Roy sat back down and rubbed his forehead. “My painting. The one in the lobby… I know what it means now. I found the key.”

I smiled, wishing I could take him in my arms and comfort him.

“It doesn’t matter how or why you remembered,” Lacey said. “It only matters that you did.”

She was right. Roy would be okay now. The road might be dark and bumpy, but he’d be okay. And I’d be at his side.

“In the meantime,” Lacey continued, “I guess we find this secret lower level in this building.”

Icy bumps erupted on my arms. We sat in a building with a secret.

A big secret.

“First thing next week,” Rock said, “we’re bulldozing this motherfucker to the ground.”

“We can’t,” Reid said.

“The hell we can’t.”

“Dad had a way in,” Reid said. “We’ll find that. My guess is he isn’t the only one who knew how to get in.”

“Father Jim?” I asked.

“Maybe. If Dad trusted him with that knowledge.” Reid loosened his tie.

Why was he wearing a tie on Saturday?

“Well,” Lacey said, “this all has to wait until after the memorial service next week. You all need that to happen to make it look like you give a shit the bastard’s dead.”

Reid nodded. “Plus, Father Jim will be there. Give us a chance to get information out of him while he’s not on guard.”

Roy tensed visibly at Father Jim’s name. So did I.

“We have a week.” Roy stood, his countenance still rigid. “Then we find whatever our dead father is hiding here and put an end to this hell once and for all.” He turned to me. “Let’s go.”

“Are we done here?” I asked Lacey.

“Yeah. Go home. Take tomorrow for yourself. You deserve it. Next Friday is the memorial. We’ll all need our energy to get through it.”

I took Roy’s hand that he held out to me. I guessed it was old news now. Roy and I were together.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Back at Roy’s place, I wanted to give him something special. Show him what he meant to me. I led him into his studio to my watercolor that was still covered.

“You don’t have to,” he said.

“I want to. Just don’t be disappointed, okay?”

“You could never disappoint me, silver. Never.”

I nodded, hoping against hope he spoke honestly. I had a tiny percentage of the talent Roy had. I grasped the cloth covering but then froze.

“You okay?” Roy asked.

“Yeah. But I need to ask you something.”

“Sure.”

“Your brothers both seem to think your father might have been behind his own murder.”

“Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “They made that clear.”

“Yet you said nothing. Do you agree with them?”