Stop being so dramatic, Caro had said. This is just what they do. Ignore it. Focus on your own life.

The cop cracked his knuckles, snapping me back to reality. “Okay,” Villaverde said, returning to the printout of Caroline’s message; I’d gotten up before the crack of dawn that morning so my landlord wouldn’t catch me using her printer. “If you’re reading this, I’m already dead. No matter what it looks like, my death won’t be an accident. Theo killed his first wife and got away with it. Bring him to justice, no matter what you have to do.” He cleared his throat. “Who was this first wife?”

“I didn’t know she existed until yesterday,” I said. “But I confronted Theo about it. He didn’t tell me her name, but he admitted he was married before.”

“He give you any details?”

“I asked if she was buried in the family plot Caroline was being buried in. Theo said no.”

“That’s it?”

Even I had to admit it sounded weak. “He was angry. He couldn’t believe I knew. I can get more out of him. He ran off, and because we were at the gravesite, I couldn’t corner him again. But I’ll—”

“You don’t need to do anything.”

“But I can—”

“This is our job, Deirdre. Just leave it with us.”

“What are you going to do?”

“We’ll check out this tip about the first wife,” Villaverde said. “If there’s anything relevant, we’ll reopen the case.”

“There’s nothing about her,” I said. “I was up all night searching for everything I could find about the Thraxton family. There’s no mention of Theo being married before.”

“If he was, we’ll find out. There’s always a paper trail.”

It was agony, hearing him say if. I sat straighter in my chair. I knew I was someone he’d laugh about later with his partner.

“What was Theo’s alibi?”

“His what?”

“His alibi,” I repeated. “What was it?”

“He was on a business trip to Thailand,” Villaverde said. “But we never followed up on alibis in the case of your sister’s death, because we have it on security camera.”

I remembered a line from an article I’d read: the socialite was caught on multiple security cameras during her run and there was nothing suspicious. But that only meant no one had seen anyone harm her. What if her heart condition wasn’t just from arrhythmia? I tried to think of a way to say that without sounding like a nut.

“We have your sister on tape for most of her run that morning,” he added. “On a bunch of different cams from block to block. Do you want to see it?”

NO, my brain screamed. I didn’t want to watch my sister die. I couldn’t imagine anything worse.

But I said, “Okay.”