Adrian didn't want me to go alone.
He said it once, clearly, without dressing up: "I don't think you should meet her without backup," and I appreciated the directness enough to give him a real answer instead of a reflexive one.
"If she wanted to hurt me she had six years of unobstructed access," I said. "Whatever she's doing now, it isn't that."
"You don't know what it is."
"No. Which is why I have to go." I picked up my bag. "She'll only talk to me alone. The moment she sees anyone else, she closes. And whatever she has about my father" I stopped. Steadied. "I need that more than I need to be safe from a woman who has already done her worst."
He looked at me for a long moment. The investigator, whose name I still hadn't been given, stood near the door with the patience of someone ac
