I’d told myself the same thing many times, and Reid was right. I’d made the decision I thought was best at the time.

And it had all led me here.

To this man.

Reid Wolfe.

I was falling hard.

48

Reid

After making sure Zee was comfortable after our evening and subsequent night together, I headed down in the elevator to the meeting Rock had called.

All eyes went wide when our mother walked in.

“What the—” Rock started.

“I invited her,” I said. “She’s promised to help. Right, Mom?”

My mother, looking pale and a little bit green, nodded. “Yes. I know none of you killed your father. I didn’t either.”

“You wouldn’t kill off your gravy train,” Rock said snidely.

Lacey slid him a stink-eye for the comment. No one else said anything.

So I spoke up. “We all have our problems with our mother. We need to put them aside for now, at least until this case is solved. We need to work together to make sure the guilty party is found.”

Riley bit her lower lip. Matt sat next to her, holding her hand.

I stood and made introductions. Mom hadn’t yet met Matt and Charlie. It was awkward, but I got it done in two minutes flat.

“Lace and I have come up with a working theory,” Rock said. “There’s no evidence that anyone other than Dad himself made the phone call to me from Reid’s office, posing as Reid.”

“You do all sound a lot alike,” Mom observed.

“Right, so here’s the theory.” Rock drew in a breath. “Dad was planning to stage his own death implicating all of us, but someone got wind of his plan and actually killed him, knowing they’d get away with it because Dad had put the whole plan in place to implicate us.”

“Interesting,” I said. “Have you—”

“Yes,” Rock said, appearing to read my mind. “The body we cremated was definitely Dad. The body the police found was definitely Dad. He is not alive. We’ve checked it out and gone over and over it with a fine-toothed comb.”

Riley nodded, trembling. “I identified the body in the morgue. It was Dad. I swear to you.”

“Suspects, then,” I said. “Father Jim, of course. Hank Morgan?”

Rock nodded. “Lacey and I believe he is a suspect. Dad had a considerable amount of pull in the NYPD. And then there’s Irene Lucent.”

My eyes shot wide. “You’ve talked to her?”

“No. We haven’t found her yet, if she exists at all.” He turned to Mom. “What do you know about her?”

“Nothing,” Mom said quietly.

“I believe her,” I said. “She wouldn’t have married Dad if she’d known there was someone else who could possibly have split his pie with her.”