Page 107 of Dead Man's List

Susan made a hesitant sound. “I got the impression that none of the three women actuallywantedto be with Munro. I didn’t know them well, but that was the gossip around the club. Maybe they were lured by his money. I don’t know. But none of them seemed happy. Maybe they can tell you more about him.”

“When was this, ma’am?” Marshall asked.

“At least two years ago.”

“Thank you, Susan,” Kit said. “You’ve been a huge help. Can you keep this conversation under your hat?”

“Of course. Give my love to CeCe, Connor. We’re grilling steaks on Saturday. Be here at five, please.”

“Yes, Mom.”

Susan made kissing noises. “Bye, now.”

Wincing, Connor ended the call and seemed to brace himself for the teasing. Instead, Marshall and Ashton only smiled.

“Your mom seems nice,” Marshall said, taking the donor list back from Kit.

“And she approves of your girlfriend,” Ashton added. “Good for you. My mother hated my girlfriend. Still does and we’ve been married for twenty-five years.”

Kit chuckled. “So. Now we know Munro is an even bigger asshole than before.”

“Hold on.” Marshall frowned. “The three women he had affairs with are all on his list of campaign contributions, including the one who got divorced from her husband. They donatedafterhe had affairs with them.”

“Blackmail?” Kit asked.

“It’s a place to start,” Marshall agreed. “Although the two divorced women shouldn’t have cared who found out they were sleeping with him. The married woman, yes, but not the divorced women. I wonder if Munro knew something else.”

“I wonder if that’s what Drummond knows,” Connor said.

“I hope so,” Kit said fiercely. “I’ll be so happy to shove his kind offer down his fucking throat.”

“We’re right there with you,” Marshall said. “What next?”

Kit sighed. “Let’s find out who on Munro’s donor list are also members of one of his country clubs. For now we’ll focus on the one Connor’s folks are members of, since that’s where Christopher Drummond went, too. We definitely want to talk to the three women who had affairs with Munro. And I guess we need to add Tamsin Kavanaugh to that list, too.” Kit scowled. “I hate that woman.”

“We’ll take Kavanaugh,” Ashton offered. “We want you tosolve this case so we get your mother’s cupcakes. If you get put on leave for breaking Tamsin Kavanaugh’s nose, we don’t get sweets.”

Kit laughed. “Thanks, guys. Let’s get busy.”

Del Mar, San Diego, California

Wednesday, January 11, 10:00 a.m.

“Thank you for agreeing to see us, ma’am,” Kit said as she and Connor sat on Trisha Finnegan’s living room sofa.

The woman who’d had an affair with Brooks Munro was in her late fifties with a severe platinum-blond bob. She also resembled Wilhelmina. And Veronica. It seemed that Munro had a type.

Or maybe he chose women who looked like Veronica to assuage his guilt for cheating on her to get ahead in life. They might never know.

Trisha folded her perfectly manicured hands in her lap. “How can I help you?”

Her voice was steady, but her body language screamed anxiety.

Kit smiled, trying to relax her. “This is going to be an awkward subject, but we’re investigating the murder of Brooks Munro and—”

“And you want to know if we had an affair,” Trisha finished grimly. “If you call a one-night stand an affair, then yes. We did. If I could go back in time, I’d change everything about that night, but I can’t.”

“Just once?” Kit asked, surprised.