“No casualties. They were able to contain it. But James’s apartment, the suspected origin of the blaze, was entirely gutted. There’s an open investigation, but they were leaning toward accidental grease fire. I imagine they’ll want to take a closer look now that he’s been murdered.”

“It feels like too big a coincidence not to be arson. Would—would Eli do that?”

Park frowned. “He already admitted to breaking into James’s place. If he thought burning it down was the only shot at destroying the recording, and he could be sure no one would get hurt or that the fire would spread, then yes. I think it’s possible he would. But not an apartment building like that. He wouldn’t put the neighbors at risk.”

“Four days ago, you said? Where’s James been living since?”

“A hotel. St. Regis.”

Cooper raised an eyebrow. “Fancypants. Blackmail must be paying well.

“I think most people’s finances benefit from multiple streams of income,” Park said carefully.

“You think he was blackmailing someone besides Eli?”

“Someone set that fire. And someone killed him. If not Eli, I’d say there’s a good chance he was blackmailing someone else as well. Otherwise you’re saying the blackmail and death are totally unrelated. What are the chances of that?” Park shook his head and started buttoning up his shirt.

“I guess you’re right,” Cooper said, reaching for a pair of ratty sweatpants. Stopped. Took in what Park was wearing again. “Why are you all dressed up?”

Park looked down at himself and, to Cooper’s astonishment, blushed. “I thought—did you not want to go to dinner, then?”

“Oh.” Cooper blinked. He’d completely forgotten they’d planned to do that. “No, I mean, all right. Not like we’re doing anyone any good here. Where?”

Park was still spending way too much time and attention on his buttons. “I thought we could go to that Burmese place you like. Maybe walk around after. Get a drink.”

“That sounds nice,” Cooper said honestly. He put his sweatpants back and tossed his towel on the bench, unable to stop thinking about Eli. How he hadn’t been able to even look at Cooper when he spoke of James. How relaxed and safe he’d appeared sitting in front of the TV just that morning, with Boogie in his lap. And now he was out there somewhere, alone, frightened of being pinned for a murder he didn’t commit, and more than likely about to do something rash.

I’m not going down for this. He understood Eli’s paranoia. At first glance, James’s death seemed good for Eli. But with the recording still MIA and the Trust now on the case and more likely to find it first, things were actually a lot more dire than even before...

Instead of grabbing nicer clothes, he walked over to Park, still sitting on the bed.