“I can’t believe we missed it,” Amanda said. “How did we miss it?”

“I missed it,” Spenser corrected her. “And I missed it because I wanted to believe her grief was real. I empathized with her loss a little too much and it blinded me.”

“Don’t beat yourself up for having a heart, boss. You’re human, just like the rest of us, and none of us is perfect. I think it’s understandable that you’d relate to her, and I don’t think anybody blames you,” Jacob said gently.

“I appreciate that. But I blame myself for not maintaining my objectivity and looking at her with a more critical eye early on. I could have let a killer walk free,” Spenser replied.

“But you didn’t let her walk free. You figured it out,” Amanda said. “And all that matters now is that you’ve found Seth Hamill’s killer.”

“Knowing it and being able to prove it are two very different things. We need actual evidence we can use to get an arrest warrant,” Spenser said.

“It’s a shame you couldn’t snag what you found in her trash can,” Amanda said.

“Yeah, those pesky laws are a real thorn in my butt sometimes.”

Amanda and Jacob chuckled together.

“How did you figure out it was her?” Jacob asked.

“I wasn’t sure. I just had a hunch.”

“And what led you to that hunch?” Amanda pressed.

“Passion,” she replied. “What I told you about passion making people do awful things sometimes. It made me rethink how I viewed Layla. When I sat with her and looked at her through that new critical lens and listened to the things she was actually saying, I was sure. Finding the box for the eyedrop bottle and the syringe wrapper in her trash can only reinforced what I was already certain of, if only in the back of my mind.”

“That’s some serious police work right there, boss.”

Spenser shrugged. “Not really. It was just circling back around to something I should have been able to see from the jump.”

“One of these days I’m hoping you’re going to learn to take the W and pat yourself on the back, Sheriff. None of us saw it from the jump. And we’d still be chasing down dead ends if you hadn’t played your hunch,” Amanda said.

“I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but I agree with my sister, boss.”

The corners of Spenser’s mouth flickered, their kind words warming her heart. She appreciated it. But she was also self-aware enough to know that she would continue to flog herself with her failures for a little while yet. Spenser took pride in being professional and doing things by the numbers. But she’d let her personal feelings interfere. But she’d learn from it.

“Okay, so we’ve got our suspect,” Amanda started. “How are we going to prove it?”

“Actually, I think that’s something I might be able to help with,” Jacob said.

Spenser looked over at him. “Go on.”

“Well, like you, I came up with something I should have seen from the start,” he said. “But unlike you, I am going to take my victory lap for figuring it out.”

Spenser looked at him with a wry expression. “What did you do?”

“I did what you asked and worked my magic.”

“Oy. Could you get on with it already?” Amanda teased.

He glanced at his sister, his face a mask of smug triumph. “I realized that most people have their phones and computers set to automatically back everything up to the cloud. And since we’ve got access to his computers, I was able to get into it and found some things you might find interesting.”

“If you’re not too busy taking your victory lap, would you mind showing us?” Spenser asked.

A laugh bubbled out of Jacob’s throat. “Well, the first thing you might find interesting is a short video clip taken from one of his internal cameras—turns out, the one in his bedroom wasn’t the only one he had in his house.”

“What a freak,” Amanda said.

“He’s either incredibly security conscious or he’s one of those people obsessed with documenting each and every minute of his life,” Jacob said.

“Well, when you’re sleeping with so many other men’s wives, I guess it’s not a bad idea to have hidden cameras just in case you wind up murdered or something,” Amanda remarked dryly.

“What did you find?” Spenser asked.

“Give me just a moment,” he replied as he typed away at his keyboard.

A moment later, he cast the collection of files he was looking at onto the monitor on the wall. He navigated his cursor to one of the marked videos and Jacob double clicked on it. Inside the file were video clips, each of them marked with the location… kitchen, living room, dining room.

“This is the one that caught my attention,” Jacob said. “I think you’ll like it.”

He hit play and the screen filled with a view of Hamill’s living room. The room was empty, but Spenser heard raised voices. They were muffled, though, as if they were yelling at each other in another room, and she couldn’t make out what they were saying.

“Just wait,” Jacob said, as if reading her mind.

A moment later, Hamill stepped into view, his face flustered and tight with anger. He wheeled around just as Layla stepped into the frame. Her eyes narrowed, her lips curled back in a sneer, radiating rage from every pore.

“How could you do that to me, Seth? To us?” she screeched.

“Baby, I didn’t mean to… it just happened,” he said. “You know how much I love you.”

“How many, Seth? How many other whores are you sleeping with?”

“It’s not like that, baby—”

“How many!?”

“It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that I love you—”

The sharp and sudden crack of Layla’s hand meeting Hamill’s face was so unexpected, Spenser jumped slightly. She probably should have expected it was coming—after all, she’d obviously just found out her man was cheating on her. But it had come out of nowhere so fast, it was startling. Hamill’s head snapped to the side and although his face clouded over with anger, he held it in check, perhaps realizing he deserved it. Although Spenser wasn’t sure he was capable of that sort of introspection.

“Okay,” Hamill said. “I deserved that.”

“You’re damn right you did. You deserve more than that!”

“Let’s just calm down—”