“Agreed,” Vikki Hill said. “Once we started looking into Tanya Carnahan’s past we found her arrest record. We figured it out by the process of elimination. The sisters were close and there were no other family connections that we could find. In fact, we know that Tanya drew up a will in the months leading up to her death. It names Letty as the child’s legal guardian.”

Joe sipped his beer. “Have you considered another suspect in Tanya’s murder? I mean, other than Letty, or even Wingfield?”

“You mean Declan Rooney? Tanya’s old boyfriend? Kind of a reach, don’t you think? I know he’s still at large, but what would his motive be for killing her?”

“Money, for one thing. We never recovered any of the jewelry or gold or silver they’d been buying—an estimated hundred and fifty thousand dollars that’s never been accounted for. When we arrested Tanya, she claimed Rooney and his partner, Chuck Sheppard, had absconded with all of it,” Joe said. “But what if she actually did have the loot—and was supposed to meet up with him but didn’t?”

“That’s an extremely far-fetched scenario you’ve cooked up,” Agent Hill remarked. “Any proof to back it up?”

“Nope.” Joe leaned back on his barstool, his eyes drifting toward a wall-mounted television over the bar. “Is the bureau aware that Evan Wingfield probably isn’t the child’s biological father?”

“What?” Her voice was sharp. “How can you know something like that?”

“If you saw Maya, especially in person, you’d agree. Declan Rooney had very distinctive, piercing blue eyes and thick black eyelashes. Maya has them too. The resemblance is unmistakable.”

“If Tanya knew Wingfield wasn’t the baby daddy, why didn’t she just tell him that after the breakup, before all the hassles of the custody battle?” Agent Hill demanded.

“Did you ever meet Tanya?” Joe asked. “I did. She and Rooney lived at the motel for two weeks while they were grifting senior citizens. She was a piece of work. Beautiful, loaded with charm and street smarts and as gifted a liar as I’ve ever met. My guess is that it had to do with money. I mean, Rooney was in the wind, and then she finds out she’s pregnant. From what you’ve told me, Wingfield is rich. Maybe Tanya saw a sugar daddy opportunity and went for it.”

“That’s an interesting theory, but it’s got nothing to do with me,” the agent said. “It’s not why I came down here.”

“Why did you come? As you said, you can arrest Letty Carnahan at any time. What do you want from me?”

Vikki studied him over the rim of her beer. “Letty has a relationship with you and your mother. She trusts you, otherwise she wouldn’t have hung around here.”

“I’m not sure Letty trusts anybody,” he said.