“That’s me,” she said. She was glad the girls had shown up. She needed a break.

Delivery guy opened the bag and pulled out two pizza boxes. He passed them to her. “Compliments of Robby Swanner. He also said he’d give me a serious tip if I did a little dancing for you guys.”

“Thanks, but no thanks.” Shaking her head, she closed the door and locked it. Behind her Jen and Diana booed and hissed.

“He was kind of cute.” Jen hopped on one foot and then the other to remove her impossibly high heels.

Kerri carried the pizza to the table. “And way too young for any of us,” she pointed out.

“Who’s too young?” Tori asked as she descended the stairs.

Diana and Jen laughed. Kerri said, “The pizza-delivery guy. Your aunts were saying he was cute.”

“Eww. You guys are gross. I saw him out my window. He’s like Amelia’s age or something.”

Kerri was the one laughing then.

Tori grabbed a soda and joined them at the table. “Didn’t you marry a younger guy once, Aunt Jen?”

Diana and Kerri choked back laughter between bites of pizza.

“That was number one. He was as handsome as sin,” Jen told Tori. “But he decided he didn’t want commitment after only six months.”

“At least you didn’t give up,” Tori said with all the innocence of a pubescent teen.

Kerri and Diana exchanged a wide-eyed look. If either of them had made the statement, Jen would have bitten off their heads.

“Number two was rather plain looking but reliable. He was older and an accountant who’d never had so much as a parking ticket.” Jen shivered and not in a good way. “He wanted too much commitment. I’d had enough after only three months.”

“You and number three were married a whole year, weren’t you?” Diana dared to mention as she reached for a beer.

“We were,” Jen confirmed with a pointed look. “But then he decided to go back home to his mother. Evidently I didn’t take proper care of him. Mama did his laundry, cooked his meals, and kept the house neat and clean for his friends who were always coming over. I would probably have dumped him sooner, but turning thirty and facing yet another failed marriage was too much to deal with in the same year.”

Diana laughed, her hand over her mouth to hold back the beer that no doubt would have spewed otherwise. “None of them were good enough for you, Jen. Mr. Right will come. You wait and see.”

Jen grunted. “If he waits much longer, he’ll have to hunt me up in the nursing home.”

When the new round of amusement subsided, Tori announced, “I’m never getting married.”

Kerri’s heart sank at the determination on her daughter’s face. “You might change your mind when you meet the right guy.”

“Amelia’s not getting married either,” Tori said rather than respond to her mother’s comment. “When I go to college, I’m moving in with her. She said I could.”

Diana smiled. “That will be great fun for both of you.”

Kerri forced her lips into a smile. “Did you decide what you’d like to do? Maybe you want to be an attorney like Amelia.”

Tori shrugged. “Don’t know yet. Thanks for the pizza.” She grabbed another slice and her drink and rushed back up the stairs.

“At least she spoke to me.” Kerri dropped her half-eaten slice back onto her napkin. Her appetite had abruptly gone missing.

“Is she still determined to spend the summer with her dad—in Manhattan?” Jen asked.

“Oh yes.” Kerri downed another slug of beer. She had to find a way to convince Nick to be reasonable.

Diana reached out and squeezed Kerri’s hand. “We should have a family dinner and find a way to talk about all the things we need to do together this summer. Maybe that would inspire her to want to stay home.”

Kerri braced her hands on the table. “Nick threatened to pursue primary custody if I don’t agree to the whole summer.”

“What an asshole!” Jen gritted her teeth, as if she needed to keep the rest of what she wanted to say from streaming out.

Kerri got it. There was plenty she would like to say, but if Tori overheard, it would not help their relationship. Whatever else he was, Nick was her father.

“We won’t let that happen,” Diana insisted. “You’re the mother, and this has always been her home.”

“I hope you’re right.”

No one spoke for a minute or two. The silence weighed heavy on Kerri’s chest.

