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“She’s going to the restroom,” Ballard said.
“That was close,” Masser said.
“You keep your eye on him. I’m going to follow her.”
“You sure?”
“I’m sure.”
She got up, leaving her napkin on her seat, went down the hall, and pushed through the door to the restroom. There were four stalls and two sinks. Three of the stall doors were slightly open, and the fourth was closed. Ballard could see the cuffs of the purple pantsuit beneath the closed door. She went to one of the side-by-side sinks, buttoned her jacket to avoid exposing her weapon, pulled a tissue from a box, and leaned over the sink toward the mirror.
She waited.
The toilet in the fourth stall flushed.
Ballard started dabbing at her left eye with the tissue. The door to the stall opened and the woman from Judge Purcell’s table emerged and went to the other sink. Ballard continued dabbing and the woman started washing her hands.
“I hope he pays for it,” the woman said.
“Excuse me?” Ballard said.
“Whoever just broke your heart. I hope he gets his broken worse.”
“Oh. No, I’m just trying to fix my contact.”
“Oh, my mistake.”
“No worries.”
The woman finished washing and turned off the water. She pulled paper towels from a dispenser, dried her hands on them, and tossed them into a trash hole cut into the countertop. She reached into a pocket of the pantsuit, produced a lipstick in a gold case, and touched up her lips, then took a tissue from the box. After dabbing her lips with it, she dropped the tissue through the counter hole.
Ballard stepped back from the sink and fluffed her hair while looking in the mirror. The woman turned toward the door.
“Have a good night,” she said.
“You too,” Ballard said.
When she got back to the bar two minutes later, her branzino was waiting. Masser was already eating his.
“Sorry, I couldn’t wait—it looked so good. What happened in the restroom?”
“I got a tissue with her lipstick on it,” Ballard said. She patted her jacket pocket.
“But why?”
“Because I don’t know who she is.”
“What’s that mean?”
“I had the opportunity. We don’t know who she is. Is she Nicholas Purcell’s mother? A stepmother? We need to know who the players are, and I had two evidence bags. The question is, are we going to get to use the second one?”
“Well… guess what, they’re leaving.”
Ballard checked the mirror. “That was fast,” she said. “Did they even get food?”
“Just appetizers and soup,” Masser said. “Then the judge got a call on his cell and they asked for the check.”
“Something must have happened.”
