My mouth is hanging open, and I can’t seem to close it for long before it falls open again. That’s what he was holding over their heads?

“He wouldn’t tell us where she was, but he did send us a picture once when he visited her. She had tubes coming out of her and one of those braces around her neck. She was on a ventilator. And he told us if we didn’t do what he wanted, and if we ever told anybody about the things he did, he would end her care. And we would never know where she was, or when she died, or any of it.”

He hangs his head and whispers, “And if she died, it would be our fault.”

“We are going through your father’s financial records, as well,” Patterson tells us. “And it does look like he had some payments through a shell corporation going to a hospital out of state. In fact, we were going to ask you about that. If you knew why your father would be sending money to a hospital under seemingly anonymous circumstances. We’ll dig deeper into that and let you know what we find.”

“You think you can find my mom?” There’s the tiniest bit of a tremble in his voice, and it goes straight to my heart. All this time, James was using her to manipulate them. He knew how much they loved her, and he used it against them to get what he wanted.

I hope wherever he is now, he’s suffering. Alive or dead, I don’t care. I want him to hurt.

Jones clears her throat and stands in front of the two of us. “The fire marshal’s report will say the explosion and the subsequent fire were set purposely. It was arson. The jets on the stove were all turned on, all the way up, along with the oven. That sort of thing doesn’t happen accidentally.”

“And you know it was my mom in there?” I whisper.

“Yes, one of the bodies identified is that of Mrs. Amanda Alistair. Again, I’m very sorry.” Her brow wrinkles. “And I’m sorry to give you more bad news, but the firefighters recovered three bodies.”

“Three.” Colt sinks back on the sofa and covers his face with his hands.

“Yes, besides your father, it would appear that your brother, Nix, was also inside the house. We’re very sorry to have to break this to you.”

“You’re wrong.” Colt jumps up, shaking his head and waving his hands. “You’re wrong. Somebody made a mistake. Nix wasn’t there. He couldn’t have been. This is all a mistake. It was somebody else.”

“Do you have any idea who else might have been in the house? An employee, maybe? Domestic help?”

There was no such person, at least nobody I ever saw.