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Taavi let out a huff of air.

I saw his point.

I stuffed the last bite of cookie in my mouth. “What did you do for the rest of the day?” I asked around the cookie.

“Helped your mother make dinner and cookies, then watched football with your dad.”

“I’m sure he explained every single rule.”

A smile flitted across Taavi’s lips. “He did. I might actually understand it slightly better now.”

I’d tried to explain the rules—the actual rules, not just the get-the-ball-down-the-field part—to Taavi, but Dadlovedexplaining all the rules, their history, and the strategies used to exploit them. He was a much better teacher than I was.

“Who won?”

“Minnesota. Which is apparently fine because the Bears are evil.”

I laughed. “That is true.”

“Val?” He sounded serious. Too serious for it to be about football.

“Yeah?”

“Do you think—” He cut himself off.

“Do I think what?” I asked him, crossing the room to sit on the side of the bed, placing a hand on his thigh.

“It’s just…” He sighed. “What if they’re doing it on purpose?”

“What if who’s doing—”Oh. “What if the cops know it isn’t suicide, you mean?” I asked him, catching up to his train of thought. “What if it’s a set-up?”

Taavi nodded, twisting his fingers in the edge of the blanket on his lap.

I should have considered the possibility sooner. God-fucking-damnit. Too much time away from the force, maybe. Or maybe it was just arrogance that made me assume I was dealing with incompetence instead of maliciousness. It still might be incompetence, of course, but Taavi’s question reminded me that corruption and bigotry were just as likely.

I let out a sigh of my own. “It could be,” I answered softly. “But I hope not.”

“You’d rather they were incompetent?”

“Honestly, yeah. If they’re deliberately concealing or falsifying evidence in order to conceal a murder? That’s much worse.”

“Or they did it,” Taavi said, half-swallowing the words.

I ran my hand over my hair, tugging on my braid. “Let’s hope not.” But he was right to suggest it. Because if the cops were behind it, then I had to be very careful. Hell, even if they weren’t responsible, but were covering up for someone else, I still had to be careful.

Fuck.

“Is Elliot at his dad’s house?” Taavi asked, then.

“No. He’s at the AmeriVu.”

“Is it safe?”

“It’s about what you’d expect for small-town America. It’s clean,” I replied. “And the doors lock.”

Taavi studied my face, his expression worried. “You don’t think they’ll go after him?” he asked me.

It had occurred to me that someone who might kill Gregory might also go after Elliot—depending on why they’d targeted Gregory. The problem was that I had no ideawhysomeone would want to kill Gregory Crane and make it look like a suicide. That was one of several things I had to figure out.