The news literally knocks me off my feet. As soon as Gabriel says the words, I sink to the sidewalk.

This can’t be happening. Not again, I tell myself. And then those same words leave my mouth.

I don’t hear anything Gabriel says back, because now I’m crying hysterically. Sitting on the curb, bawling my eyes out. A young man asks if I’m okay. I nod that I am, even as it’s obvious to him that I’m not.

Not Lauren. Not now.

I learned that Charlotte was missing in stages. Her boyfriend called me before dawn saying she hadn’t come home the night before and he was worried, but I assumed they’d had a fight and she was teaching him a lesson by staying out all night. Or I figured that she’d had a little too much to drink and decided to crash at a friend’s place. The idea she might be in trouble, or dead, didn’t occur to me until a few hours later, when she still hadn’t returned my calls and I could no longer comfort myself with the thought she was sleeping it off somewhere.

And whom had I called for help? Lauren.

She put me in touch with Gabriel, who took over the investigation. By the time Charlotte’s body was found washed up on the bank of the East River, she’d been gone for several days. Although the confirmation that my sister was dead was a jolt to my system, I had already assumed as much, so the reality only ended my prayers for a miracle.

This time, however, I haven’t had any prior suspicions to soften the blow.

Lauren was alive last night, and now she’s dead.

“What . . . happened?” I ask.

“All I know so far is that it was two gunshots to the head. Her body was found a few blocks from her apartment, in Central Park. They put me in charge of the investigation, so I can’t leave the office right now. But come down to One PP. As soon as I get free, we can talk.”

Who would want to kill Lauren?

The most likely murderer is always a lover. As the old expression goes, when you hear hooves, think horses, not zebras. When you see a murdered wife, think husband, not anyone else.

“Was it Richard?”

Part of me is hoping that Gabriel will say yes and then all this will be over. The other part of me knows that if Richard did kill Lauren, he’d never admit it. Worse still, he’d commit the crime in a way that would never in a million years link back to him.