Cord didn’t so much as blink beneath the snarling tirade, and Mack turned his wrath toward Alyssa. ‘Gabriel and Lydia were slaughtered in their home, my niece and her best friend have been missing since Thursday night, and you have done damned near nothing to solve this case and bring them home. I thought you were supposed to be the best! Clearly, Albuquerque’s version of best is a pretty low standard of achievement.’

Partly because she understood where his anger stemmed from and partly because he was right about them getting nowhere, Alyssa allowed the personal attack.

Behind him, Grace’s voice was tired more than demanding. ‘Christ, Mack, just answer the question.’

Her brother spared one quick disgusted leer over his shoulder before facing Alyssa once more. ‘You forget, Detectives, that I’m one of the greatest criminal defense attorneys this state has ever had, so I deal with your kind day in and day out. I know how this works. You fail to do what the good citizens pay you to do and so you find a scapegoat to pin the crime on. Well, it won’t work for you this time, I can promise you that.’

Alyssa arched her brows. She was willing to let some things go, but this wasn’t one of them. ‘You know, Mr. Kensington, what I noticed is that nowhere in that god-like status you’ve created in your own mind regarding your abilities was an answer to the question. Why is that? Were you hoping to deflect?’ The heat of his anger nearly singed her when he stepped into her space.

‘Back up,’ Cord’s tone was a warning that the defense attorney must have decided was one worth heeding because he actually obeyed the command.

‘I had dinner at Antiquity with a former client. I’ll be happy to give you her information so you can verify that. And just to prove she’s not giving me a false alibi, I still have the receipt to prove it.’ He was already whipping his wallet out of his pocket so he could thumb through slips of paper until he found the receipt in question and thrust it at Cord, thumping him in the chest with it as he did.

Cord peeked at the date and time, nodding at Alyssa as he handed it back. ‘Now, what about the Ranch Steakhouse? What were you doing there Thursday night?’

The shock on Mack’s face was either genuine or he really was a master actor. ‘How do you know about that?’

Alyssa sidestepped his question with one of her own. ‘Were you aware Gabriel and Lydia were there that night?’