“Thanks, baby.” I turn my head and press a kiss to her palm. “Just so you know.” I lean over and brush my lips against the shell of her ear. “I love you too.”

“I know.” I hear the smile in her voice, and then I see it when I lean back.

“I’ll see you this evening.” I brush my mouth across hers one last time then get up off the bed and PJ starts to follow me, but I pick him up and put him on the bed since he can’t get up there without help.

I’m in my SUV a few minutes later, and I glance down at my dash when my cell begins to ring, the number isn’t one I recognize but it is local, so I hit accept on the call.

“Hello.”

“Dayton.” A familiar female voice asks.

“Yeah, who’s this?”

“Janelle, I got your number from Detective Shaw.”

“Oh, hey Janelle, how’s it going?”

“All right. Busy working, but that’s nothing new. I meant to call you yesterday, but time got away from me, and by the time I got a chance to call, it was too late, so I’m doing that today.”

“Okay.”

“I just wanted to give you a heads up, I spoke with Alice’s sisters yesterday. They called to ask me about the meeting you scheduled with them. They wanted to know if I knew what it was about.”

“What did you say?”

“As much as I could without saying too much, basically that I know that you plan on presenting them with evidence against Charles.”

“All right.”

“They were very skeptical, even when I mentioned the DNA that came back as a match to him.”

Shit.

“Do they understand how unlikely it is that his DNA would have been at the scene and on the murder weapon if he didn’t use it to kill her.”

“They understand, but now in their heads, Greg had Charles kill Alice, and that’s why his DNA was there.”

“I met with Greg yesterday; the man is still heartbroken, and it’s been twenty-plus years since he lost his wife.”

“I know,” she says softly, “but there is some very bad blood between them.”

“Fuck.”

“I’m sorry. I just wanted you to know before your meeting. I guess I kind of hoped that you had found some other information that I didn’t know about and that you were going to use that to convince them that Charles killed their sister.”

“I don’t have any other evidence.” I tighten my grip on the steering wheel.

“Maybe you’ll be more convincing than me.”

“That’s doubtful. I listened to your podcast and I know that you built a rapport with them over the course of your investigation. If they weren’t willing to believe you, I doubt that they are going to believe me.”

“You never know.”