Great. “Okay.” From the corner of his eye, he saw Rebecca round the front of his SUV so that she stood next to him. “Just let me ask one question. I got a call from Bobby.” James hitched his chin toward the foreman. “He said that Willow Valente committed suicide. Is that right?”

“She’s deceased,” Rivers said, “but we haven’t figured out the cause of death yet.” Mendoza glanced from James to Rebecca and back again.

“Was she in an accident?”

“We can’t say at this time,” Rivers said. “But we’d like to ask you a few questions.”

“You mean ‘more’ questions. I’ve already given a statement.” James’s voice had an unwanted edge to it, and he gazed up to the second floor of the big building as more passers-by pulled over, engines of cars, trucks, and vans rumbling through the night.

“Not about this,” Rivers said.

“This? Listen, I don’t know anything about Willow! My foreman called me, and I drove over here. That’s it. End of story.”

Unmoved, Rivers said, “It’s just a few questions. We can do it here. Or at the station.”

“I told you—”

Rebecca’s gloved hand grabbed hold of his forearm, steadying him.

“Okay, okay. I don’t care. We can do it here.” James didn’t bother to hide his irritation.

“Maybe the station would be better,” Rebecca suggested as she cast her gaze over the onlookers being held back by a hastily made barricade of yellow crime-scene tape and sawhorses.

“Fine,” he finally agreed. “The station.”

CHAPTER 44

CHAPTER 44

Sophia was furious.

She’d been stood up! After agreeing to meet James here, in the very bar in which she worked.

Her blood was really boiling now.

She’d been in the bar for nearly an hour, sipping a damned soda while waiting for James and practicing how she was going to tell him he was going to be a father. He’d be shocked, maybe even deny the possibility, but he would come around. And then he’d realize they were meant to be together.

Except that he hadn’t shown.

Her back teeth ground together as the strains of “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” lilted through the room and groups of friends or couples laughed and talked, oblivious to the drama that was Sophia’s life.

A couple of men at the bar eyed her. She knew them. She’d served them, for God’s sake. She jabbed her straw into her drink, causing the ice cubes to swirl. James couldn’t keep treating her this way. Not now. Not when she was about to become the mother of his child! At that thought, she actually smiled.

But she couldn’t wait any longer. She’d taken the car the second Julia had arrived at the apartment, and now her sister would want it back. After all, the hatchback really did belong to Julia.