“Dooney and I were going to be so happy,” Piper said. She touched the corners of her eyes with the back of her hand as if to stop the flow of tears. Except her eyes didn’t look watery at all.

Sunny said she’d been having an affair with Dooney, and I believed her. Could Piper really just put that aside? It seemed improbable to me. I mean, the man was having a child with another woman, assuming, of course, that Sunny was telling the truth about the baby being Dooney’s and that they’d been in love. At the moment, I was doubtful of everyone and everything.

“You didn’t know about your mother’s . . . um . . . modeling past?” I asked.

Piper shook her head. “No, and at the moment, I don’t feel as if I ever really knew her at all. She murdered Dooney and then Quentin just to keep some smutty pictures of herself in red leather, brandishing a riding crop from becoming public. What sort of psychopath does that?”

She was twirling a long lock of hair around her finger, studying the ends. She was the picture of innocence. But her words belied the pose.

My heart thumped hard in my chest. The detective hadn’t shown Piper the photos in the magazine and Piper said she didn’t know about her mother’s past. But Piper had just revealed that she had seen the pictures before by describing them perfectly. Why lie? I could think of only one reason.

My thoughts must have shown on my face because Piper studied me and then licked her lips and said, “At least, I assume that’s what the pictures look like. Did you see them?”

I glanced at the door. Where was the constable? For that matter, where was Harry with help? What had happened to everyone? I needed someone to come in here right now because by Piper’s own admission, she’d known about the pictures, and I suspected she was in on the blackmail scheme, too. In fact, in that moment, I was willing to bet she’d engineered the whole thing.

“You murdered Dooney, didn’t you?” I asked.

She dropped her hand and smoothed her skirt, taking a long pause before she glanced up at me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You found out about Sunny and the baby and Dooney’s plan to leave you for her after he cashed out on the blackmail, so you killed him,” I said.

“You’re mistaken,” Piper said. “There’s no proof that Sunny’s baby is Dooney’s. He loved me.”