“When Grandmother died, she left her money to Mom. She used it to buy our house. At the time, my father was still working as a manager at the Horn of Plenty, and the inheritance meant he could take over the company. Or rather, my mom could. Everything is in her name.”

“When was that?”

“Seven years ago. I was ten.”

“So your mother is rich?”

She nodded.

“Why does she still work, then?”

“Because she likes her job.”

Ralf scratched his neck. Thought carefully. “So, if your father wanted to get a divorce—”

“Then he’d lose his restaurants,” Sara said, finishing his thought.

Ralf recalled hearing about rich celebrities who’d had to pay out millions to their exes. “Wouldn’t he be entitled to half of everything?”

Sara shook her head decisively. She seemed to be growing calmer. “I don’t think Grandmother liked my father very much. At any rate, she arranged things so he wouldn’t get any of the money if they ever divorced. My parents had a few fights about that at first.” She frowned. “They thought I couldn’t hear them. Dad was really angry about it.”

Ralf tried again. “But would he be able to get his hands on the money if your mother died?”

“Yeah—in that case, he would. Because then he’d have to look after us, I guess.”

“How do you know all this?”

“Dad told me. We often talk about finances.” She said it casually, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

Nobody ever talked about money at Ralf’s house. He had no idea what his parents earned, except that it couldn’t be much. And he knew nothing at all about their financial arrangements.

“There’s still one thing I don’t understand,” he said.

“What?”

“If your father wanted to murder your mother, and he asked Brian to do it for him, then why did he kill Brian?”

“Did he do that?”

“Yeah,” Ralf said softly.

“Did you see him do it?”

He shook his head. “I heard the shots. Three. I mean—”

“Heard.”

“Yeah.”

“Not saw.”

He stared at her in silence.

“So how do you know it was my father?”

I don’t, he thought.

He had simply assumed.

It hadn’t occurred to him for a second that a mother would be capable of something like that.

He let it sink in for a moment, then asked, “Your parents are on vacation?”

She nodded. “In England. They left early this morning.”

“London?”