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“Are you kidding me?”

“Nope. He insists he was unaware of the BOLO until the Phantom Investigators filled him in a little while ago.”

“Then why the hell didn’t he inform my office?”

“No rush, it seems, since he insists he’s innocent of all wrong-doing.”

Beau spluttered on the other end of the call.

Archie gave him time to work out his ire, before saying, “I hate to admit it, but I think he’s telling the truth.”

“That may be, but he’s going to get his butt in here and explain himself to me. Self-important ass.”

“Yes.” Yes, they were all self-important in their way. Or maybe just oblivious? Money was a great insulator from reality.

“Besides Azizi popping up, how’s it going?”

Archie sighed. “It already feels like a long night.”

Beau made a sound of amusement. “Not too long, I hope.”

Archie smiled faintly. “No. Not too long.”

“I’ll see you later.” Prosaic words but Beau’s tone made them sound like a promise of something very nice to come.

“I’m looking forward to it.”

He was still smiling as he put his phone away. He glanced up, and spotted a slim blonde woman in a short navy-blue dress walking down the hall toward him.

Desi.

His surprise must have shown because she made a little face and said, “I know. I’m here for the same reason you are. This stuff was important to Uncle John.”

Archie glanced past her, expecting to see Arlo, at the very least. “Is Judith here?”

“Mother?” Desi gave a short laugh. “You couldn’t pay her to attend one of these. Or Arlo. They both think this is, at best, in extremely poor taste.”

Archie shrugged, started to move toward the living room, but stopped, surprised, when Desi put her hand on his arm.

“Archie.” She scrunched her nose as if in pain. “I wanted to apologize for the things Mother said during the reading of John’s will.”

It was the last thing Archie expected to hear. He said automatically, “It doesn’t matter.”

“I think it does, actually. It was…nobody thinks that’s true. Including Mother. It was completely uncalled for. Uncle John would’ve— Oh my God. He’d have been so angry and disgusted with her. Because she knew he was leaving pretty much everything to you. He told us when you took the job in Alaska.”

Archie absorbed that in silence.

“Mother always insisted he was going to change his mind. He never gave her any reason to think so, but that’s my mother. She believes what she wants to believe, and reality be damned. Which I told Arlo.” She added, “By the way, he’s not going to help her try to challenge the will now or anything like that.”

“Thank you.” A challenge to John’s will was one of the last things on Archie’s mind, but he recognized this as the olive branch Desi intended, and he was surprised and sort of softened by it.

Desi drew in a breath as though bracing for a dive into icy waters. “The other thing I wanted to say is I’m sorry for being such a little bitch to you when you came to live with Uncle John.” To Archie’s surprised alarm, her eyes filled with tears. “It didn’t really occur to me until I was older; honestly, not until Arlo and I started talking about wanting to have our own family, what it must have been like for you. How weird and terrible it had to be. Losing both your parents and coming to live with a bunch of strangers.”

“Oh.” Archie didn’t know what to say to that. But yes. It had been weird and terrible. Even recognizing how lucky he was to have landed safely in John’s kind and generous care did nothing to change the weirdness and terribleness.

“I wouldn’t want that to happen to my son.”

Well, no. Who would? But Archie merely nodded.