“The financial stuff will take longer, but the state attorney is already looking at these wire transfers.”

I thought about Eleanor’s voice on the phone.

She had sounded entirely unbothered by her son’s arrest, as if he were merely an annoying administrative error.

“She is going to offer me money,” I said quietly.

Cho looked up at me, her eyebrows raised.

“How much?”

“She didn’t say, but she promised it would make Clara’s future very comfortable.”

“That is bribery of a witness,” Cho said, her pen tapping against her knee.

“Eleanor does not see it that way,” I said.

“To her, everything is just a transaction.”

I walked back to the window.

Gareth had buried his face in his hands, his knuckles raw and red.

“If you take her money, the case against Gareth might fall apart,” Cho warned.

“Without your testimony on the break-in, we lose our leverage to keep him here.”

“I know,” I said.

But I also knew how much Clara had suffered.

The medical bills were mounting, and the emotional toll of Julian’s abuse had left her hollowed out.