And there was one more thing. Patton set a printout on the tray table where Brandon could see it: a photograph, taken with a long lens, of a teenage girl in a coat coming out of a cardiology clinic.

Sierra. Two days ago.

“They weren’t just threatening,” Patton said quietly. “They were watching her. Following her.” She gathered the printout back up. “Which is why we’re not waiting.

We’re arresting them today.”

Chapter 9 — The Arrests

Demi Benedict was taken into custody that afternoon at an upscale spa downtown, reclining in a heated chair with a cool green mask drying on her face, when two detectives and a uniformed officer walked into the treatment room.

“This is a mistake,” she said, and then, as they asked her to stand and put her hands behind her back, louder, the mask cracking as her expression changed.