“Does that mean I get to shake him up a little?”

“We’ll wait and see how this goes.” Kerri started back toward the driveway. “On the way to his office, why don’t you call your friend at the property records office and find out if Abbott had actually submitted drawings for a new build here.”

The posted permit for demo listed Creaseman and Collier as the contractor, but that didn’t mean any more than exactly what it said.

Kerri wanted every bit of information she could scrape together about the Abbotts, particularly their recent activities.

Law Office of Keith Bellemont

Third Avenue North

The office was closed when they reached it. But Falco spotted Bellemont’s SUV parked up the block.

“He’s parked closer to the alley entrance,” Kerri pointed out.

“Then we should wait for him there. He probably leaves via the side door more often than the front anyway.” Falco sent her one of his suspicious looks. “You know lawyers have lots of enemies. Maybe even more than cops.”

Her partner was right. She wondered if her niece had considered that point. Being a cop or an attorney wasn’t just a job. It defined a person’s life . . . invaded their entire existence. Kerri couldn’t say as far as attorneys went, but for a cop the job became like an addiction. It didn’t let go when you went home, not even when you went to sleep. You went to sleep thinking about the case and woke up that way.

As they reached the alley, Kerri gestured to the floral delivery van. “We can wait on the other side of the van.”

“Right.” Falco hitched his head toward the side exit of the law office. “We don’t want him checking that security peephole and making a run for the front exit.”

Falco’s contact at the property records office had confirmed that Abbott had only requested a permit for demolition; final approval remained pending. Nothing for building had been submitted. A call to Gibbons, his assistant at Abbott Options, had confirmed that as of yet he had not hired an architect or anyone else related to building the new smart home. Kerri had a feeling there was a lot more to this story than the possibility of a new house.

She leaned against the brick wall of the floral shop and watched Bellemont’s side door through the driver’s window of the van. “I don’t know about you, Falco, but if I had a worrisome situation going on in my life, I would confide in my closest friend.”

“I’ve never had that many close friends,” he confessed, “but it makes sense you would do that. Hell, if you can’t trust your best friend, what’s the point?”

“Exactly.” Kerri had always been able to confide in Diana and Jen. Those relationships were an important part of maintaining her objectivity, possibly even her sanity. “Bellemont isn’t telling us everything he knows. Either that or he and Abbott weren’t good friends anymore.”

“Maybe they had a falling-out that his daddy doesn’t know about.” Falco gave her a look. “Even as adults we don’t always tell our parents everything.”

Both Kerri’s parents were gone now, but Falco was right about that. There were things she hadn’t told her father, and he had been a social worker. Like her, he had fully understood how a case could take over your life. No matter that she was certain he would have understood, she’d never said a word to him about how she had wanted another child after Tori was born. The truth was, she’d been terrified that she wouldn’t be so good at this mom thing.

Worry that maybe she wasn’t nudged at her even now.

She blinked it away. “How about you, Falco? Your parents still around?”

He didn’t meet her eyes, just stared forward. “My old man died when I was twenty-one. Good thing too. If I’d gotten home before he drove off that bridge, I would have killed him.”

She gave him a minute, but when he didn’t elaborate, she said, “You can’t just say something like that without explaining.”

“My dad beat me all the time when I was growing up. He didn’t stop until I was seventeen, and he only did then because I beat the shit out of him when he tried.”

“Your mother couldn’t stop him or leave him?” Kerri didn’t know why she bothered asking the question. Some in that situation were too terrified to seek out help. Others were simply so beaten down by their abuser they didn’t have the fortitude to do what needed to be done. She had never understood it, but then she had never been treated that way. It was easy to judge someone else when you weren’t walking in their shoes.

“She tried, but he always changed her mind one way or another. When he couldn’t take his aggressions out on me anymore, he took them out on her. The last time he laid a hand on her, I was on my way to kill the bastard. I guess when she told him I was coming, he got scared, so the drunk-as-a-skunk dumb-ass climbed into his truck and drove away. He didn’t make it far, though. Passed out behind the wheel and drove right off that damned bridge.”

“That’s terrible, Falco. Was she afraid to go to the cops?”

Falco exhaled a big breath. “My dad was a cop.”

Now there was a revelation she hadn’t expected. “I’m surprised you decided to follow in his footsteps.”

He stared directly at her then. “That’s the thing, Devlin. I’m not. I’m better than he was, and I intend to prove it.”

Kerri resisted the urge to reach out to him in some way. She wasn’t sure he would appreciate a physical display of understanding. “Is he the reason you’re not involved in your child’s life?”

Falco shook his head. “Nah. It’s not him. It’s fear.”

The creak of the door across the alley was like a shotgun blast drawing her from the moment. They both moved at the same time, skirting the delivery van and blocking Bellemont’s path.

“We have a few more questions for you, Bellemont,” Falco announced.

The attorney looked from Falco to Kerri. “I’ve told you all I know.”

“We can do it here or in your office,” she tacked on for clarification. They weren’t leaving without more answers.

“Fine.” Bellemont executed an about-face and unlocked the door.

Kerri and Falco followed him inside and into his office. He dropped his briefcase on his desk and settled into the seat. “Ask whatever you wish, Detectives.”

Kerri fired the first round. “Why did Ben purchase the property at Whisper Lake Circle?”

Bellemont stared at her for a long moment.

During his hesitation, Falco piped up. “We don’t want some neat answer you put together with all your legalese. We want the quick and dirty. The truth.”

Bellemont squared his shoulders. “Ben bought the place because Sela found it and fell in love with it. She wanted a home in that exact spot. Ben balked at first, but Sela could be persuasive. He purchased the property and set her dream in motion.”

“Theo Thompson’s wife was not happy about this,” Kerri said. “She wanted her husband to take legal action against Ben.”

“Whatever she wanted to do was pointless. The buy was a perfectly legal transaction, and barring any issues with the permitting office, he could do as he pleased with the property.”

“But he hadn’t hired anyone to build the new house,” Falco said. “No architect or contractor. I checked, and Creaseman and Collier don’t build; they only do demo.”

“He may have a friend back in San Francisco who’s doing the building plans for him. I don’t know the answer to that question.”

Kerri had a feeling Marcella Gibbons would have known if that were the case.

“Why would Suzanne Thompson call Sela a gold digger?” Kerri watched his expression as he digested the question.

“Well, Suzanne is like that. She is not a particularly nice person. She dislikes those who make their own way in life. If your money is too new or you married into it, she thinks you’re beneath her. She is not a pleasant person, Detective.”

Kerri watched him for a moment longer.

“Is there anything else? If not, I would really like to get home to my wife and children.”

“Thank you for your time. I’m sure we’ll have more questions.” Kerri pushed to her feet.

“If your questions help find who did this, I am more than happy to oblige.”

Kerri held his gaze for a moment before walking out of the man’s office.

Falco had caught up with her by the time she hit the alley.

It wasn’t until they reached his car that her partner said, “You let him off damned easy, Devlin. But I’m down with your strategy. What do you think he’s hiding?”

Kerri stared at Falco across the top of the car. “Everything he knows.”

16

8:30 p.m.

The call went to voice mail.

Neal Ramsey gritted his teeth and shoved his phone back into his pocket.

Where the hell was she? Why wasn’t she answering her cell?

He sent a text message, for all the good it would do.

Call in now

Neal stared at the house. He’d parked halfway down the block and watched for the past two hours. She had not come home. His last visual on her had been early that morning.