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“I don’t know, but now we have his name and address,” Morgan said.

Morgan got her own laptop out and searched the internet for Mike Perez in Las Vegas.“There’s no phone number,” Morgan said.“I guess we’re going to Vegas.”

“We’re going to Vegas to talk to him?”Abby asked.

“Yes,” Morgan said.

“What’re we going to say when we get there?”Charlie asked.

“Hi, our mom killed herself because you broke her heart,” Abby said.

“That would go over well,” Morgan said.“We’re going to ask him if he knows why Mom would leave him money,” Morgan said.

“That’s a good idea.We can assess whether he had any part in why she took her life,” Charlie said.

“And if not, maybe he’ll know something about her that we don’t,” Morgan said.

Abby clapped her hands together.“I love Vegas.I haven’t been there in years,” she said.

“Abby, did you forget that we’re going because our mom died,” Charlie said somberly.

“You’re right.I’m a horrible person, aren’t I?”Abby asked.

“No, you aren’t.I just like making you feel bad.”Charlie laughed.

Abby crossed her arms over her chest.“I hope you’re proud of yourself,” she said snidely and went to her room.

Morgan gazed off, remembering.“The last time I was in Vegas I got drunk at my hotel and crawled up on the craps table while people were playing.I’m sure that’s been forgotten by now.”

“Just in case your picture is up in their employee break room, which hotel did you desecrate?”Charlie asked.

Morgan shrugged her shoulders.“It had either a giant lion or a trapeze.”

CHAPTER 14

Charlie

The next day, While Charlie and Abby waited on the porch with their suitcases, Morgan ran next door to drop Albert and Brigitta off with Esther.Abby didn’t want to drive to Vegas as she’d already driven from Encinitas, and Charlie had rented a Mini Cooper, so when Morgan got back, the women piled their overnight bags into the trunk of her rented Nissan Altima.

“Shotgun!”Charlie called out as she hurled herself into the front passenger seat.

“That’s poppycock!”Abby said grudgingly, as she crawled into the back.

“Poppycock?”Charlie said.“Are you a time traveler from the fifties?”

“I can’t swear in front of the kids; they like that expression.”

“Well, we don’t,” Morgan said.

“Okay, then it’s bullshit that just because I’m the youngest, I never get to sit in the front.And just because I’m the smallest, even when one of us brought a friend home, I got stuck in the middle in the backseat.”

“You have the entire back to yourself.It’ll be great, you can stretch out,” Charlie said.

“If you feel that way, then you sit back here.”

“I already called shotgun,” Charlie said, putting on her seat belt.

“I guess age does come before beauty,” Abby said, preening in the rearview mirror.