“On a lighter note,” Diana said, “as much as I hate to see Amelia go, I’m slowly but surely getting right with it. In fact, I’m actually working up some serious excitement for her. She’s going to make an amazing attorney.”

Kerri gave her a high five. “It’s about time you came around.”

“No kidding,” Jen teased as she slapped her palm against Diana’s. “Hey.” Jen turned back to Kerri. “How’s it going with the new partner?”

Kerri shrugged. “Better than I expected. He’s a little rough around the edges, but he has good instincts.”

Diana put her hand to her throat. “I should have asked already. How’s your investigation going?”

“Slow,” Kerri admitted. “We have lists of people to interview. A few rumors to check out, but basically we have nothing concrete yet. We’re waiting on lab results, autopsies.” She shrugged. “And a little good luck.”

“It’s just terrible—the whole thing,” Diana said, her expression pinched. “Do you think the wife is alive?”

“Every hour that passes with her still missing, the likelihood of finding her alive grows dimmer,” Kerri admitted. “Assuming someone took her.”

“You think maybe she had something to do with the murders?” Jen asked as she picked at her barely touched slice of pizza.

“At this stage, anything is possible, and we have to look at all the potential scenarios.”

“I was thinking about her—Sela Abbott—this afternoon,” Diana said as she looked from Kerri to Jen and back. “I think Amelia helped with one of her fundraisers. The one back in March.” She frowned, gave her head a little shake. “Spring Blitz or something like that. It was to help abused young women.”

“Did Amelia see much of her or meet her at all?” Kerri would welcome any reliable insight into Sela Abbott.

“I sent her a text and asked if she remembered her. I’m sure she’s heard the news by now,” Diana said. “I swear, that girl is never home anymore. I’m lucky if I ever see her. She comes home after I’ve gone to bed, and she’s gone before I get up. If not for text, I might never hear from her.”

“What do you do in a case like this?” Jen wanted to know. “Look for enemies?”

Kerri took a sip of her beer and nodded. “We look for anyone with motive. Whoever killed Ben Abbott and his mother-in-law had a motive. Whatever the motive is, it involves his wife somehow, I think.” She looked from Jen to Diana and back. “Otherwise we would likely have found her body by now.”

“Do you think it’s someone who knew the family?” Diana asked.

“That’s the case more often than not,” Kerri allowed. “Whoever it was, we’ll keep digging until we find them.”

“I sure hope the dead guy’s wife is okay,” Jen said as she peeled at the label on her beer bottle.

“She’s pregnant.” Diana shook her head. “What kind of person hurts a pregnant woman?”

Unless the pregnant woman was somehow involved in the murders, and Kerri wasn’t anywhere near convinced of that scenario.

Suzanne Thompson’s words echoed. She would do anything to get what she wanted.

But would she commit cold-blooded murder?

12

One misstep . . .

I really did try hard not to make a single one.

I was so very careful. My every move was calculated very precisely. Preparation is, after all, of the utmost importance. To minimize the potential for mistakes, I have spent years preparing for this finale. But, in the end, I am only human—though some might argue with that assessment before this is done.

While I have taken great care, there comes a point when the preparation is only as reliable as the choice made for executing any one aspect of the plan. One of those choices failed me. The pill. The damned things have been around for decades. I never missed a dose. But failure happened anyway.

A baby. At first, I was alarmed. This was not supposed to happen. And here is another reason some won’t like me: my initial thought was to take care of it.

There was no baby in the plan. I had made no preparations for a baby.

I was not—am not—mother material.

As it turned out, the baby proved essential to holding the plan together as the time for a certain step arrived. He balked. I had anticipated this reaction and assumed I would need some sort of leverage. Not so difficult, considering all the secrets I had uncovered. With the unexpected pregnancy, the other leverage was not required. I merely told him about the baby, and suddenly it was all good. He wasn’t even disappointed when we learned the baby is a girl.

Does that mean he really loved me?

Perhaps.

Did I love him?

I’m not certain. But I will love his child. I will do all within my power to protect her.