“That’s exactly what you said: Deal with the problem,” Ridley shouted. “That was like telling Gregory to kill her. You know it, but you’re a liar. I heard you on the phone with Gregory. You said, ‘How’s this for a happy coincidence? Her mother killed herself on New Year’s Eve. Like mother, like daughter.’ Go on, deny it. I know you.”

“Ridley, all of this would have been so much easier to deal with if you had just told me the whole story in the first place, instead of coughing up a little piece here and there.” Martin turned to me. “I was sincere about wanting to find your sister, Lily.”

“Of course you were. Once you found out that the dead woman wasn’t Claudia, you must’ve figured she was just my sister’s business partner. You figured Claudia would turn up again to blackmail you.” I laughed, but the sound was more like something had caught in my throat and started to choke me. “That’s why you kept turning up, why you kept calling me. Why you hired a private detective to follow me. You were trying to figure out if I knew where my sister was.”

“Or if she suddenly got in touch with you. I couldn’t rule that out.” His expression softened. “But that wasn’t the only reason, Lily. I love you.”

“Shut up,” Ridley and I said at the same time. The boy glanced at me, then lowered his eyes again. I put the safety back on the gun, and set it gently back into the zippered compartment of my bag. “Martin, were you always a disgusting excuse for a human being, or is this a more recent development?”

“Don’t say that, Lily,” he answered. “You’re being heartless and unfair.”

“Don’t tell me I’m hurting your feelings.” I tried to keep my voice steady. “By the way, why did you decide to shoot Tariq? Was it just because he knew about the fire?”

“He called me in a fury, saying he knew all about it, and that he knew I was lying to you,” Martin’s voice was weary. It must have taken up all of his energy, spinning a convenient lie for every occasion. “He thought that I might have kidnapped or harmed Claudia. I told him that I was frantic about finding her, too, and suggested that he come over to talk. A couple of Gregory’s men waited for him. It wasn’t like I had much choice at that point. Everything was damage control.”