Amanda glanced in the rearview back at Jesse. Her first grader had her head leaning against the window, staring out at the after-school traffic. She hadn't said six words to her mother since Amanda had picked her up.

"Jess?" Amanda tried again. "How was school?"

"…Okay."

Amanda frowned. The rest of the drive was spent in silence. Upon returning home to their apartment, Jesse unbuckled her seatbelt herself and obediently waited for Amanda to come open the door and let her out. Her daughter grabbed her backpack and marched past her mother up the stairs, waiting for her mother with the keys. "Is Uncle Sonny home?" she demanded.

"No, Miss Attitude," Amanda told her, "he's still at work. He'll be by when he gets off. Jesse, you need to tell me what happened at school."

She shook her head, remaining tight-lipped. Amanda let them into the building and Jesse jogged up to their apartment on the second floor. Frannie was barking inside, and Amanda could hear the TV. Sienna opened the door. Billie was seated at the table eating a snack. "Mommy!"

"Hi, baby. Hey, Sienna." Amanda handed her some cash from her wallet. "How was school for you?"

"Pretty good. Prom's comin' up."

"Oh yeah? Anybody ask you yet?"

Sienna shook her head, suddenly self conscious. "Nah," she said. "But, their loss."

"You're darn right," Amanda said. "See you tomorrow?"

Sienna nodded. "Bye, Jesse. See you later!"

Jesse hopped up on the couch and stared at the TV. "'Bye."

It was about two hours later when Sonny Carisi let himself into the apartment, suit jacket folded over one arm. It was unseasonably warm for April in New York City, and his sleeves were rolled up past his elbows. He frowned as he closed the door behind him. Jesse and Billie were watching cartoons on television, but Jesse had storm clouds on her face. He heard the water running-Amanda was in the shower. "Anybody home?" he asked sarcastically.

Jesse's head whipped around. "Uncle Sonny!" She got off the couch and stomped over to him. "You used to be a detective like Mommy right?"

He blinked at the verbal onslaught. "Uh, yeah. Why?"

"And you put bad people in jail now?"

His blood ran cold. Oh, God. "Jess…what's goin' on?" he asked, kneeling down so he was on her level. "Did somethin' happen at school today?"

She nodded. Sonny led her over to the breakfast bar and picked her up, sitting her on the edge like he'd done when she was smaller. "Jesse…what's the matter?"

"Somebody made Lucy cry at recess," Jesse said. "Can you come to school and find out who?"

He relaxed, just a little. Trauma interview training took over. "Lucy…that's your best friend in class, right? The redhead?" When Jesse nodded, he continued. "Okay. Was it an adult, or was it a kid in class?"

"One of the girls in class," Jesse replied. "The recess teachers don't do nothin'."

Thank God. "All right. Did Lucy tell you anything?"

"She said she wanted to play tag, an' she went over to ask, but when she came to line up, she was crying."

"Did she tell a recess teacher what happened?"

"No. She was too sad."

Sonny glanced over the top of Jesse's head to see Amanda sitting on the couch with Billie, eavesdropping on the conversation. "Jess, I mean, it's not really my job to fix things that happen at school-"

"But this isn't the first time!" Jesse said. She looked backwards, spotting her mom sitting there. "Mommy, remember I told you last time?"

Amanda nodded. "This isn't the first time girls have made Lucy cry," she told Sonny. "Jesse was pretty upset last time, too. I told them they needed to talk to a teacher."

"We did!" Jesse started to cry. "But it still happens and there's too many kids on the playground so they don't see it and the other girls always say they didn't do nothing!"

Sonny gave her a hug as she cried in his arms. He sighed, looking at Amanda. "Parent-teacher conference?"

"Oh," Amanda said, shaking her head. "No, I have a better idea."

"I'm all for this," Jesse's teacher, Mr. Benjamin, leaned back in his chair. "I cleared it with our principal, she thinks it'll be a good learning experience. These girls are seven going on seventeen," he said. "I've never seen a class with this much of an attitude or girl drama in the time I've been here. We teach social skills and SEL but I have to keep reminding myself that a lot of these kids were stuck at home for a year or more during COVID. It takes a while to learn those social skills."

