“He knows we’re going to open the safe and get whatever’s inside, so his reason to break in is gone. Set your security alarm at night, but I think he’s out of the picture.”

Since Teo was still standing beside me, I reached for his hand. “Thank you.” I squeezed it.

“Bismarck was the hero.”

I stooped and rubbed behind the dog’s ears. “You can live with me forever, boy. Just so you know. Don’t tell Teo.”

“What’s next?” Teo asked.

I straightened and met his eyes. “A good cry?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Mentioning the other guys Wendy slept with didn’t faze him. He sure didn’t try to defend her honor. Now do we know the reason Bryce wants a divorce?”

“Maybe. Although if she came back to Florida after he initiated proceedings...”

“That means she was probably cheating on him in Connecticut, too. Bryce said she had other plans for her life. Those were his words. Apparently the plans included sleeping with scuzbags.”

I gave a sigh meant to cleanse my body of poisonous thoughts, but, of course, out they spewed anyway. “She was sneaking off to Against the Wind while she was living here. That’s a fact now. Who was taking care of the girls when she did?”

“Hopefully somebody.”

That left so much room for possibilities, I could only sigh again. “Or something. Like a medicine chest full of drugs.” I thought of poor Holly, falling asleep at her desk, of the many teacher conferences Wendy had avoided, of Holly’s antipathy toward her mother.

“She can’t have them back,” I said. “I won’t let her.”

Teo didn’t argue. “Let’s go back to your place and open the safe.”

“You’ll come? This isn’t your mess.”

“You’re planning to steal my dog. I have to stay alert.” He put his arm around me and squeezed. “One step at a time. If you have to, you can tell the girls’ father what you’ve learned and let him take it from there. Will he want custody?”

I really didn’t know. Bryce couldn’t take care of two young children and play with nukes, too. Of course there was also the matter of his security clearance.

Teo was right. Getting too far ahead of myself served no good purpose. I started toward my car. “One step at a time.”

By the time I opened the garage and drove inside, I was no more ready to open the safe than I had been. Teo parked in the driveway and followed me, closing the garage door and locking the one into the house behind him.

Without a word I walked to the kitchen and threw open the louvered doors. “I think we should do this now. I promised my mom I’d pick up the girls before dinner. She and Dad have a party. His first outside social engagement since the surgery. It’s local, nothing too strenuous... I’m babbling.”

“Yep, you are.”

“I hate this.”

“Of course you do.”

He stepped aside and let me do the honors. I punched in the numbers Jonah had given us: 6-6-8-6. Part of me hoped he had made them up, although that would have meant another confrontation. As it turned out, though, Jonah had told the truth. I wondered how often that happened.