He shrugged, his muscles flexing. “I like to eat, so I took lessons.”

“In your vast amounts of spare time,” she said dryly, noting with interest that his cheeks darkened, his blush charming her. Diesel Kennedy was a dangerous man. I want him. I don’t want to, but I do.

God, please don’t let me hurt him.

Straightening her spine, she shifted her train of thought back on track. “Maybe she isn’t dead, then. LJM, I mean.”

“Oh, I think you were right. I’m pretty sure she’s dead.”

When he said no more she gestured with her fork, as if she was conducting an orchestra. “Because?”

His big hands clutched one of her stoneware mugs. “Remember I said that those last three companies had been established later than the others?”

“Yeah. Seaheaven with the Lake Erie coordinates and the other with the remembrance flowers. Lilies, rosemary, and poppies. Plus the Brothers Grim.”

“Exactly. They were established at the same time as Raguel Management Services, last June.”

“Nine months ago. Okay. And?”

“More like but. Do you know what I mean by parent and child companies?”

She made a face. “I’m a doctor, Jim, not a business manager,” she said, pleased when his warm chuckle told her that he’d caught her Star Trek reference. “But it sounds like the parent is first and the child is connected, like a franchise.”

“That’s exactly what it means, Bones,” he said, smiling when she smirked. “LJM is the main parent company in this mess. Raguel was formed by LJM, so Raguel is a ‘child’ of LJM. All of the other companies are ultimately connected to either LJM or Raguel, but most list one of the other companies as the parent. Some of the companies are parents of the other children. That’s how it got so tangled up. You have eighty companies all tied to each other in different ways.”

“Got it. Tangled. But who formed LJM?”

He nodded in approval. “Good question. LJM was formed by Raguel, two months before Raguel was formed.”

She narrowed her eyes. “How is that possible?”

“It shouldn’t be. I checked the documents attached to Raguel and found that it had a name change in June. Raguel’s previous name was LJM S&R, which was established in January, so before all the others. When Raguel was formed in May, LJM changed the name of its parent company from LJM S&R to Raguel. I’m not sure why it wasn’t caught by the small business office in Columbus, but it wasn’t.”

“LJM S&R. Search and rescue,” Dani murmured. “Was it a search and rescue business?”

He shook his head. “I don’t think so. I can’t find any mention of it online.” And he’d searched all night for one. “Plus, it was only active from January to June.”