“It’s a shame about Daniel’s boy and his family.” T. R. shook his head. “I can’t imagine what he’s going through, having lost his only son. Have they found his wife yet?”

“They have not. It’s positively awful,” Suzanne agreed. “With the woman carrying their only grandchild, I’m sure Daniel and Tempest are devastated.”

Theo thought of that fundraiser back in February. Sela Abbott had flirted incessantly with the old man. He’d ended up donating millions of dollars to the cause she supported. Theo couldn’t even remember the name, but he remembered vividly watching his father laugh and Sela hover around him, her smiles dazzling. How could his father not have seen what Theo saw?

How could he not know what Theo had known even then?

The past was back to haunt them, and there was a very good chance that both of them were going to pay.

The election was the least of their worries.

23

5:00 p.m.

Birmingham Police Department

First Avenue North

Major Investigations Division

Kerri surveyed the board she and Falco had pieced together. The fragments of this case were coming together slowly, so damned slowly. At this point she was simply grateful for the slightest scrap of information.

The attorney for the Abbott family’s personal interests had explained the way the victim’s estate would be divided. One-quarter of Ben Abbott’s holdings in the company would transfer to his wife. The rest would go to his father and mother. The same with all monies, stocks, what have you. All of this was contingent on there being no children. If Abbott and his wife had children, things changed dramatically in the favor of the wife and children.

“The only people who stand to benefit from the wife’s death”—Falco angled his head and studied the board—“are the husband’s parents.”

Kerri considered Falco’s unquestionable statement. “Particularly since the wife was pregnant with an heir, which shifted everything.” She tapped the dry-erase marker against her cheek. “But the parents would never kill their son or grandchild. The mother-in-law, maybe. The wife, possibly.”

“But if someone else killed their son—like the wife,” Falco suggested, “they might work up the motivation to take her out. Maybe that’s why her body hasn’t shown up. They’re waiting for her to have the baby and then—” He made a slicing action across his throat.

Kerri shook her head. “But why would the wife kill the husband? As we’ve already discussed, there’s still no logical motive, and the act would only put a bigger target on her own back.”

“But we do know she went all cloak-and-dagger and bought a car.” Falco tapped the photo of the blue car, a frame taken from the Walmart surveillance of it leaving the parking lot. “She had a plan for that car, Devlin. Whether it was to go slumming in her free time or whatever, she didn’t buy it to add to her landscaping.”

Clearly.

Kerri’s cell vibrated against her desktop. She twisted and picked it up. She recognized the number that popped up because she had called it about a dozen times over the past few days. “It’s Bellemont.”

She met Falco’s gaze as she answered the call, setting it to speaker. “Devlin.”

“I understand you’ve been trying to reach me, Detective.”

“We’ve had a development in the case.”

“Please tell me you’ve found Sela, and she’s safe.”

“Unfortunately, we haven’t been so lucky. What we do have is new information regarding some rather surprising actions taken by Sela before the murders.”

Silence echoed across the line for four or five seconds.

Then he asked, “What sort of actions?”

That he didn’t sound startled by Kerri’s announcement wasn’t lost on her.

“She purchased an older-model car from the housekeeper’s nephew with an exorbitant cash payment. I’m thinking this may be just the tip of the iceberg.” That last part was true, just not necessarily of the wife.

“You’re reaching here, Detective. There is no way Sela had anything to do with Ben’s murder, much less her mother’s. Whatever purpose she had for buying this car, you can believe me when I say that she must have had a very good reason, and it had nothing to do with murder.”

“I wonder if the Abbotts will be so certain when they hear the news.”

“Do what you must, Detective, but you will only be hurting those two grieving people without contributing any sort of positive result toward your investigation.”

“You give me one good reason not to go to the Abbotts, and I won’t. You have until tomorrow morning.”

Kerri ended the call. She wasn’t playing games with Bellemont anymore. He was hiding something, and she needed to know what that secret was and how it impacted this case.

“You told him, Devlin.”

She glanced at Falco. “Would you have handled it any differently? He knows information that might help this case, but for whatever reason he’s keeping it to himself.”

Before her partner could answer the question, another call shimmied through her phone. She checked the screen. California area code. She hit speaker and said, “Devlin.”

“Detective Devlin, this is Lieutenant Winston Brown. I’m returning your call about Jacqueline and Sela Rollins.”

“Yes, Lieutenant. Thank you for calling me back. Especially on a Saturday.” Kerri took a moment to explain the murders and the current status of Sela Rollins, now Abbott.

“Oh my.” He cleared his throat. “I hadn’t heard this news. I knew they had moved, but I had no idea where to or that there had been trouble. I really hate to hear this.”

“Wait. Is this the liaison officer?” The detective sounded more like an old friend of the family.

“Lieutenant Elsworth, our liaison, brought this to me since I was the one who always handled the Rollins situation.”

“Situation?” Kerri and Falco exchanged hopeful looks.

“It’s a bit of a long story, and I’m not sure it’s relevant to your investigation,” he offered.

“Believe me, Lieutenant,” Kerri assured him, “we’ll take whatever you have.”

“All right.” He took a deep breath. “Mrs. Rollins had another daughter, Janelle Stevens. She went missing fifteen years ago. Poor woman never really recovered from the loss. Every time her younger daughter, Sela—who was thirteen, I believe, at the time—came home late or failed to call, Mrs. Rollins would dial 911 and say she was missing. It took some time to work out the trouble, but we managed to get the situation under control.”

Kerri was still reeling from the news that there was an older sister. “The sister, Janelle, she disappeared in your jurisdiction fifteen years ago?”

“That’s the ironic part,” the detective said. “Mrs. Rollins’s—Stevens is her maiden name—older daughter didn’t live in San Diego when she went missing. She had moved to Alabama. Janelle Stevens disappeared in your jurisdiction.”

Surprise radiated through Kerri. “You’re certain about that?”

“I am. Sela came to visit me several times during her senior year of high school. She had decided to go into law enforcement. She wanted to make a difference. I think maybe she thought she might be able to find the truth about what happened to her sister. I sort of kept up with her over the years. She did really well at SDSU. When she and her mother moved away after her graduation, I never heard from them again until Sela landed in San Francisco. She had applied for a position at a law firm and wanted a letter of recommendation from me. She was so excited. I was a little surprised that she hadn’t gone into law enforcement as she’d planned for so many years, but people change. At any rate, that was the last time I heard from her.”

“Thank you, Detective.” Kerri’s mind reeled with questions she couldn’t quite pull together in any sort of logical manner. “I may need to call you again. Is this your cell number?”

“It is. Call anytime. I’m sorry to hear about Sela and her mother.”

Kerri ended the call and tossed her phone onto her desk. For a moment, she sat, stunned by the news. An older sister. One the in-laws didn’t know about—one who disappeared here, in Birmingham. “I have to say, I didn’t see that one coming.”

“No kidding.” Falco slid into the chair behind his desk and started pecking at the keyboard of his computer. “J-A-N-E-L-L-E S-T-E-V-E-N-S.”

“Stevens is the mother’s maiden name.” Kerri pondered the idea for a second. “Maybe she wasn’t married to Janelle’s father or chose not to take his name. I’m surprised the daughter didn’t. Maybe the mother never shared who the father was.”

Falco grunted his agreement. He was focused on his search, but Kerri was still gobsmacked by the news. Sela had a sister. Why would anyone keep her sister a secret—particularly a sister who went missing—unless there was a damned good reason?