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I hurriedly lift my fork and push my red velvet cake inside Uri’s mouth to stop the banter before it worsens.

“Maybe he was wearing gloves in the shed when he started the fire and then took them off,” I offer.

“I won’t let you put the big brother guilt on me,” I suddenly hear Sully’s sweet voice as Ollie enters the kitchen before him.

“No need for that. Lori or Serena are always on your ass.”

Sully sniffs with outrage as his shoulder bumps the doorframe with a thud. I still feel sorry for being the cause of canceling his going away/ twentieth birthday party.

I smile at them and wave when they greet us. I introduce them to Ezra since he’s never met them before. The way he’s looking at Sully, the undisguised curiosity in his eyes, I have never seen any kind of emotion in him. It’s a little disconcerting.

“Now that everybody is here,” Gabe starts, turning to Ezra. “You saved Sari and Uri. But you are still keeping information from us.”

“I told you about Marlon Finch,” he declares in a bored tone.

“The chemist who allegedly provided Phoenix the poison to kill Meg.” Hunter says. Rami and Linda have been reaching out totheir contacts in New York to try to find him. Gabe and Lori will fly there tonight.

“The way I see it, since you appeared, Meg was poisoned, her house got destroyed, Uri almost killed, Sari was kidnapped. Phoenix admitted to Uri that they are out for revenge toward us for some reason. So why should we trust you?” Raph challenges him. Psycho to psycho.

Ezra makes a tsk sound, not looking fazed by the many suspicious eyes aimed at him. “So needy,” he utters in a calm tone. “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”

“It highlights a logical fallacy,” I interject. Looking at all the confused faces around me, I continue, “It means that the lack of evidence supporting a claim does not automatically prove that the claim is false. Essentially, not finding something doesn’t mean it’s not there.”

Michael nods. “It points out the fallacy of arguing that something is not true because there’s no evidence for it,” Michael explains further, perching on Raph’s knees. “Why are you bringing that up?”

Ezra replies straight away this time, “The lack of evidence can be informative. Adermatoglyphia.”

One word, and I understand.

“The condition in which a person has no fingerprints,” Sully voices my thought out loud, earning a sharp look from Ezra.

Phoenix! Doesn’t matter if they were wearing gloves or not.

“Adermatoglyphia is the absence of ridges on the pads of the fingers and toes, as well as on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. The patterns of these ridges, called dermatoglyphs,form whorls, arches, and loops that are the basis for each person’s unique fingerprints,” I recite part of a study I read online.

“Fucking hell!” Rague mutters as he scratches his stubbled cheek. Ollie has rushed to his side, probably to keep him calm.

“Damn!” More curses and surprised exclamations rise in the kitchen.

“You must know Phoenix well to have discovered that,” Uri states, his body feels tense under mine.

“To a certain degree.” Ezra has a real vague way of answering. “Phoenix will lie low to lick their wounds and plan their next move. In the meantime?—”

“Cut the crap!” Raph barks, pulling Michael more firmly to his chest.

“Do you know Phoenix’s identity?” Hunter asks in a demanding voice.

“Yes,” Ezra states.

“Bloody Mary Magdalene, enough with the dramatic pauses. Just spit it out!” Lori clips.

Ezra’s eyes move to Uri and me.

“Ezra, if my boyfriend wasn’t sitting on my lap, I would shoot you then leave the room and find someone else to work on,” Uri threatens.

I snuggle further into him as Ezra finally utters, “She’s Subject Nine.”

Nine?

She?

The End