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The officer drew her cell out of her pocket and brought up some pictures to show her.

Reese stared dumbly at the white box and gold wrappings on a floor covered in industrial blue carpet.

Then she flipped to another shot, this one of a small card with a black text typed message.

The next was a close-up of the words. Hayes crowded her side as she read it:

Just a thank you for letting me crash your breakfast. I look forward to seeing you again soon.

Reese Decody

The world lurched once. Reese felt dazed, like a prized fighter after a hard right jab. “I didn’t send that.” She shook her head to clear it. Nothing about this made sense. “Are you saying the liquor was laced with some sort of poison?”

Hastings repocketed her cell. “That’s for the lab to determine. But his death is being investigated as a homicide. So why don’t you tell us about the conversation you had with him today?”

“Come in and sit down.” Hayes guided her to the couch.

Reese sank to perch on the edge of a cushion.

He sat beside her. Hastings seated herself in the chair Adam had occupied yesterday morning.

Officer Fenton strolled through the apartment, pausing in front of Hayes’s closed computer. He reached for the lid.

“Unless you brought a warrant, don’t touch that.” The command in Hayes’s voice had the officer drawing his hand back.

“Something you don’t want us to see?”

Hayes’s smile was humorless. “Nice try. Take a seat, Officer Fenton.”

The exchange gave Reese time to recover, although shock still filtered through her system.

After the officer sat in the chair beside his partner, she gave a concise explanation of her visit to Greenley’s office and then of the brief meeting she had with the man.

“We agreed that I’d make an appointment for a later date to discuss the growth strategy for my brother’s trust fund. ”

“Was the meeting contentious?” Fenton seemed content to let his partner do the talking.

“No. I asked him a few questions. He answered them. We recognized that we needed more time to discuss them in full.”

“And did you make that follow-up appointment?”

“Not yet.” She immediately caught herself. Not ever, now. A cloud of disbelief settled over her.

“Walk me through this trust you’re talking about. Who stands to benefit from Greenley’s removal from the account?”

Mechanically, she gave the officers a brief rundown of the history of the monies, her aunt’s death, and Reese’s registration to take Julia’s place as conservator.

“I’m trying to get up to speed about all the details, but there’d be no advantage to anyone if another person was appointed to manage the fund.

I understand Greenley had been in charge of it for six years, but there have been other advisers before him. ”

“What happens to the trust if your brother no longer requires care?”

“That’s unlikely to happen. But in the event of his death, the remainder of the funds go to charity. I’d have to check the terms of the trust to recall which ones.”

“And how much do you stand to gain if you’re named conservator?”

Hastings’s tone was beginning to rankle. But a man was dead. Reese couldn’t hold her attitude against the officer. “I’m not sure what the recommended compensation is. My parents and then my aunt never took any sort of payment. I don’t intend to, either.”

“Who else knew you were going to his building today?” Finally, something from Fenton.

“No one. Just Hayes, who accompanied me.”

“And neither of you ordered a delivery for him later in the day?”

“No.” Hayes broke his silence then. “It seems like you’ve got more than one mystery to solve here, Officers. But whoever’s responsible for Greenley’s homicide is likely the same one trying to frame Reese for it.”

There was more of the same. Similar questions, rephrased and posed differently. Finally, Hastings flipped her notebook shut and reattached her pen to its coils. “I’m sure Detective Usher will want to talk to you. What’s your cell number?”

Reese gave it to them. Fenton glanced at Hayes. “And yours?”

“I’ll be with Reese.” He regarded them steadily.

“Easy to find.” He walked the officers to the door.

She remained where she was, uncertain if her legs would hold her.

In thirty-six hours, she’d learned that Thorne had escaped and been seen near her apartment.

That he was with Pollack the night the man had died.

And now, another person was dead after leaving a note that pointed squarely at her. The hits just kept coming, with barely enough time to regain her equilibrium before being rocked by another.

Hayes resecured the locks and alarm before turning toward her, his expression flinty. She moistened her lips. “You didn’t mention Thorne or what you’re really doing here. Do you need to discuss that with Mendes first?”