He grinned. "The bell rings in about two minutes, and I'll bring them in from the playground. Did Jesse give you any names?"

Amanda tapped the piece of paper in her hand. "Perfect," Mr. Benjamin said. "I'll let you start with them." He stood up and shook Sonny's hand. "Mr. Carisi, you're going to have the toughest cross-examination of your life with these girls. I wish you luck."

Amanda and Sonny exchanged a grin. "Hopefully we haven't lost it," Sonny said.

Lucy McCole was a shy redhead. "Hi, sweetie. You're Jesse's friend, right? I'm her mom," Amanda introduced herself. "And this is Mr. Carisi, he's a friend of mine."

"Hi," Lucy whispered, her eyes on her hands in her lap.

"Lucy, Jesse told us you were sad yesterday after recess. Can you tell me what happened?"

"Um." Lucy was so quiet that Sonny had to lean in to hear her. "They were playing tag, and I asked if I could play, but they said they don't let game-wreckers play. And then they all went to the other side of the playground, and Daria ran into me. I fell."

"Was it because she was still playing tag?" Sonny asked.

"On purpose," Lucy said softly. She rolled up her pant leg, showing the two adults a black and blue bruise. "Jesse asked me what happened."

"Did you tell a recess teacher?"

Lucy shook her head. "If I did, the other girls would just lie and say nothing happened. I didn't want to get in trouble, so I didn't."

Kid logic, Sonny thought, shaking his head.

"All right sweetie, thank you for telling us. Jesse is coloring over there, why don't you go hop in with her?" Amanda suggested. She smiled warmly at the little girl, and then turned to Mr. Benjamin. "All right, where should we start?"

Daria Shanley was a precocious blonde, and more than willing to talk. "Well, we were playin' tag, and I was running across the playground and I accidentally bumped into Lucy. She yelled at me."

"Yeah? What did she yell?" Amanda asked her.

"She said to watch where I was goin'," Daria said. "It was an accident, I promise!"

"Okay," Amanda nodded. She looked at Sonny. "Any questions?"

"Yeah," Sonny said. He leaned forward awkwardly in the first-grader-sized chair. "The playground has cameras. If I look at them, will I see you running accidentally into Lucy, or on purpose?"

"It was an accident."

"Okay. Thanks, honey." Daria smiled at them and bounced off to go back to her desk. "Tag, huh?" Amanda said. "All this over a game of tag?"

"Who do we have next on Jesse's list?"

Amanda pointed. "Corie Hansen," she said.

Mr. Benjamin brought Corie over to them. "Corie, this is Jesse's mommy and her Uncle Sonny," he explained. "Jesse's mommy used to be a detective, and her Uncle Sonny is a lawyer. They have some questions about recess yesterday to ask you."

"Okay." Corie slid into the chair across from the two adults. "You were a detective?" she asked Amanda. When Amanda nodded, Corie asked, "Did you ever shoot anybody?"

Amanda exchanged a look with Sonny. This is off to a great start. "Corie, were you playing tag with Daria yesterday?"

She nodded. "And Lucy, Lucy was playin' too, and Sadie, and Faith."

"Oh, Lucy was playing the game too?" Sonny asked. "Do you know how come Lucy was crying when your class had to go line up?"

"No. She just got mad at us for no reason, so we quit playing," Corie explained.

"Well you definitely are allowed to stop playing if you want," Amanda replied. "How did Lucy feel about that?"

Corie shrugged. "I don't know. We didn't play together after that."

"Okay. Thanks," Sonny told her. Corie got up and went back to the table to work on their shapes they were tracing.

"Which one is Tara?" Sonny asked Mr. Benjamin. The young teacher moved to a little Hispanic girl and whispered in her ear. The girl got up from her iPad and followed him over to the table. "Hi, Tara," Amanda said. "Can we ask you some questions about recess yesterday?"

Tara nodded. "Is this because Daria and Corie called Lucy names?"

Sonny raised an eyebrow. "What names?" he asked. This was new information.

"Yeah. 'Cause Lucy tagged me and said I was playing tag now, so I went to go chase Corie, but then Corie and Daria said that they didn't wanna play with Lucy anymore and that she was a game-wrecker."

"Why was she a game-wrecker?" Amanda asked.

