“Involved? Hell, she ran everything. Harrison does nothing without Faith’s permission—except for his not-so-secret affair with my sister—but Faith does whatever she damn well pleases. You know, I told Victoria she and Harrison should disappear together. That Faith was going to find out what was going on and destroy them both. Victoria thought I was being melodramatic.” He laughed, then he couldn’t stop laughing, until he started to cry.

Lucy asked, “Simon, focus. Were you one of the men who went to the Albright house the night they were murdered, searched her office, and shredded papers?”

He stared at her. “How do you know that?”

“Were you there?”

He nodded. “I was in shock. I didn’t have a choice. They would have killed me, too.”

“They killed two innocent children.”

He closed his eyes. “Ricky,” he whispered. “He was there, wasn’t he?”

Lucy didn’t answer.

“He heard me. He recognized my voice. I used to go over to the house to meet with Denise … oh, God.” The tears didn’t stop now as Simon Mills broke down.

Nate was so tense next to her, she feared he’d beat up Simon. “We’re taking you into federal custody,” Nate said. “It would be in your best interests to cooperate fully with our investigation, but I will tell you this: You will do a lot of time. I hope you never see freedom again.”

Simon looked at him, his eyes glassy from emotion, booze, or both.

“I deserve it.”

It was after one in the morning before Lucy got home. Sean had waited up for her, Bandit at his feet.

She sank onto the couch next to Sean, kicked off her shoes, and put her head on his shoulder. She told him everything.

“I don’t think that Faith and Harrison are going to roll as easy as Simon. From what Simon said before he passed out, Mitch was involved in the financial scam but knew nothing about the murders until the bones were identified. He went to Stan and told him, and Stan changed his plea. He figured out that Harrison Monroe must have been involved because of the financial end of the Albright case, but my guess is that neither of them knew that Faith killed Victoria. They probably wouldn’t be surprised.”

“I really thought Mitch would turn himself in.”

“We don’t really know what he knew or when he knew it. But if he wasn’t party to the murders and he comes clean, he might do minimal time.”