’t!” As Emily pushed to her feet, panic rang in Eliza’s voice for the first time. “Don’t leave me here.”

“Then stop the bullshit.”

“How do I know you’re not recording this?”

Rising, Emily took off her shirt, turned a circle. “You and me, Eliza. Graham pays the lawyer, and who do you think he’ll represent if it comes down to choices? Make yours, and when I walk out of here, I’ll contact one who’ll represent you.”

She put her shirt on, sat again. “We were raised in the same house by the same people. We were raised to respect ourselves. Why have you let Graham abuse you, your children? Why didn’t you come to me, to anyone, for help?”

“You don’t understand anything, and it’s our business. Our marriage. We love each other.”

“A man who hits you doesn’t love you.”

“Oh, for God’s sake.” Eliza actually cast her eyes toward the ceiling. “Always so ordinary. Always.” Face alive again, Eliza leaned toward her sister. “I am not ordinary. Graham and I have passion, something else you don’t understand. You married a loser, then couldn’t even keep him.”

“His so-called passion put you in the hospital.”

“Things went too far. He isn’t allowed to hit me in the face, that’s the agreement.”

Honestly, Emily thought, she’d honestly believed she couldn’t be shocked again. Yet she was.

“You—you have an agreement about where he’s allowed to hit you?”

“And when we put this mess behind us, he’ll have to make breaking the agreement up to me. But there were circumstances.”

She hadn’t believed it, not really, hadn’t believed Britt, not in her heart, about that single, sick, sorry thing.

“You like it. You get off on it.”

“Don’t be such a prude. We have passion, even after nearly eighteen years we have real passion for each other. He has a demanding, stressful career, and he needs that passion at home. You think you can judge me? Look at what I have. The biggest, most beautiful house in Lakeview Terrace, vacations wherever I want to go, a husband who buys me gorgeous jewelry, an exciting sex life.”

She tossed up her hands, looked at her sister with a kind of cold pity. “What have you got, Emily? An old house, a bunch of bungalows you have to rent out, and no man who wants you.”

They sat, Emily thought, debated this with her battered-faced sister in prison garb, with a police guard on the door. And still Eliza saw herself as superior in every way.

And the single thing Eliza had that Emily had envied hadn’t made Eliza’s list.

“You know, Eliza, there’s something else you have you didn’t put on that list. Two children.”

“I never wanted them.” She shrugged them off, as she might an old sweater. “I kept my part of the agreement. Two children. And I did everything perfectly. They had everything—good clothes, a good school. Dance lessons for the girl, sports for the boy, music lessons for both—though Zane’s pathetic there. Healthy meals, discipline, education, and the proper amount of recreational time.”

Yes, yes, yes, she could still be shocked, Emily realized. “They’re part of the agreement.”

“How would it look if we had no children? A man in Graham’s position needs to present the right image.”

“So they’re part of the image. It didn’t matter to you when he hit Zane?”

“A disrespectful child needs to be punished. Zane’s nearly grown in any case.”

“So you’ve, basically, finished with him.”

“He would have been sent to the right university, given every opportunity. He’d have studied medicine, become a doctor. Now?” She shrugged again, another old sweater discarded. “I have no idea what Graham will want to do. We’ll have to discuss it.”

“You and Graham will no longer have anything to say about either of the children. They’re with me now.”

“Please. As if any court would take them from two parents of our reputation and status.”

“Exactly. Your reputation and status are shredded. The cops know everything.”

“Teenagers’ words against ours.”

“There’s also the statements from the staff of the resort, where you took Zane after Graham beat him. Didn’t think of that, did you?” she added as she saw the flicker in Eliza’s eyes. “Didn’t consider that lie might come back to bite your sorry ass one day. And there’s so much more, but I’ll leave that to the police to tell you, and whatever lawyer you go with. You may have a chance to make a deal, to plead down some of the charges against you. Either way, when you go to court on this, I’ll be one of the people testifying against you and against Graham.”

Eliza’s face went hot under the bruising. “You were always a bitch, always jealous of me. That’s what this all comes down to. You’ve always been jealous. Because I’m prettier, popular, I married a doctor.”

“No, Eliza, in fact I never was, and now I can’t even feel pity for you. I came in here to try to convince you to tell the truth, to make some sort of deal so you only spent a few years rather then a decade or more in prison. But after this? I just don’t care. I won’t wish you good luck, Eliza,” she said as she rose, “because I don’t.”

She read fear clearly, tilted her head. “I wonder, did you and Graham have an agreement on what you’d do if you ended up like this? Did either of you consider it might fall apart, and what you’d do when it did?”

Now she shrugged. “I bet he’s thinking about it now.”

Turning, she lifted her hand to bang on the door.

“Contact the lawyer.”

Emily glanced back. “Which?”

“The one you have. I want my own lawyer.”

“Okay, I’ll do that. I’ll do that, Eliza. It’s the last thing I’ll do for you.”

She banged on the door, and when it opened, left without looking back.

* * *

It took time, but Lee didn’t mind keeping Graham waiting. The DA pushed hard for holding him without bail, and used the two minors, seriously injured and in potential jeopardy, to good effect.

It hadn’t hurt to have Chief Bost speak out.

So he bought a little time, time enough for Eliza Bigelow’s new lawyer to catch up, to push for a deal.

By the time he walked into interview, his gut told him he had it solid. Just like it told him Bigelow probably hadn’t been fully, what you’d call, forthcoming with his attorney.

He started the recording, sat.

“You’ll address your questions to me,” the lawyer told Lee.

“Sure. As you’re aware, Mrs. Bigelow has her own attorney. I’ve just come from speaking to him, and her. She rolled on you, Bigelow. Got herself a deal.”

“Spousal privilege—”

“Does not apply,” Lee interrupted, “if the communication between spouses pertains to the planning or execution of a crime. Mrs. Bigelow opted for a reduction in charges. Can’t blame her.”

Graham leaned over to murmur to his lawyer.