She shook her head. “That’s just not possible. Not Troy. He can take care of himself. He always says there’s nothing to worry about.” Tears slid down her cheeks. “He can’t be dead. He’s Troy Hamilton.” She said that as if he weren’t as human as the rest of the world’s population.

“Did you know of any problems he was having with anyone who might want to harm him?” Malone asked.

“There was always someone unhappy with him. That was the nature of his work. He told me there was nothing to worry about, so I didn’t worry.” She looked up at Avery, heartbreak etched into her pretty face. “I should’ve been worried. Why didn’t I worry about him?” She used her sleeve to mop up the tears. “Is this why you were looking for my son earlier? You don’t think he had something to do with it, do you?”

“This is not why we were looking for him,” Malone said.

“Is he a suspect?” she asked.

“Not at this time. Do you have reason to believe he’d be capable of harming his father?”

“No, of course not. He and Troy never saw eye to eye, but Josh couldn’t harm a flea, let alone the man who raised him.”

The man who raised him. The peculiar choice of words set off alarms for Avery, and apparently for Farnsworth and Malone too, because the two men exchanged glances.

“Mrs. Hamilton, may I ask what might seem to be an odd question?” Avery said.

She nodded as she continued to wipe away tears.

“Is Josh your biological child?”

“No,” she said hesitantly. “He’s adopted. I was unable to have more children after my daughter was born, so Troy and I adopted him. We’d always wanted a big family and were disappointed when we couldn’t have more than two of our own.”

“Does Josh know he’s adopted?” Malone asked, sitting now on the edge of his seat.

She looked down at her hands. “No, he doesn’t. Troy didn’t want him to know, and I went along with what he wanted because it seemed so important to him.”

Avery felt like he’d been struck by lightning. What the fuck was going on here? He could sense that Farnsworth and Malone were equally riveted by the revelations.

“What do you know about Josh’s birth parents?” Farnsworth asked.

“What does this have to do with my husband being murdered?” she asked.

“We’re not sure yet, but it might have everything to do with it,” Malone said.

“I... I don’t know much about them. The mother was an administrative assistant in my husband’s office. She got pregnant outside of wedlock and couldn’t afford to keep the baby, so we took him in.”

Avery forced air into lungs starved for it. “Did you know her name or anything else about her?”