When she looked back up, the team was staring at her expectantly. ‘Liz got called to Las Cruces to assist with a sexual assault case. She won’t be joining us as planned.’ She turned to Hal. ‘I think we need to dig into Mrs. Kensington’s background, as well, see if anything sends up a red flag.’ She quickly filled everyone in on the fact that there were no pictures of Lydia in Addis’s room. ‘It could mean nothing more than Addis and her mother had a troubled relationship, but we still need to check into Lydia’s history. Hell, maybe she was having an affair that went south.’

Hal’s fingers flew over his keyboard as he jotted down some notes. ‘Lover could’ve come to the house, killed her with a bullet to the head and took his anger for not being able to hold onto her out on Gabriel. I’ll dig in and see what I can find.’

‘While you’re at it, I’m going to need you to order a search warrant for Kensington Investigations, too.’

‘You got it.’

Joe scratched his head. ‘I can see why a scorned lover or even someone hell bent on revenge might show up on the Kensington doorstep, but it doesn’t make sense if it’s related to Gabriel’s business. I mean, why not confront him at his office instead?’

‘Maybe he thought there was a better chance of getting what he was after if Gabriel’s family was in danger?’ Cord threw out the theory.

For the next twenty minutes, the team reflected on the evidence they did have while batting around possible motives. But Alyssa knew that while they could sit here and toss around ideas all day, it would get them nowhere. At least now they had a starting place, and anxious to get moving, she waited for Joe to finish up what he was saying, and then she began issuing directives.

‘Tony, Joe, get started on pulling financials and phone records. Hal, you start digging into Gabriel and Lydia’s backgrounds, maybe their latest charity events. See if anyone remembers the two of them acting out of character in the past few weeks, or if they’ve been approached by anyone that stood out. We’ll all meet back here later this afternoon.’

Before the words were fully out of her mouth, everyone except Cord was moving. As soon as the door closed behind Tony, Joe, and Hal, she turned to her partner. ‘All right, spit out whatever it is that you’re thinking.’