“So you know her,” he interrupts.

“Yes. I used to date her.”

“Step aside, sir. Give us some room,” the other paramedic says from beside me. I stand up quickly and move back, grabbing Lucia’s hand and pulling her with me.

“She’s going to be okay,” I say quietly, wrapping my arm around Lucia’s back and pulling her into my front. I place my other hand gently on the back of her head and hold her close, squeezing her tight and trying to calm my erratic heartbeat. We watch the medics work on her for what seems like an eternity as police officers arrive to control the crowd that’s gathered in the alley. But after ten minutes of CPR and rescue breathing, they look at each other and shake their heads.

Then they stop and start to stand up. “No!” I shout. “Don’t stop! You can’t just leave her!”

“Cal,” Luce says softly, not letting go of me.

“She can’t . . . we tried . . . she can’t be dead.”

One of the paramedics turns to face us. “You did the best you could but whatever she drank or took, she did too much of it. Slurring words, falling unconscious, vomiting, and then cardiac arrest—all of it points to an overdose of some sort. I’m sorry,” he says. “I’m going to have to ask you to stay here. The police will want to talk to you and I need to call the coroner.”

Unable to speak, I can only nod at him as he turns to walk back to the ambulance.

“What just happened?” I ask as the shock of what just happened sinks in.

“She said you have to be careful, that someone is going to hurt you. What does that mean?” Lucia asks, her voice cracking as her body shakes against mine.

“It doesn’t make sense. Why would she ring me in the first place? I haven’t answered any of her calls since the interview. I only answered the phone to tell her to leave me alone.” I pause and then something hits me. “What if I didn’t answer? She would’ve just died out here in the alley. Why didn’t anyone help her? Why was she alone?” I’m talking quickly, unanswered questions spewing from my mouth as I stand there staring at Jodi’s lifeless body.

“I don’t know, Cal. Hopefully the police can find out what happened.”

“Shit, Luce.” I bury my face in her neck but still can’t tear my eyes away from Jodi.

Unease and dread cloak my skin. Her words play on a never-ending loop in my head. What was she trying to tell me? All the messages, the scene in the lobby, the phone calls . . . tonight she was trying to warn me about something . . . or someone.

Now that I know, I fully intend to find out what she was talking about, and who.

We haven’t left each other’s side since we gave separate statements to police in the alley. Once they covered Jodi’s body and wheeled her into the back of the ambulance, we were escorted to the precinct to meet with the detectives assigned to the case.

An hour later, Lucia and I are waiting to give formal statements.

“Are you okay?” Luce asks me for what seems like the tenth time since Jodi died.

I squeeze her hand, lifting it up to mine for a gentle kiss before returning it back into my lap. “I just can’t believe she’s dead. It seems so unreal.”

“I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. I’m glad we were there with her. Nobody deserves to die alone, especially like that,” she says.

The door to the office we’re sitting in opens, and I’m surprised to see the detective who came to my house the night I hurt Lucia.

“Mr. Alexander. Ms. Harding,” he greets, nodding at us in turn as he rounds the desk and sits down opposite us. “I’m Detective Lawrence and I’ve been assigned to investigate Ms. Malestrom’s death. Thank you for your patience. I’d just like to ask you a few questions about what happened and the events leading up to her death.” He looks down and runs his eyes over the papers he brought into the room with him. “We don’t regard you as suspects. Unfortunately we are expecting the media to become involved, especially with your connection to this, Mr. Alexander. But anything you do say to us will remain confidential. You have my word.”

“Thank you. Please call me Callum,” I reply. “But I’m more concerned with finding out who is responsible for Jodi’s death and bringing them to justice.”

“Okay, Callum. I just want to follow up on the statement you made to the uniforms at the scene. Is that okay?”

“Of course,” I reply.

“So Ms. Malestrom called you earlier tonight. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“And can you tell me why she would’ve called you?” he asks.

“She’s been quite . . . insistent in her attempts to contact me since a series of newspaper articles came out about me approximately five weeks ago. I’ve been avoiding all contact but tonight I chose to answer her call to ask her to stop contacting me.”

“And she asked for you to go to her?”

“She sounded strange. Her words were slurred, and she said she thought something had been put in her drink.”

“You could’ve called the police.”

“I could’ve, but I know Jodi. I wasn’t comfortable with wasting police time with just another attempt to get my attention.”

“It is still honorable of you to check on her, Callum.”

“It’s called being a human being, Detective Lawrence.”

“She told you where she was?”

“Yes, she said she was outside the bar,” I reply, repeating the same thing I told the officers in the alley.

“Did she say who she had been meeting with?” Detective Lawrence asks.

“No.”

“Did you ask?” he continues.

“No,” I repeat.

“Why not?”

“Because I was more concerned with getting to Jodi and helping her,” I snap. Lucia squeezes my hand and murmurs “It’s okay, Cal” under her breath.

“Right. And you stopped to pick up Ms. Harding on the way?”

“I called Lucia to let her know where I was going. She told me to pick her up on the way,” I explain.

He turns his attention to Lucia. “Ms. Harding, why did you want to go with Callum?”

“Because Jodi is unpredictable, and I thought it was better that Cal didn’t go alone.”

He nods, seeming to accept her answer. He returns his eyes to me. “Tell me what happened when you arrived.”

“There was no parking spaces so we pulled into the alley and saw her. I told Lucia to call nine one one and I ran to where Jodi was.”

“Was she conscious?” he asks.

“Barely,” I reply.

“Did she say anything?” he presses.

“She told me to be careful because someone wanted to hurt me.”

“Did she say who?” he asks the obvious question.

“She started to say something and then lost consciousness.”

“It sounded like Gr . . .” Lucia adds, repeating what we heard.

“Do you know what she could’ve been talking about?” he asks me, writing down comments in his notepad.

“It could be anything,” I say.

“Yes but she was trying to say something to you. This could be important, Callum. Could it be something only you and Ms. Malestrom would know? Could it be someone you both know?” he explains. “Is there anyone with a similar sounding name?”

Lucia and I had wondered the exact same thing on the way over here.

“Gregory Graves, who is an intern at my firm, and my business partner, Grant Richardson.”

“Now we’re getting somewhere. So did Ms. Malestrom say anything else?”

“No. She starting having a seizure and then we performed CPR.”

“Okay. Do you have any reason to believe that either Mr. Graves or Mr. Richardson would have reason to meet with Ms. Malestrom at the bar earlier tonight?”

“Gregory used to date Jodi until a few weeks ago, I believe. As for Grant, I don’t believe he would have any reason to meet her.”

“Oh,” Lucia says, leaning forward and releasing my hand. “Graves came into the restaurant tonight.” She looks at me with wide eyes before facing toward Detective Lawrence. “It would’ve been around seven p.m. He wanted to make a reservation for the weekend.”