“This is not an accident,” Osei said quietly, when it ended.

“And the garage video shows attempted destruction of evidence.

Mrs.

Hartigan, your father built you a very good case.”

Those words stayed with me — your father built you a very good case — because they were truer than the detective knew.

My father had not built me a case in any legal sense; he was an engineer, not a lawyer, and he had installed a hidden recorder, not filed a brief.