“He’s been holding Mirelle’s death over my head for years,” I said. “It’s how he got me to come work for him.”

“That only went so far,” Klaus pointed out. “You quit when you discovered he was laundering money through some of the hotels.”

“He’s using it right now to get custody of my son.” Technically, it was Juliet’s name on the documents, but as ambitious as my sister was, I understood now that my father’s fingerprints would be found on them. He had either put Juliet up to it, or was using her as a shield.

Klaus peered at me. “How? He can’t tell anyone what you did. Scratch the surface, and what he did will become clear.”

What Klaus said was true, but my mind was traveling in other directions. My father had known that I’d come back early from my trip to Bangkok. I’d scheduled it that way so I’d be able to see Dr. Haven with no questions asked by my family, but somehow my father knew I’d stopped by my house at five in the morning. His home was across the street, of course, so it wasn’t strange that he might glimpse something out the window. But now that I knew how demented he actually was, I wondered how far he’d gone in invading our privacy.

“Theo?” Klaus prompted. “You look a million miles away. What’s wrong?”

“Klaus, do you think there’s a chance that my father killed Caroline?”

“What? Why would he? He thought the sun rose and set with her. What reason would he have to do her harm?”

My mind went back to the last time I’d seen Caroline. At five in the morning, I’d unlocked the door to our house, creeping upstairs quietly. I’d needed to pick up a couple of things for my session with Dr. Haven, including the threadbare tiger my mother had bought for me at the Berlin Zoo. To my shock, Caroline had been up. Do you want to come up now, Ben? I can’t wait. We’re really doing this, aren’t we?

I’d frozen in place on the staircase, but she’d already heard me. She opened her door. There was fury in her eyes when she saw it was me. What are you doing here?

I live here, in case you’ve forgotten, I said.

I didn’t want to think about what happened next.

“Caroline was seeing someone,” I said.

“I don’t think your father would care,” Klaus said. “He cheated on his first wife with his second wife, then on his second wife with your mother, then . . .” He took a drink. “The only person I know who hated your wife is your sister.”