“You want to wait for him here?” Hicks asked. “Go back and park ourselves in the office?”

“No. I’d say we go park in front of his house, but there’s no guarantee he’s going home when he leaves here. Let’s go around the back and catch him coming out.”

They didn’t have to wait long.

They had just pulled down the alley when Steve Morgan came out the back door of the Quinn, Morgan offices. He was tall and lanky with a mop of sandy, wavy hair; the kind of guy who would look good with a tennis racket in his hand and a sweater tied around his neck.

Mendez pulled the sedan in directly behind Morgan’s black Trans Am, blocking his exit.

“Slipping out early?” he asked as Morgan got out of the car.

If Morgan was annoyed, he did a good job of masking it.

“Detectives. Don just told me about Marissa Fordham. She was a friend of my wife’s. I want to break the news to Sara before she sees it on TV.”

“She knows,” Mendez said. “As it happens, she had an appointment with Ms. Fordham this morning. I’ve already spoken with her.”

Morgan sighed. “Oh God, she must be upset.”

“She didn’t call you?”

“I’ve been in and out of the office today. I saw she left a couple of messages, but I haven’t had time to call her back.”

“She took it pretty hard,” Mendez said. “You knew Ms. Fordham as well.”

Morgan sat back against his spotless vehicle. “Yes. I knew her. Is this the part where you’re going to accuse me of sleeping with her?”

“Were you?” Hicks asked.

“No. I knew Marissa from the Thomas Center. I helped out with the copyright business on the poster she did. And I knew her socially a little bit—charity functions, cocktail parties, like that.”

“She dated your partner,” Hicks said.

“She dated a few different men. Marissa wasn’t interested in being tied down by anyone other than her daughter. She was a terrific mother.”

“You put together a trust for her little girl,” Mendez said. “Can you tell us who the trustee is?”

“I am. That’s not uncommon when people don’t have close family—and actually just as common when they do. They want a neutral third party. Relatives can get crazy when there’s money involved.”

“Are we talking about a lot of money?”

Morgan frowned. “I can’t tell you that. It’s confidential.”

“Your client is dead.”

“But her heir is alive, and who knows what relatives might crawl out of the woodwork now,” he said. “I can’t release the information without a court order or I could end up in front of the ethics committee and/or being sued.”

“Let me put it this way, then,” Mendez said. “Will the little girl be well taken care of?”

“Yes.”