“I am. This case should have been over and done within a week. Strange, but open and shut. Every time I go to close a door another swings opens. This last one, I was not expecting.”

Val sat back in her chair. “I’m ready for it.”

“I did some digging into Gabrielle’s friends.” Gavin opened one of the folders and pulled documents out. “The Arias lost a lot of their money in the 2008 recession. They managed to stay afloat but things just kept going downhill with poor business choices, bad investments. Everything finally bottomed out and they liquidated the company to pay outstanding debts.” Gavin looked up. “That was about ten years ago. Mr. Arias died of a heart attack back then. Mrs. Arias sold the house on Lincoln Parkway and moved in with her brother who’s in Florida.”

“How is Bethany affording the waterfront condo, then?” Val asked. The look on Gavin’s face made it obvious that he had an unpleasant answer and Val braced herself for it.

Gavin took a second before he spoke, letting out an exhale. “It’s owned by Mr. Morgan.”

Val’s eyes opened wide. “Was he helping her out? Maybe replacing his estranged daughter?”

“I don’t think so.” Again, Gavin hesitated.

“Mitch, what are you trying to tell me?”

“He spent the night there a number of times. Security cameras in the parking lot caught it all—when he arrived and when he left. What we don’t know are the details of what happened once he was inside, but I think we can guess.” Gavin cast a glance at Val.

Val shifted uncomfortably in her chair. “You think he was screwing his daughter’s friend?” she said, repulsed.

“I don’t think he was giving this condo away for free.”

“Jesus, Mitch. I’m not even sure what to do with that information.” Val tried hard to wrap her head around what she was hearing. Mr. Morgan appeared so cold and distant towards Bethany at Gabrielle’s funeral. Jesus, it was all an act.

“Ask me where on the waterfront Gabrielle once lived?” Gavin smirked.

Val, shook her head in disbelief. “It can’t be.”

“It is. This very place.”

“Oh my God. My skin wants to get up and crawl away. He gave his daughter’s condo to her friend.”

“Looks like it. Probably didn’t strengthen the friendship,” Gavin said sarcastically. “What we don’t know is if the friendship was already on its way out because of something else. So this could have caused it or cinched it.”

Val sat back in her chair and exhaled deeply. She opted for cinching it. It wasn’t so much that Bethany was given the condo but how she described it while she and Gwen were there for lunch. The condo was a statement of power for Bethany, Val felt it the moment she entered. “What about Melinda, anything on her?”

“Nothing yet.”