I sat on the stoop, thinking and chain-smoking. If Danielle’s two-point share of the development was three hundred thousand dollars, that meant the whole project was worth fifty times that amount. I did the calculation: fifteen million. It was crazy to think Danielle stood at the hinge of a deal that huge.

Finally Ash showed up.

“Hi,” I said.

He sat down on the step beside me. “Charlotte, what’s going on?”

“I saw Sally,” I said.

“Sally Reeves?”

“She did something. Maybe something bad.”

“Why do you think that?” Ash said.

“The land, because of the land.”

“In Tomball? The inheritance?”

“Danielle wouldn’t sell it, so now that she’s dead Sally gets the land and she’ll make a ton of money. She always hated Danielle. She pretended not to but she always did. Do you know how much money it is? Fifteen million dollars, and it all depended on her doing what Sally wanted. And Danielle wouldn’t.”

“Sally wasn’t there,” Ash said gently. “She was at home. We have phone records, alarm records, a browser history. She took calls, she couldn’t have left without resetting the alarm.”

“Maybe she got someone else to do it,” I said. “Paid someone.”

“We know about the land, about the development. We know all about it.”

“Then do something.”

“We’re checking it out. Her financial records, her recent contacts. We are investigating it very carefully.”

“Good,” I said. “There’s something else. Sally has a brother.”

I told Ash about the abuse, the Thanksgiving dinner, and the rift between Sally and Danielle. “Maybe he came back,” I said. “Maybe he hurt her. That’s a motive, right? If she threatened to go to the police or something.”

“Yeah,” Ash said. “What’s his name?”

“I don’t know. Neither one of them ever said it.”

“What else do you know about him?”

“He used to send Danielle birthday cards every year, in high school. That’s it.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I never told anyone. It was her secret.”

“You have to be up front with me,” he said. “If you’re not honest, I won’t be able to find out who killed her. You have to tell me everything.”

I nodded, and without warning I began to sob. He sat next to me, his arm around my shoulders, waiting until I got my breath.

“What do you say we go inside?”

I stood and opened the door. My legs felt wobbly. Ash led me to the couch and brought me a glass of water.

“I need to ask you some more questions,” he said. “You okay with that?”

I nodded.

“You ever hear about a guy named Eddie?” he said.

“No, who’s that?” I said.

“Danielle didn’t talk about him?”

I shook my head.

Ash frowned. “The clerk at the motel knew her. She worked out of there as an escort.”

“She’d been to that place before?”

“A few times. She met at least one guy there. We have a description.” Ash flipped a few pages of his notepad. “Medium height, five foot ten, white guy, late forties, dark hair, athletic.”