“That’s been my experience as well. Also, I can’t find any record of money changing hands for the house, which was what raised my initial suspicions,” Diesel reminded her. “LJM is cash rich. Why park money in the company if they had no intention of spending it?”

“Cash rich? How much money are we talking about?”

“A million, give or take.”

Her eyes widened. “A million dollars? How do you even know that?”

“I shouldn’t, actually. Ohio small businesses don’t have to file annual reports, so there’s no formal record of LJM’s net worth.” He minimized the list of companies and opened another document. “I found this on Brewer’s computer. It’s a copy of LJM’s bank statement, dated March first. There’s no letterhead and no signature on the attached note, which is handwritten and dated Saturday, March second. The name of the bank and all account and routing info were redacted. Both the note and the statement were scanned and saved to Brewer’s hard drive.”

“‘Dear Mr. Brewer,’” Dani read softly. “‘As you can see, all is in order. You will transfer the title to your house as agreed and then we will forward the payment.’” She looked up at him, eyes narrowing. “This bank statement clearly says LJM. So the company and Brewer are connected somehow. You could have led with that, you know,” she added grumpily.

“I’m sorry.” He truly was. “I didn’t mean to keep it from you. We got wrapped up in the business names and I got distracted.” By more than the business names. It was becoming harder to focus every moment she sat beside him, her scent filling his head.

“It’s okay.” She bit her lip, distracting him even more. He stared at her mouth, wanting to be the one doing the biting.

Easy. Back off. Give her time, however much she needs. She was talking again and he needed to listen. He jerked his gaze back to her eyes. “What?”

She shot him a knowing look, her cheeks flushing prettily. “I said, LJM clearly planned to send the money once they got the deed. But after Brewer transferred the deed, he went missing and they couldn’t find him to pay him. Maybe they were waiting for him to show up and accept payment for his house. Brewer’s only been dead for a week or so.”

“Killed by a mysterious big bald guy,” Diesel reminded her.

She frowned. “So are we saying that the mysterious big bald guy who killed Brewer is actually Raguel? He’s the avenging angel? That sounds like an even bigger leap than I made by assuming LJM was a person.”