“She’d suffered from depression for a long time. It wasn’t just postpartum. That only brought things to a head.” Jude’s shoulders drooped. “Did she mention the gremlins to you?”

“The . . . gremlins?”

“The ones who put her shoes in different boxes and moved her jewelry around,” Jude said. “They rearranged the books on her shelf. She must’ve told you some of this stuff.”

I thought about that. A few months back, I’d noticed that Caro had fired most of her staff, including the cleaning people. Her Upper East Side town house had been growing increasingly musty. When I’d mentioned it to her, Caro said the staff couldn’t be trusted. It had struck me as weird, but I’d never had a staff of any kind, so what did I know?

“Maybe something about the staff moving things around. She was so organized she’d notice the littlest thing.”

“Caroline was seeing things that weren’t there,” Jude said. “The last time I talked with her, she told me she was going to fire her son’s nanny.”

“Gloria? Why?”

“She said Gloria was reporting on her to Theo.”

I wondered if that was true. Gloria had always been terrific with Teddy, but who knew where her allegiances were? “That’s bizarre.”

Jude nodded and glanced at her phone, lying faceup on the desk. “I should probably get back to work soon.”

“There’s one other thing I need to show you.” I wasn’t carrying the printout the guy at Osiris’s Vault had given me, but I’d photographed it with my phone. “Caro sent three messages. One to me, one to our father, and one to someone listed as X. Here’s that last one.”

“‘If I fail, you have to do it. I am putting all of my faith and trust in you. My son’s future depends on it,’” Jude read aloud. “Who did this go to?”

“I wondered if Caro sent it to you.”

“Definitely not. Did you reach out to this email address?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Nothing back yet. Do you know who the email belongs to?”

“No,” Jude said. “The letters and numbers make it look like spam.”

Jude’s phone rang, and I glanced at the screen. The name on it was Ben Northcutt.

“Wait, isn’t that—”

“Caroline’s boyfriend?” Jude sighed. “Unfortunately, yes.”

CHAPTER 15 THEO

CHAPTER 15

THEO

“I’ll be damned. Look what the cat dragged in,” my sister said when she found me in her office, a corner suite at the Thraxton International headquarters in Midtown Manhattan. Tall and broad shouldered, Juliet entered the room with the aggressive grace of a well-fed predator. She’d lost her hat but was wearing a navy suit that could’ve passed for a twin of her funeral attire. “You’re the last person I’d expect to find here. Security still allows you in?”

“I had to check my conscience at the door,” I said.