“If I had any doubt, we wouldn’t be here.”

Nick studied the other man for a long moment. “This was all your doing, wasn’t it?”

Graham shrugged. “I might’ve suggested that the best man for the job was the one who knew John the best.”

“I didn’t know John as well as I thought I did.”

“You knew him as well as anyone.”

Nick looked over at Sam, wishing he knew what she was thinking. No doubt the offer had shocked her just as much as it had shocked him. Standing, he offered his hand to Graham. “Thank you for the opportunity.”

Graham held Nick’s hand between both of his. “I have nothing but the utmost faith in you, Nick Cappuano from Lowell, Massachusetts. I was so proud of you up there today. You’ve grown into one hell of a man.”

“Thank you. That means a lot coming from you.”

A knock on the door ended the moment between the two men.

Chapter 37

“I’ll get it,” Nick said. He strolled to the door, opened it and gasped at the face that greeted him. John’s face. Rendered speechless, Nick could only stare at the young man. He had a wild, unfocused look to him that put Nick on alert.

“I’m Thomas O’Connor. I understand that my, um, grandfather is here?”

Recovering, Nick said, “Yes. Please. Come in.”

As he ushered the young man into the room, Nick experienced the same prickle of fear on the back of his neck that he’d felt once before—the day he walked into John’s apartment and found him dead. Sam, he noticed, had stood up and was watching Thomas’s every move as he approached Graham.

“Who are you?” Thomas asked Nick.

Surprised that Thomas didn’t seem to recognize him or Sam, he said, “I’m Nick Cappuano, your father’s chief of staff, and this is my girlfriend, Sam.” Nick met Sam’s steady gaze with one of his own, using his eyes to implore her to go along with him. Until they knew what Thomas wanted with Graham, he didn’t need to know she was a cop.

“You’ve taken me by surprise,” Graham finally said as he sized up the grandson he hadn’t seen since the day he was born twenty years earlier.

“I imagine I have.”

“I thought we might see you and your mother at your father’s funeral,” Graham said.

“She got tied up in Chicago and couldn’t make it,” Thomas said.

Sam and Nick exchanged glances, and he knew she was picking up the same uneasy vibe.

Thomas turned to them. “You two can take off. I came to see my grandfather.”

“That’s all right,” Nick said, the tingle on his neck intensifying by the minute. “We’ve got nowhere to be.”