His mind returned to the meeting at Bedford Hills.

He looked over at Hardwick, who appeared to be lost in his own unpleasant thoughts.

“So tell me, Jack, what do you know about Carl Spalter’s ‘demented slut’ daughter?”

“You obviously skimmed past that page in the trial transcript—where she testified to hearing Kay on the phone with someone the day before Carl got hit, saying that everything was arranged and that in twenty-four hours her problems would be over. The lovely young lady’s name is Alyssa. Think positive thoughts about her. Her demented sluttiness could be the key that springs our client.”

Hardwick was doing sixty-five on a winding stretch of road where the posted limit was forty-five. Gurney checked his seat belt. “You want to tell me why?”

“Alyssa is nineteen, movie-star gorgeous, and pure poison. I’ve been told she has the words ‘No Limits’ tattooed in a special place.” Hardwick’s expression exploded into a manic grin that faded as quickly as it appeared. “She’s also a heroin addict.”

“How does this help Kay?”

“Be patient. Seems Carl was very generous with little Alyssa. He spoiled her rotten, maybe worse than rotten—as long as he was alive. But his will was another matter. Maybe he had a moment of insight into what his junkie daughter could do with a few million bucks at her disposal. So his will provided that everything would go to Kay. And he hadn’t changed the will at the time of the shooting—maybe because he hadn’t made up his mind about the divorce, or just hadn’t gotten around to it—a point the prosecutor kept highlighting as Kay’s main motive for the murder.”

Gurney nodded. “And after the shooting, he wasn’t capable of changing it.”

“Right. But there’s another side to that. Once Kay was convicted, it meant she couldn’t inherit a cent—because the law prevents a beneficiary from receiving the assets of a deceased person whose death the beneficiary has facilitated. The assets that would have gone to the guilty party are distributed instead to the next of kin—in this instance, Alyssa Spalter.”

“She got Carl’s money?”

“Not quite. These things move slowly at best, and the appeal will stop any actual distribution until there’s a final resolution.”

Gurney was starting to feel impatient. “So how is Miss ‘No Limits’ the key to the case?”

“She obviously had a powerful motive to see that Kay was found guilty. You might even say she also had a powerful motive for committing the murder herself, so long as Kay was blamed for it.”

“So what? The case file doesn’t mention any evidence that would connect her to the shooting. Did I miss something?”

“Not a thing.”

“So where are you going with this?”