“By protecting him from criminal charges?”

“By making the charges—criminal and otherwise—disappear. Whatever is going on here, it all started the night Alista Snow died.”

Win nodded, mulling it over. “And that would explain why Suzze visited Karl Snow yesterday.”

“Right, another connection,” Myron said. “Suzze is somehow linked into that night too. Maybe via Lex. Maybe via her secret lover Gabriel Wire. I’m not sure. But for whatever reason, she needed to come forward and tell the truth now. She went to Kitty and admitted some wrongdoing by switching out her birth control pills. Then she went to Karl Snow. Maybe she told him what really happened to his daughter, I don’t know.”

Myron stopped. Yet again something wasn’t adding up. Win voiced it.

“And then, after clearing her conscience, a pregnant Suzze T purchased heroin, went back to her penthouse abode, and committed suicide?”

Myron shook his head. “I don’t care what the evidence shows. That doesn’t make sense.”

“You have an alternate theory?”

“I do,” Myron said. “Herman Ache had her killed. It was a professional job all the way, so my guess is, Crisp did the deed. He’s good at making murder appear to be natural causes.”

“Motive?”

Myron still wasn’t sure. “Suzze knew something—probably something that could damage Wire, maybe bring back the criminal charges from Alista Snow. So Ache has her killed. Then he sends two men to find Kitty and kill her.”

“Why Kitty?”

“I don’t know. Again he was cleaning house. Herman figured that she knew something or maybe he was afraid Suzze had talked to her. Whatever, Herman decided to take no chances. Scorch the earth. Kill Suzze and Kitty.”

“And you,” Win finished for him.

“Yep.”

“And what about your brother? How does he fit in?”

“I don’t know.”

“A lot we don’t know.”

“Almost everything,” Myron agreed. “But here’s another thing: If Brad went back to Peru, why was his passport in the trailer?”

“Most likely answer? He didn’t go. And if that’s the case, what might we safely conclude?”

“That Kitty lied,” Myron said.

“Kitty lied,” Win repeated. “Wasn’t that a song by Steely Dan?”

“Katy Lied. And it was the name of an album, not a song.”

“Oh, right. I loved that album.”

Myron tried to turn his brain off for just a little while so as to rest up before they stormed the castle. He’d just closed his eyes and put his head back when the plane began its descent. Five minutes later they were on the ground. Myron checked his watch. He had arrived at Teterboro Airport forty-five minutes ago.

Yep. It was good to be rich.

Chapter 29

29

The shades on the plane were pulled so no one could see inside. The Finthorpe family disembarked. The pilots parked the plane, turned off the lights, got off themselves. Myron and Win stayed in place. Night had fallen.