Mayhem, Taco, and I didn’t dawdle on our way back to the store, but we didn’t exactly sprint either. The afternoon was sunny with a cool breeze, and I needed a few minutes of extra time to wrap my mind around what Lucy had said as well as to prepare for tonight.
I had to make a very concerted effort to slow down my brain, so I replayed the conversation with Lucy. No matter how I tried to keep her in mind as a suspect in Sidney’s murder, I just couldn’t do it. Her story rang so true for me, even if I’d never been manipulated into a relationship with an older man. I had been in all sorts of relationships with men who thought their primary job was to tend to me, rather than support me as a person, and I understood exactly what Lucy had experienced. Heck, I could have experienced it myself as
