“If you dig deep enough, you’ll see that Cosmo is the go-to guy for the casino owners. They respect him, and he’s known as being able to ‘fix’ anything within the law. He is a lawyer, after all. There might be some envy there where Meadows is concerned. By the way, Meadows is also a lawyer.”

Jack snorted. “We already know what a great guy Cosmo is, otherwise Lizzie would never have married him. What else do you have?”

“What? What? That’s not enough? I’m trying here to learn as much as I can about Meadows, but I’ve only just gotten started. If that’s not good enough for you, Jack, then do it yourself,” Dennis snapped.

“Whoa, whoa! Sorry! I didn’t mean to step on your toes, kid.”

Mollified with Jack’s apology, Dennis went back to tapping on his laptop. Jack flapped his hands in the air to indicate his apology a second time just as Ted and Espinosa bounded into the room.

Everyone shouted at once. “What did you find out?” Even Cyrus, who had been silent until then, voiced his question with a loud bark.

“We can sum it up in three words,” Ted growled. “We were stonewalled.”

“You went to Happy Village?” Jack asked. “I thought . . .”

“Yeah, well, hold those thoughts. We switched up assignments after you left. Espinosa got some good pictures. There was no sign of that guy Gentry Lomax, though we asked. Those senior citizens are a tight-lipped group, and you can’t blame them for that. They do not take kindly to having outsiders ask questions. We started at the first apartment building in the complex and worked our way forward. We gave up before we got to the second building. They don’t open the doors to anyone, especially the elderly ladies. Even when we showed them our press credentials. The men were a little more cooperative, but not by much.

“The long and short of it is, we came up dry except for one elderly man who remembers Meadows’s mother being there, as she was two apartments down from his. He said she was a nice lady and baked the best chocolate cakes. He said she was there only three months before she passed away. He was a little taken aback by that, because he said she walked the complex in the morning and early evening for exercise, rode the stationary cycle at the gym, and swam two laps every day. He said she was fit as a fiddle. Oh, and she was rich. The old gent said someone else told him that but said you’d never know it by the way she dressed and all. Just a nice lady.”

Jack frowned. “What did she die from?”

Ted shrugged. “The old gent didn’t say other than that she died in her sleep. Contrary to what you might think, that place is not a gossip mill.”