When she’d moved in, the office had been as dingy as a fictional detective’s office. She’d splurged on an olive-green rug with a black sunburst pattern to camouflage the vinyl floor tiles, then painted the walls off-white and hung some kitschy posters of old True Detective magazine covers. A secondhand store had yielded a library table she’d spruced up with flat black enamel paint to use as a desk. She’d added a good light and a pair of black steel-framed chairs for the clients she’d hoped she’d attract.

Her voice mail included another message from Graham’s attorney demanding a meeting for the following week. She deleted it, as if that would make it go away forever, and switched on her computer. Out of habit, she did a quick search to see if there was anything new on Cooper Graham. Nothing.

She made herself cold-call more law firms, then followed up by sending them a copy of her brochure.

DOVE INVESTIGATIONS

Est. 1958

Truth Brings Peace

• Legal, Attorney, and Corporate Support
• Insurance and Domestic Investigations
• Hidden Assets Investigations
• Background Checks
• Missing Persons

She’d considered getting rid of the firm’s old slogan, “Truth Brings Peace,” but it was part of her family history, starting with her grandfather, and changing it would feel like wiping out her heritage.

A rap sounded on her office door. She jumped up. But instead of a new client coming in off the street, Berni barged in. She’d pulled herself together enough to tie a hippie headband around her Day-Glo-orange hair and wear a fringed vest over her sweatpants. “Now, Piper, before you say anything... I know you don’t believe I saw Howard in Lincoln Square. I hardly believed it myself. But I lived with that man for fifty-eight years, and I should know.” She brushed past Piper and settled in one of the chairs across from the desk. She opened her bag and pulled out an envelope. “Here’s a one-hundred-dollar retainer.” She slapped it on the desk.

“Berni, I can’t take your money.”

“This is business. I need an investigator, and you’re the best there is.”

“I appreciate your faith in me, but...” She tried a new tack. “I’m too involved personally. It would keep me from being objective. Another investigator would—”

“Another investigator would think I’m a crazy old woman.” Her fierce glare dared Piper to agree.

Piper settled behind her desk, hoping she could use logic to persuade Berni to give up her delusions. “Let’s look at the facts... You were in your stateroom with Howard when he had his heart attack.”

“But I wasn’t with him when he died. I told you. I’d slipped out of the ship’s infirmary to use the toilet, and then I fainted when that quack of a doctor told me he’d passed. Who knows what was in that casket they shipped back.”