“We’ve known each other for years,” she explained. “It’s what we would call our normal.”
“That is far from normal.”
Saffi narrowed her eyebrows. “I don’t see how that’s any of your concern.”
“It isn’t.” Dimple shrugged, immediately letting itgo.
That was a little too easy. Now Saffi was curious where she’d been planning on going with that.
She sighed, rubbing a tired hand over her face. “Andino knows how to irritate me better than anyone.” She almost saidHe knows how to hurt me,but that was something she would never admit. “And I’m not much better. It’s almost like a game at this point.”
“Does it ever affect your work?” Dimple asked. It seemed to be a genuine question, but it was nearly impossible to tell when theactress was hiding something. Luckily, Saffi had learned to read between the lines.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Unfortunately for you, I know what I’m doing. I’ll catch this killer.”I’ll catch youwent unsaid.
Dimple didn’t respond right away to her challenge. She seemed to be gathering her thoughts, gearing up for something big. Saffi got the feeling she was about to find out the real reason Dimple had decided to interrupt her evening. And it wasn’t to gossip about her coworkers.
“If you were to catch this person,” Dimple asked slowly, “what would happen to them?”
That was all it took to send ice through Saffi’s veins. This line of questioning couldn’t be a coincidence. Dimple knew, or at least had an idea, of what she had worked so hard to hide.
“Death row,” Saffi replied, voice even.
Dimple laughed humorlessly. “Catching a killer only to kill them. How hypocritical.”
“There’s a moratorium,” Saffi tried, but her resolve was beginning to crumble. “Nobody’s been executed in California since 2006. They’re trying to get rid of it altogether.”
“So you don’t believe in the death penalty,” Dimple said thoughtfully. “Somehow, that’s even more hypocritical.”
“What do you expect me to do?” Saffi snapped. “I can’t exactly go up to a killer and ask them to kindly kill somewhere else, preferably a place where the death penalty doesn’t exist.”
Dimple’s eyes glinted with understanding and Saffi grimaced, knowing she’d played right into her hands.
“Where did you live for the five years you were abroad?”
Saffi scowled. “Don’t act like you don’t already know.”
“I can guess.” Dimple hummed. “France? Norway? Hong Kong? Portugal? Anywhere without the death penalty. Am I right?”
Saffi didn’t respond, which Dimple took as her answer. “I figured it out, don’t I get a reward?”
Saffi leveled Dimple with a glare. She wasn’t sure if she was more humiliated or pissed off that Dimple was making such a mockery of the very thing that haunted her every waking moment.
“Oh, don’t look at me like that, I’m only joking,” Dimple said. “Why move so far away, though? There are many states that have abolished it altogether.”
There was no use denying it any longer, but Saffi couldn’t help the sheer stubbornness that overpowered her, keeping her mouth shut.
That only seemed to intrigue Dimple further. “I could guess, but I’ve seen how angry that makes you.”
Saffi’s hands were shaking, so she crossed her arms, pressing them close to her chest.
“You needed a fresh start, I suppose that’s reasonable,” Dimple said, as though she’d plucked the words right out of Saffi’s mind.
How did she do that?
“It makes sense. After all, you did kill someone,” Dimple said and Saffi’s shoulders stiffened. “You were naïve. You thought you could handle it, but you were in over your head.”
“That’s not true,” Saffi said. “That case was assigned to me—Inever asked for this.”
