“It’s not the same without her, is it, Deirdre?” said a deep voice behind me.

I turned. Caro’s father-in-law, Theodore, was there, dressed in a black suit. His gray hair was neatly combed, and there was a baby-blue square in his chest pocket. Still, he had an unmistakable air of misery around him.

“I find myself walking by, or picking up the phone, and I’m surprised that she’s not here,” he added. “I have a funny voice message she left me, and I’ve played it a dozen times, just to hear her voice.”

I nodded. I wasn’t used to the idea that she was gone. I wondered if I ever would be.

“She sent me a bunch of family photographs recently,” I said. “Hundreds of them on a memory card.” I gulped and closed my mouth, remembering what else was on that memory card.

“Anything special?”

“Small things I’d forgotten. Shots of us in matching outfits that Caro probably wanted to burn.”

“Sometimes being reminded of little moments like that is the greatest gift. Caroline was a person who made every day seem special. It’s an unusual talent.”

“She made everyone feel special, whether or not they deserved to.”

He smiled. “Well put. You have a similar sense of humor, you know. Caroline was very careful about what she said, but if you knew her well, she was a riot.”

That was true. Caroline was decorous to the point of dullness in public, but she was sharply observant and could be sarcastic in private.

“What brought you here today?” he asked.

I didn’t want to tell him about my plan to raid the pantry. “I don’t have anywhere else to be right now. I just got fired from my job.”

“Fired?” His brow knit in concern. “Why? What happened?”

“Honestly? I kicked the shit out of a slimeball who groped me.”

“Deirdre!” He was clearly shocked. At first, I thought it was my choice of words, but I was wrong. “Are you going to sue? Do you have a lawyer?”

“No.” I didn’t want to add the obvious, that I was never going to be able to afford one.

“You do now.” He extracted a case from his pocket. I assumed it was a wallet, but when he opened it, there were only business cards inside. He removed one and handed it to me. “This is one of mine. He’s young but he is brilliant. Don’t hold it against him, but he was a classmate of my son’s. You should call him.”

I glanced at the name embossed on the front. Hugo Laraya, Attorney at Law, Casper Peters McNally. “I can’t afford him.”

“You don’t need to pay him a dime. He’s on retainer here.”

“Thanks.” I stuck the card in my pocket.

“Do you need money? I’d be happy to help.”

I could feel my face flush. I wasn’t used to taking charity, and the spreadsheets on Caro’s memory card made me wonder if his finances were on the up-and-up.

“I’m fine.”

“I don’t want to intrude if you’d prefer solitude,” he said. “Theo was in here yesterday. He’s already flown off to Germany. Berlin, I believe.”

That made my head swivel. “He left already? Did he take Teddy?”

“No,” Theodore said. “Teddy has had enough upheaval. I won’t permit someone as unstable as my son to disturb his life.” There was steel undergirding his words.

“Why would Theo take off like that? Why Berlin?” I’d never been outside the US, but the city was synonymous with decadence in my head. In fairness, that was from watching Cabaret and Babylon Berlin.

“I know he’s my son, but I find it impossible to understand him or the choices he makes. Theo is used to doing whatever he wants,” his father said quietly. “I can only blame myself for that.”

Mentally, I flipped a coin. Tell Theodore what I knew? I decided yes and took a deep diaphragm breath.

“Caroline told me Theo killed his first wife.” It came out abruptly, more brutally than I intended.

The old man winced, as if I’d kicked him. “I knew she’d found out. We talked about it.” He sighed. “Do you mind if we sit down? It’s hard going over this territory.”

I moved to take a seat in Caro’s chair behind her desk. Her father-in-law sat down in the cushioned chair in front.

“I can tell you what I know and what I believe,” Theodore said. “There was a period in his life—early on in college—when Theo was using drugs and engaging in . . . destructive behaviors, let’s call them that. First, you should know that the woman’s death wasn’t intentional. I truly believe that. Theo and she were participating in some kind of, ah, game . . . while they were high. That was how she died.”

He clearly meant a sex game, and I was torn between wanting details and needing to vomit. “What was her name?”

“She went by Mirelle and Marianne and a couple of other aliases. I never knew her last name. She was a gold digger who got her hooks into Theo. But then she died.”

I couldn’t exactly blame him for taking his son’s side, but the cold way he dismissed the woman as a gold digger set my teeth on edge. “What happened afterward?”

“I put him into rehab.”

“What about the dead woman?”

“What about her?”

He sounded surprised, and I stared at him in horror. His son had killed someone—accidentally or not—and the life of the dead woman was irrelevant to him. He didn’t even think about it.

“What happened to her body?” I asked. “People must’ve wondered about her. About where she went, and if she was okay.”

“I don’t really know,” Theodore said. “I believe the police looked at it as a break-in. My son had cash and drugs in the apartment . . .” He heaved out a long sigh. “I put Theo in rehab hundreds of miles away. I’m ashamed of that now. I helped Theo evade responsibility for that girl.”

“Do you want to do that now?”

Theodore’s eyes caught on mine. Neither of us could look away.

“If Theo had something to do with my sister’s death, would you help him get away with it?”

“No,” Theodore said firmly. “I thought he’d settled down when he married Caroline. I hoped he had. I believe he did, for a certain time. Then he reverted to form.”

“Caro wasn’t killed in a game,” I said. “Do you think Theo did something to her?”

“It doesn’t seem possible, but . . .” He closed his eyes. “Caroline wanted a divorce. I understood why. Theo wanted custody of Teddy. That’s why . . .” His voice trailed off.

“What?”

“I haven’t told anyone this,” Theodore said. “But I saw Theo at their house before Caroline died.”

“Wasn’t he out of town?”

“He wants people to think that,” Theodore said. “I confronted him about it yesterday. He denied being there, but I know he was lying to me. He was at the house.”

“Are you positive it was him?”

“Absolutely. I was awake at five in the morning. Theo came by and went into the house. He was only there for a few minutes. I got a very good look at him on his way out. It was him.”

“You need to tell the police,” I said.

“Tell them what? That Theo went to his house at five in the morning? Caroline was still alive when he left.” Theodore shook his head sadly. “I’ve had paranoid thoughts about his visit. What if he did something to one of Caroline’s medications? I have no proof at all. Only fears.”

“What about security cameras? He must be on them.”

“The security system had been disabled,” he said. “Obviously both Caroline and Theo had the codes.”

“Do you think Theo was involved in my sister’s death?”

“I don’t want to think that.” He rubbed his eyes. “When I confronted him, I thought he’d give me an explanation for being there. It could have been anything. But Theo lied about it. I can’t think of any innocent reason why he would do that.”

CHAPTER 22

THEO

My flight over the Atlantic was miserable. Awake, I obsessed about what Teddy had said to me when I told him I had to go away for a couple of days. You’re leaving again? Okay. Bye. Asleep, Caroline’s face floated through my mind. I don’t want to be married to you anymore. Why is that so hard to understand, Theo? Get out of my house.

All of my options were awful ones.

More than once, I pulled the letter I always carried out of my pocket. Reading it over always made me question my sanity.

Dear Theo Thraxton,