"Corie and Daria don't let everybody play tag. They get to pick, but nobody else does."

"Okay. Thank you, Tara." Tara stood up and returned back to where Lucy and Jesse were coloring.

Amanda glanced at her notes. "Think we have enough to make an indictment, Counselor?"

He nodded. "Startin' to see the big picture. I think we need to clear things up with Sadie and Faith, and then I think we're ready."

Amanda and Sonny sat down on the carpet in front of a crowd of 25 first graders. Mr. Benjamin sat behind the group to help keep order, and the principal had slipped in through the door and was watching the proceedings from the front of the room.

"Okay, how many of you know what a lie is?" Amanda asked.

Lots of hands went up, and Amanda chose a little boy in a Lion King tee. "It's when you don't tell the truth, or when you make something up!"

"Very good," Amanda said. "I used to be a detective. And part of my job was listening to people tell me things and decide if they were lying or not."

"Yeah, and I do the same thing when I am in court," Sonny explained. "When people talk to me, they have to promise the judge and me that they're not lying."

"Cause they can get in big trouble if they lie!" Jesse piped up.

Sonny chuckled. "Yeah, they can actually go to jail," he said. Eyes around the room widened. "So here's what we're gonna do. Can you all raise your right hand?"

He paused to help a couple of students figure out their left and right before continuing. "Okay. I want you to say what I say, okay? I promise-"

"I promise!"

"-to tell the truth-"

"To tell the truth!"

"-because it isn't right to lie."

"Because it isn't right to lie!" A few of the children said the final line with big emphasis. Sonny smiled. "Your turn, Detective Rollins."

"So the reason that we're here today," Amanda continued, "is because one of your classmates got hurt at recess yesterday. And we know that it was someone in your class. And we wanted to do a little investigation to see if we could help her."

She pointed to Daria and Corie. "You only told us half a story today," Amanda told them. "You see, you didn't tell us that you called Lucy names. Or that you got mad when Lucy invited Tara to come play your game. You just said that Lucy got mad at you and then you walked away, but that wasn't the whole truth, was it?"

She looked at Daria. "Why did Lucy wreck the game by inviting Tara?" she asked. "Isn't tag more fun when you have more people to play?"

Daria's face turned bright red. "I-I don't know why I said that," she mumbled.

"Okay, I get that sometimes we say things we don't mean, but that's not a very good excuse though, is it?" Amanda asked her. "How many of you have ever done that?"

A handful of hands went up…Daria's included, even as she looked at the carpet. "Yeah, even if it's something we don't mean, or it was an accident, we still need to apologize for it."

"But I didn't call her anything!" Corie objected.

"But you were with someone who did," Sonny said gently. "And calling names isn't right, is it?"

"No…"

"Did you tell Daria that it wasn't okay to call Lucy names?"

Corie shook her head. "No…"

"That makes you just as guilty," Sonny told her. "See, guys, you can't just stay quiet if a friend is being hurt, or being called names. That's not right, and you don't like it if it happens to you, do you?"

Everyone shook their heads. "Right. I tell you what, adults, we don't like it either. And so we need to stand up for our friends if they're getting hurt, or if something is happening. I know sometimes it seems like the recess teachers can't help, but they really can't help if they don't know it's happening, right?"

He nodded to their teacher. "Mr. Benjamin is a pretty nice guy, I bet he'd listen and help you. And your principal, right?"

A chorus of 'yeahs' went up around the room. "Good." Sonny clapped his hands on his knees and stood up, helping Amanda to her feet. "Mr. Benjamin, now that you have the whole story, we'll let you decide what an appropriate consequence would be."

"Mrs. Rollins and Mr. Carisi, thank you for coming in today. Class, can we tell them thank you?"

"Thaaaannkkk youuuuu!" the class chorused.

Later that day, when Amanda came to pick Jesse up again after school, Jesse bounced into the backseat of the Jeep and buckled herself in. "Mommy, guess what?" she demanded.

"What, baby?"

"Daria and Corie have to miss recess the rest of the week," Jesse announced. "They said sorry to Lucy too!" She grinned. "You solved the crime!"

Amanda hit her blinker and they pulled out into traffic. Yep. Still got it.