Max had considered that. Not Grover specifically, but Simon. They both had the money to hire a hit man. The police would look at that angle.

He looked at her, searching for something. “Is Stan guilty?”

What did she say to that?

The truth. That’s all she could do, speak the truth. “I don’t know, Grover. I wish I could read minds or tell you that he said something definitive to me today. But based on our brief conversation before court, I still don’t know if Stan recanting is a legal game or if he was threatened into confessing in the first place. The one thing I’m certain about is that he knew more about Victoria’s murder—and the events leading up to it—than he shared with me.”

“I want the truth. There’s an ache in my heart that wants my daughter back, which is not possible, and an ache in my head that is from not knowing what really happened. Why she was killed. Judith says it doesn’t matter, that Victoria is still dead, but I look into her eyes and see her searching for answers she doesn’t think she’ll find. I don’t know how Judith is going to find peace unless she knows the truth. We treated Stan like a son. He was funny and kind and we trusted him. He was the first to defend Victoria when her brothers teased her too much, and he was the only one who supported her when she separated from Mitch. None of us really understood why.”

“What did she say about her divorce?”

“They’d grown apart. They seemed to work well together. She never complained when we had Mitch over for a meal. He doesn’t have family in the area, he was never as close to his parents as our kids are with us, and he still spends Thanksgiving with us, which is our big family holiday. They talked almost every day. Maybe they married for the wrong reasons. They were friends—maybe they loved each other, but not in the way married people should.” He shook his head. “I’ll never understand it, but she’s my daughter, and I always respected her decisions.” He sipped his Scotch, looked at Max. “Are you going back to New York now?”

“No,” she said. She’d thought about it on the drive over, but the case had grabbed her. She had a list of things she still needed to do, people she wanted to speak with. Mitch had made her suspicious, and Rogan was tracking him. Stan may or may not be guilty, but he could still be responsible for her death even if he wasn’t the one to stab her. Or he knew who was responsible.

“So you’re staying?” He seemed both surprised and relieved.