“I’ll alert him. But first I’m making a Zoom call. We’re going to wake up Adam.”

If Raiker had been asleep, it didn’t show in his visage. A shadow covered his jaw, but his gaze was intent and shrewd. He listened in silence as Hayes filled him in on the day’s events. His first question after Hayes wound down was “Where’s Thorne now?”

“There have been no more reported sightings. I’ve been keeping Mendes updated, but I haven’t heard from him today.”

“And the tracker was placed when the TK was in prison?”

“Yes.”

Adam mulled that over. Although the familiar eyepatch was in place, his long-sleeve light gray dress shirt had two buttons undone, and he was minus a tie.

It was the most casually dressed Reese had ever seen him.

“So, two parallel events, if we can refer to Reese’s conservatorship quest that way.

It’s disturbing to see even a tenuous connection to Thorne cropping up in what should be a fairly straightforward court proceeding.

But I agree. While you may well learn that the TK killed Pollack, there’s no reason right now to believe he was involved in Greenley’s death. ”

“What about the initials used on the contract for the GPS device?” Reese put in. “Does Thorne have the kind of juice to have that done while he was locked up?” Some inmates had a long reach, even while serving their sentence.

And try as she might, Reese couldn’t make that piece fit.

In the time she’d spent with Stephen Thorne, his mind had been a churning cauldron of incoherent thoughts, smeared with rage and guilt.

It was hard for her to imagine how he’d managed to stay ahead of law enforcement as long as he had.

Tupelo PD Hamilton had obviously thought him harmless when he let him go after questioning.

But he’d been wrong. Thorne had committed those homicides with forethought.

He’d stayed in motels and had arranged the rental in Goodness, Mississippi.

Maybe she’d also been underestimating his abilities.

“We can’t surmise facts not in evidence.

” Raiker’s words were an eerie paraphrase of Hayes’s.

“Yes, it’s possible for some inmates to control events on the outside while they serve their sentence.

But that requires money and a network of people willing to follow those orders.

Thorne’s a loner. It sounds like he had some sort of prior friendship with Pollack, and certainly, there may be a few other individuals he’s connected with.

At this point, we have to believe it’s equally likely that your aunt was targeted, the same way you were today.

Maybe for a reason unrelated to you. Or, there could be something sinister afoot with the trust your family founded. ”

A dart of trepidation pierced her. Not that she and Hayes hadn’t figured that out for themselves, but to hear Raiker draw the same conclusion painted the idea with menace.

Julia’s accident had occurred after she’d been to see Rivers.

The tracker would have enabled whoever was monitoring it to know where she was going next.

Making the mental leap from a hit-and-run to cold-blooded murder also required more facts than they had in hand right now.

But it was a bit easier to believe after discovering someone had murdered Greenley using her name.

“I’ll wait for Mendes’s go-ahead before sharing these incidental links to Thorne with other police.

” Hayes scrubbed a hand over his jaw. He could use a shave, too, Reese noted.

Funny, she hadn’t observed that when they’d kissed.

She elbowed aside the memory. Now wasn’t the time to relive that particular error in judgment.

And it had been a mistake of monumental proportions.

It was easier to coexist with Hayes when she didn’t have that awareness of him as a man.

When she didn’t wonder about his background and probe into his life like he was an interview subject for a series of articles.

She’d slept with men she knew less well, and forgot them easily.

Reese recognized that Hayes wouldn’t be someone to set aside that casually. And he’d already proven more than a match for her carefully constructed defenses. That alone made him someone to avoid. Advice that had gone unheeded when he’d touched her earlier.

“The task force has their hands full tracking Thorne.” Hayes’s words drew Reese’s attention.

“And now they also have to look into him as being good for the Pollack murder. I can dig further into the Thompson connection on Julia’s geolocator.

And anything else that crops up not directly related to one of the ongoing police investigations. ”

“I agree.” Adam nodded. “We can help on this end if you need more assistance. Just don’t let it distract from your main duty there.”

“So now I’m a duty?” Reese asked, only partially in jest.

“You’re the priority,” Adam said flatly. “And Hayes will stop at nothing to keep you safe until Thorne is back behind bars.”