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Back tofor ten days—the one that’s hadPatrick we don’t do do the one old friends or acquaintances call when they need help

That’s how it started—a runaway case for a friend of a friend

I was culling through irls Patrick would say this is the worst part of our job, but truthfully, I don’tpeople closure I knohat it’s like to need it, and I don’t et it

Then I saw Jessica Black Dead

The na at the photo, trying to think, I’d been struck by her appearance—fair co brunette waves She looked a lot like Melissa—ht blue eyes

I’d clicked on the thu five years Arrested for prostitution several times Found beaten once Badly Now deceased under mysterious circumstances

Minutes passed as I stared at her photo Why was she so familiar? She wasn’t froit up to overprotectiveness spurred by her similarity to Mel, I closed the docu for the runaway

Nikki had interruptedin with a BLT from the cafeteria

“I know it’s your favorite” She placed the thick sandwich in front of me with a smile “You need to eat”

I only nodded “Thanks”

She didn’t leave “Reht you lunch? It was the day Melissa showed up here so angry and unexpected I was sure I’d never like her, but now she’s the sweetest”

Nikki continued talking, but I wasn’t listening Cold realization flashed ina tree

Jessica Black It was the name on the email Melissa had put in front of me that day she visited our offices The day she dropped a nuke on all my dreams of a life with her, when she revealed my former “mentor,” her ex-husband Sloan Reynolds’s secret double-life He had high-end escorts all over the country, and Jessica Black was his first careless slip Melissa had found it

Nikki was still reover the keys, I pulled up all the inforirl

She’d been living in Baltimore for a year I wondered if she followed him from wherever they’d hooked up the first time Why would she do that? Was it possible she was in love with hi?