Denise Albright had been Victoria’s maid of honor twelve years ago. Her daughter had been a flower girl. They’d been college roommates and best friends.

But the bones hadn’t been identified until a few days ago. Could Victoria have known her longtime friend was dead? Or did she know something about who might have killed her? All the articles said that the authorities believed Denise had fled the country with her family to avoid prosecution on a major embezzlement case.

Grover said Victoria thought they’d left the country as well.

But they’d been dead all this time.

There were no coincidences.

Max’s investigation was connected—somehow—to Lucy’s.

She immediately called her producer, Ben Lawson.

“It’s after nine New York time,” he answered. “I’ve been working since six this morning.”

“You never go to bed before midnight. I need your help.”

“What? Can you repeat that? You need my help. My help?”

“You’re not funny right now, Ben, and this is important. If I’m right about this, you’re going to have another Emmy and I’m going to have another book.”

“I’m listening.”

As she drove back to San Antonio, she laid it all out for him—Victoria’s murder, Stan’s flip, the recovered bones. The embezzlement connected to both cases. She had a lot of holes, but there was something here. Something potentially very big, very juicy. Every reporter instinct she had was firing in her head that this was huge.

“If you’re right … damn, Maxine, this is twisty with drama and money and emotion. Wow. What do you need?”

“I have to bring in Kincaid.”

Silence.

“Ben.”

“You’re going to turn over a potential blockbuster, Emmy-winning show to the FBI? You’ll get shit from them, and you know it.”

“You’ve known me for thirteen years and yet you don’t know me at all.”

“It’s an active investigation. You’ve been successful in working with cops when the cases are as cold as ice, but this is different.”

“Trust me, Ben. I’m not going to back down, and Kincaid and I worked together before.”

“Which you wouldn’t let me write into the program.”

“I made a promise, Ben, and my word means something. If I’m even partly right that Victoria was killed because she didn’t know her best friend had been murdered, that means when the bones were uncovered the killer knew it was only a matter of time before they’d be identified. But Victoria may have seen the news on Friday and realized something … I don’t know, I’m just throwing ideas out. But the answers are there. I know it. And Stanley Grant knows about it. Yet I don’t think Grant killed the Albrights.”

“Why not?”