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“There’re things in those folders that only I know about.”

Matthew stared at them, wondering how only Justin knew about the details of each report. It should’ve been information available to the entire Windsong Police Department. Especially Katherine’s father.

“Those files there are the only ones like it,” Justin explained, having read the racing thoughts of his young partner. “They haven’t seen a single day of any filing cabinet in the entire station. Not even Jerome has seen those in their entirety.”

“Why?”

“Because they’re filled with sensitive information.”

As a flood of other questions came pouring out, Justin hurried, in what precious little time they had left, to answer as many as possible.

“Max wasn’t what you’d call a nice guy. He was well-liked in high school because he was good-looking and a football star who got a lot of opportunities to attend some pretty impressive colleges. But for some reason, he passed it all up to stay here, marry his high school girlfriend, and be a cop like her dad.”

“Katie?” Matthew’s stomach churned at the thought of anyone but him in her life.

“Yep. At first, we all thought he did it for Katherine. You know, like some romantic, grand gesture. But it didn’t take long to figure out that wasn’t the case. He never could see that she was more than he deserved. Or maybe he did, and somehow that pissed him off. Maybe it’s why he treated her so damn bad.”

As he listened, Matthew thought about Katie’s caring nature and kind heart. And wondered how arrogant and ignorant someone had to be to think she wasn’t enough.

“After Max joined the department, the Chief saw more of his true colors. From what he told me, I guess Max had a bad streak as a little boy, and it wasn’t until later he seemed to change for the better. But it didn’t last, or maybe it was all a game to begin with. Because either way, his attitude got worse after he came back from the Academy, and it wasn’t long before he started abusing his position in a dozen different ways.”

“Like how?”

“Well, for starters, he had no respect for the job. He used his badge, uniform, and even one of the cruisers on his days off to pick up women. Hell, he was so stupid he even bragged about it to Kendall and Patrick. So, when the Chief got wind of what he’d been up to, he was furious. Honest to God, I thought Jerome was gonna kill him for cheatin’ on Katherine. Clearly, Max didn’t care if he ever got caught. Even by the Chief himself. And I’m sure you can imagine how stupid that is.”

“Did Jerome ever confront him?”

“He wanted to, but by the time he started hearin’ stories, he was already stuck between a rock and a hard place, with Katherine being pregnant and all. Plus, Max started playin’ the doting husband and father-to-be in front of anyone who would buy it. I guess Jerome wanted it to be real, but it turned out it wasn’t.”

Matthew looked down at the folders in his lap.

“Katie told me that Max was with someone on the night of the fire, but she didn’t know who it was. Do you know?”

“Yep, and it’s worse than you can even imagine. Max left a helluva mess behind,” Justin said with a heavy sigh. “After the preliminary investigation, there were a lot of things left unanswered, so that’s when I was given what Jerome called aspecial assignment. When you read those reports, you’ll understand.”

Worried about what could be worse than anything he’d heard, Matthew took a deep breath before opening theWitness Testimoniesfolder. There, on top of a stack of papers, was the photograph of a young girl paper-clipped to the front page of a background check.

“Basically, my special assignment boiled down to finding out exactly what Max Chandler was up to and who he was up to it with.”

When Matthew pulled the picture from the paper clip to get an even better look at the girl’s face, he noticed the words CLEAN REPORT in big, bold letters across the top of the page before he looked back at the picture again.

“If you think your eyes are lyin’ to ya, they’re not.”

“But… this can’t be true.”

“Unfortunately, it is.”

Matthew shook his head. He couldn’t seem to make sense of it.

“And you’re one hundred percent sure about this?”

Justin nodded. “I didn’t want it to be true either, but it is. That file has plenty of evidence pointing directly to—”

“No. Don’t even say it.”

Justin must’ve understood the fear that was running through Matthew’s mind. “I promise you. Katherine is completely safe.”

“How can you say that?”