I followed her down a short corridor to a large but windowless office where, to my surprise, Mrs. Trejo was seated at a small conference table. She glanced at me warily. She had dressed up for this encounter and looked uncomfortable out of her apron and sack dress.

“You know my mother,” Isabel Trejo said. “Please sit down.”

I sat and she took the chair across from me, beside her mother. Isabel Trejo had the strong features of her brothers but what was handsome in them was intimidatingly stern in her. This was not going to be an easy conversation.

“Okay, Mr. Rios,” she said, almost indifferently. “It’s your meeting.”

“I have to submit a report to Western States about Bill Ryan’s death.”

“I told you Nick doesn’t want the money,” she said flatly.

“In that case, the policy becomes an asset of the estate and estate plans to file a claim. I still have to write the report.”

She frowned. “So what? Write your report. Bill’s death was an accident.”

“There’s some room for doubt.”

Mrs. Trejo shifted in her chair but said nothing. It was her daughter who spoke, “What doubt?”

“It’s obvious to me that Nick feels guilty about whatever happened that night and it’s also clear your family is protecting him. I’ve uncovered enough questionable circumstances around Ryan’s death to raise the possibility it wasn’t an accident. If I file that report, the company will refer it to the police and the cops will open an investigation. I’m giving your family one last chance to tell your side of the story before I do that.”

Mrs. Trejo gasped. Her daughter touched her arm as if to silence her and asked, “What questionable circumstances?”

I laid it all out for them: what I knew about the relationship between Bill and Nick, Bill’s apparent paranoia that Nick might leave him that culminated in his hitting Nick, Nick’s desire to get out of the relationship, the inconsistencies between Sal’s report and my expert’s opinion about the gas leak, Nick’s behavior that night, and Ryan’s will naming Nick as his heir.

“You’re a lawyer, Ms. Trejo,” I concluded. “I’m sure you know enough criminal law to see what this could add up to if the cops and the DA get their hands on it. Motive and opportunity for murder.”

Mrs. Trejo spoke tremulously, “My boy did not kill Bill.”

“Mom, let me do the talking.” She tapped her fingers on the gleaming surface of the table. “You’re right that it wasn’t an accident, but you’re wrong if you think Nick was responsible for Bill’s death. Give me the letter, Mom.”