“I’m not old. I’m broken from being hunched over that satanic piece of torture furniture for the last two hours.” When he mentioned he had bought a wall unit online, she’d volunteered to help assemble it, declaring that it sounded fun. Now, staring at what seemed like another 2,700 pieces to go, with no written instructions, she was ready to throw the entire project out the window. She made her way to the kitchen and opened the cabinet where she still expected to find her water glasses.

“Other side of the sink,” Jess called out. It had been nearly two years since Ellie formally turned the apartment’s lease over to her brother, but this rent-subsidized Murray Hill one-bedroom with paper-thin walls and aquamarine bathroom tile was always going to feel like her home.

She had slammed one glass of water and was refilling from the sink when her cell rang in her back pocket. Thanks to her weird memory for numbers, she was pretty sure she recognized the digits on the screen. She answered anyway.

Yep, it was Lindsay Kelly. “I’m sorry to bother you again,” she said. But are you? “I’m calling because Hope’s case has taken an unexpected turn. The state believes her actual name is Tara King, and that she’s from Wichita, Kansas.”

If Ellie had to guess, the police had probably found a connection between this Tara King person and Alex Lopez—a connection that might establish a motive for murder. She kept this suspicion to herself. “Doesn’t ring a bell, but it’s not that small of a city.”

“Oh, that’s not why I’m calling. It’s a long story, but the police asked her if she knew anything about the death of a man named Richard Mullaney.”

That name, Ellie recognized. Melanie Locke’s husband. Still, she kept quiet.

“The lead detective on the case was also on the College Hill Strangler task force. I thought it was possible you might have met him through your father. His name is Steve Thompson?”

Ellie could tell the first time she spoke to Lindsay that she was a good lawyer. She had no doubt that Lindsay already knew the connection between Steve and the Hatcher family. “I know him well,” she said. “He’s the one I called when you first reached out to me.” Which you also probably knew.

“Oh, wow, great.”

Good lawyer, bad actress.

“So here’s the thing,” Lindsay said. “I’m working on this theory that might implicate Melanie Locke, which is a hard enough hill to climb, but it doesn’t help that the detective on her husband’s case is now the head of security at her company.”

Jess was still hunched on the floor, rotating a wood panel edge over edge over edge, trying to figure out where it fit in the larger puzzle. Catching Ellie’s eye, he whispered for her to hurry up.