North closed his eyes and groaned.

“That is Kingsley Shaw Wilder Aldrich.”

Billy’s voice was richer than North had expected from that single Hi he had heard earlier. “That sounds familiar.”

“Aldrich Acquisitions?” Tom said.

“The very one.”

“Jesus,” Tom said.

“Teddi—”

Teddi waved North to silence. “Do you remember those gruesome murders a few years ago? All those young men being sliced to pieces in the city? It was terrible, just terrible, and the police wouldn’t do anything about it.” He sniffed and looked at Billy. “Your detective, what was his name, Hazmat? That’s what I always called him anyway because he just seemed so horribly toxic. Well, your Detective Hazmat did absolutely nothing.”

“It wasn’t his case,” Billy said quietly.

Teddi didn’t seem to hear him. Shaw was head-and-shoulders deep in the pantry—looking for his goddamn licorice root tea, North thought with a twinge of despair—and those ridiculous hemp pants so tight that his perky little butt was a magnet for every eye in the room. Teddi tapped a finger against the air, as though marking a point, and said, “The only survivor.”

Billy drew in a surprised breath. Tom tilted his head, as though he needed to take in Shaw—and that perky butt—from a new angle.

“I think that’s enough, Teddi.”

“North, sit down, please. I’m getting the worst pain in my neck looking up at you, and I want to know if you ever met that dreadful Detective Hazmat. Billy was just telling the most hilarious stories about the things he would do and say.”

Billy ducked his head. “That was Tom.”

“Tom, you told it better anyway, about when he called, when he was absolutely furious at the two of you. It was just divine the way you told it, I almost died laughing. North, you have to hear Tom tell it, do that impression you do—”

“I knew him,” North said, and there must have been something in his voice because it cut through Teddi’s patter like steel. “It was nice to meet you, Tom, Billy, but I need to talk to Teddi about something important.”

Irritation—and a glowing tracer of fear—swept through Teddi’s face, but he shrugged. Tom left, bumping into North just hard enough that it wasn’t an accident, and Billy held out his hand until a pair of heartbeats passed and North met his eyes with a dismissive shake of his head.

When they were gone, Teddi gulped at his bellini and then fanned himself with manicured nails. “You didn’t have to be so frightfully rude. What’s gotten into you? You’re normally not quite so savage. When you get your head back on straight, I want to know how you knew that horrible Detective Hazmat. I really think Billy’s something, don’t you? I’m just going to ask him what his next show—”

Teddi tried to rise, and North clamped a hand on his arm.

“Shaw thinks you’re his friend.”

“I am his friend. I told you, I absolutely would have invited you to brunch if I’d thought—”