Cab was calm, but his mother looked embarrassed by her profane outburst. She turned back to the window and leaned against the cold glass with her forehead. He could see, in the blurry reflection, that her eyes were closed.

‘Does it really even matter?’ she murmured. ‘Does it really matter after all these years? It’s over. It’s in the past.’

‘Even if that were true, yes, it does matter. Birch wasn’t the only one who was killed that night. Lyle Piper didn’t deserve to die. The citrus farmer who tried to intervene, he didn’t deserve to die.’

Tarla turned around, and she looked chastened. ‘You’re right, of course.’

‘And I don’t think it is over. Someone named Justin Kiel was murdered last month. I think it’s because he was asking questions about the Labor Day killings.’

‘How could that be?’ Tarla asked. ‘Even if Drew was involved, he died years ago.’

‘Drew may have turned to someone else for help. Someone who is still alive. Someone who’s trying to cover his tracks. Drew had a relationship with a drug dealer named Frank Macy, and he might have used Macy as part of the plot.’

Cab stopped as Tarla’s face tensed with recognition. She was an actress and recovered almost immediately, but he didn’t miss it. The name Frank Macy meant something to her. She knew who he was.

‘Mother?’ he asked. ‘What do you know about Frank Macy?’

‘Only that he was a friend of Drew’s. I remember meeting him that summer.’

She shrank from the hardness in his eyes.

‘What else?’ he asked.

‘Oh, darling, drop it. I got enough interrogations when I guest-starred on Law & Order. That Sam Waterston, he is yummy.’

‘You’re hiding something,’ Cab said. ‘You’ve been hiding something from me all along. What is it? Did you recognize the gunman? Was it Macy?’

‘I told you, I don’t remember a thing about that night.’

He took her chin gently between two fingers. ‘Mother, this is not a game. This is not one of your movies. Innocent people have died, and they are still dying. You can’t hide what you know. Not anymore.’

Tarla blinked back tears, and she wasn’t acting. She was genuinely distressed. ‘I can’t say anything. Not to you. Don’t you understand? You are a cop, darling. Whatever I tell you, I know you will have to act upon, and I can’t allow that.’

Cab reached into his suit coat pocket. He pulled out his badge, and he put it in his mother’s hand and closed her fingers around it. ‘This is me resigning. I’m no longer a police officer. I’m a private citizen.’

‘Cab, it isn’t that simple.’

‘It is. You need to tell me.’