“How typical of him to foist the blame on me. Whatever he did to that woman, my hands are clean.”

I was in awe of his steely nerve. His crime had been uncovered, and he was still confident that he could wriggle off the hook. “I also spoke with the man Harris hired to help him kill Mirelle and stage the scene,” I said. “As soon as I heard Harris was involved, I knew what you’d done. Don’t embarrass yourself by denying it.”

He sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Do you have any idea how difficult it is to have your children disappoint you again and again? Teddy’s too young for you to grasp this concept. When he’s a teenager, you might understand. Imagine bringing this beautiful boy into the world and then watching him destroy himself with drugs and bad company that encourages his worst impulses.”

It was clever of him to mention Teddy, because I’d rather die than allow my son to suffer the pain I had. I couldn’t imagine my son harming himself. But I also couldn’t envision how cruel you would have to be to create a straitjacket of guilt and force your child to live in it. That was inhuman, no matter the excuse.

“You thought you were going to control me by making me believe I’d killed a woman. What kind of man would do that to his son?”

“It was a lesson in consequences. You needed to understand the danger of what you were doing.”

“My entire adult life was based on a lie you constructed. Why did you do it?”

“It should’ve straightened you out,” my father said. “And it did, to a point. You stopped frequenting fetish clubs and using drugs. I thought there was hope for you when you joined the business and married Caroline. Sadly, I was wrong. Your feelings got all hurt, and you ran away again.”

“What you call feelings are values. Ethics. I know you don’t have any. But I told you I didn’t want any part of your criminal enterprise. That’s why I quit. I was disgusted with you.”

“Too bad that Caroline didn’t feel the same way,” he said. “I think I was far closer to her than you ever were.”

I balled my hands into fists. There had always been something unseemly about the attention he’d paid to Caroline, as if he were the one courting her. “It was so satisfying to you, testing her loyalty, luring her to your team. Did you murder her? Was that to protect me as well?”

For the first time since I’d walked into his study, my father’s self-possession vanished. “You think I killed Caroline?”

“Juliet told Caroline about Mirelle, and Caroline told her sister. Were you afraid word would spread?”

“You can go to jail forever for all I care. I have Teddy now.”

“Did you kill Caroline?”

“No. I loved her,” he said quietly. “If you think I harmed her, you’re out of your mind.”

“I’d be mad to believe there was a person you wouldn’t hurt.”

He contemplated that. “Caroline was better than my own children. She was the kind of woman who thought before she made a move, considering the consequences not only to herself but to those around her. You and your sister always were a pair of ingrates, you especially. Juliet loves to embarrass me, and she argues over everything. You divorced yourself from this family. Everything I raised you for, everything I made you to be, you abandoned. Caroline was never like that. She was loyal.”

“Here’s what I think happened. Caroline was distraught to learn about Mirelle. She wanted answers, and when you talked to her, you told her I was responsible. But here’s where it gets tricky, Father. I think that dramatically changed her feelings about you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Her dear father-in-law had covered up an innocent woman’s murder,” I said. “Caroline couldn’t accept that. She couldn’t live with that. She must’ve looked at Teddy and wondered what way you would twist him. No wonder she wanted full custody of him. She needed to get him away from this house of monsters.”

He watched me impassively, but a muscle next to his eye quivered.

“You killed her,” I said. “You murdered Caroline.”

“Theo, you’re an idiot if you think that.”

“You’ve harmed so many people in your life. You’re a poison that seeps through our veins—mine, Juliet’s, Teddy’s. You have no conscience, no principles. To you, money is the only god. There’s no purpose to anything you do except to enrich yourself and hurt anyone who stands in your way. You murdered Caroline because she was going to expose you for the thieving fraud you are.”

“Haven’t you heard a word I said? That would only harm Teddy, in the end.”

“What did you do to Caroline?”

“Nothing! Trust me on that.”

“I can’t trust anyone in my life,” I said. “That’s how you raised me, to be always suspicious of other people’s motives. You impressed on me, when I was still a child, that the only reason people would want to get close to me was for money.”

“It’s a good lesson to keep in mind. But Caroline wasn’t motivated by money. She believed in family loyalty.”

“There’s a problem with blind loyalty when you mistake a monster for a man.”

There was a thud behind me. I hadn’t heard Harris open the door of the study, but his heavy footsteps were unmistakable.

“I heard shouting. Are you all right, sir?” Harris asked.

“Theo’s deciding whether he’s up to the task of taking me down,” my father said. “And—spoiler alert—he’s not.”

“It’s time for you to leave,” Harris said.

“This doesn’t end here,” I promised. “I quit the business for many reasons, but the main one is that I want to see justice done, and I will. For Caroline. For Teddy. For Mirelle.”

My father chuckled. “Good luck with that, Theo.” He rose and left the room.

After my father left, Harris glowered at me. “I already told you to go.”

“I met with an old colleague of yours while I was in Berlin,” I said. “Mehmet Badem. Remember him?”

“A drug addict,” Harris said. “People like that are better off dead. They’re worthless.”

I took a step closer to him. “You’ve been doing my father’s dirty work for twenty years now. Does that ever disrupt your sleep? Do you ever feel guilty?”

“You’re a fine one to talk. Do you have any idea what hell you put your father through?” he demanded. “He’s done everything for you, and you pay him back with betrayal.”

The loathing he had for me was so strong I could sense it; it was like steam rising from his skin.

“You’ve wanted to beat me to a pulp since I was a teenager,” I said. “Why haven’t you?”

“Your father wouldn’t like it if I hit you first.”

“Is that all that holds you back?” I asked. “Fine.”

I punched him in the stomach. My fist connected with hard muscle, which was exactly as I expected. Harris grunted.

“There you go,” I said. “Now you can tell my father that I hit you first.”

His eyes lit up. He grabbed my throat with both hands—with the quivering eagerness of a man whose dream was finally coming true—and shoved me against the bookcase. He lifted me up so that I rested lightly on my toes. I’d expected him to draw blood quickly, but he seemed intent on causing more permanent damage.

I grabbed a stone statuette and smashed it into the side of his face. Harris staggered back.

“Sorry, I’m a little out of practice,” I said, my voice strained. “I used to do this a lot.”

I struck him again, and there was a sickening crunch from his mouth.

“That was for Mirelle,” I said. “Believe me, you deserve far worse.”

As I walked out of the study, Harris was spitting out blood and a tooth onto the fine Persian carpet.

CHAPTER 41

DEIRDRE

The smart play was to head home, rest, and plan a new line of attack for the next day. Or I could go to Ben’s and demand answers. Since when had I ever been smart?

I’d tried to get into his Tudor City apartment before and failed. I knew from that first visit there were no alternative entrances. Before I got on the subway, I reached out to the Snapp network of marathoners, asking if anyone had ever dropped off bags at the building. By the time I got to Forty-Second Street, I had a helpful answer. I bought a pair of large paper bags at Walgreens and headed east to Tudor City. I ducked under the scaffolding latticed in front of Ben’s building and smiled at the masked doorman.

“Hi, I’m Deirdre from Snapp. I’ve got a delivery for the Palansky family in 11C. I have keys.”

He nodded, and I hurried to the elevator. I headed up to the eleventh floor—where the family lived—and took the stairs up to the thirteenth floor and knocked on Ben’s door.

I heard him rattling around inside for a minute before he opened the peephole. We had a silent staring contest—I couldn’t see him, but I knew he was there. Finally, the lock turned, and he opened the door. “How did you get up here?”