Page 137 of See You There

“What’s this all about, Luke?”Cara asked her brother once they were all seated around the island in Anne’s kitchen.

Luke looked at his mother, and she nodded. “Actually, I was the one who suggested Luke call you. Your brother and I had an interesting conversation last night.”

James sent a sideways look at Luke. “I’m assuming this is about Dahlia?”

“Dahlia? You mean Lia? Oooh, interesting!” Cara smiled victoriously. “Iknewsomething was up! You’ve never taken off with a client before. James tried to feed me some nonsense about you going so that she wouldn’t be alone, but I didn’t buy it for a second. Luke in the woods,” she chortled.

“Shut up,Car-bear.”

“Don’t call me that,” Cara snapped. Wes rubbed his temples, still not used to the family’s bickering, and she patted him on the arm sympathetically. “What do we need to know?”

“A couple of things. First, the GBI notified me they confirmed my alibi, so I’m officially cleared.”

Cara’s mouth fell open. “I didn’t realize they were actually looking at you.”

Luke nodded. “More than I thought they would have. According to one of Brady’s sources, Chris was instrumental in that. But once they checked on my alibi, they realized that there was no way I could have done it.”

“Are they pursuing anyone else?” Cara asked, and then shot a worried expression in Anne’s direction.

Anne spread her hands flat on the counter and pressed her lips together. “I wish the three of you would stop treating me like I was made of spun glass. I raised all of you, if you’ll remember.” She lifted a finger in warning. “Don’t eventhinkabout keeping something from me if one of you is in trouble!”

There was a chorus of ‘sorry’ and ‘yes, ma’ams.’

“Excellent. Now, Luke told me that there are no leads, so whoever is behind it is going to get away with it.”

James let out a bitter laugh. “Whoever it was. It may not have been Chris himself, but I’d bet money he paid someone. Considering the email he sent Luke, he may have been surveilling him. Maybe they followed him to Dr. Keller’s and then got worried he’d say something to implicate them. They killed him, hoping to frame Luke. One fire, two problems solved.

Luke thought for a minute. “That’s a possibility. I don’t think they followed me, but I wasn’t looking for it either. Brady is looking into what Matt told Dahlia about Courtney being an escort, to see if we can get leverage there, and Declan is following up on the thallium angle. Maybe one of us could approach the podcaster Dahlia mentioned. It might save some research time. She would have already done it for the case she covered.”

Luke took a deep breath. He was not looking forward to what he needed to ask from his family. “During the time Dahlia and I were at the cabin, we got to know each other pretty well…”

Cara made a face. “Is this going to be gross? I’m really not interested in hearing about your sex life.”

Wes wrapped his arm around Cara’s waist and squeezed. “Behave or we’ll never get to go home.”

“Good point.” She grinned at him and lifted on her toes to give him a quick kiss.

“You two are ridiculous,” James said, staring at them.

“Just wait, James. You just wait.” Cara waggled her eyebrows.

Luke cleared his throat. “If you’re all done being stupid, I’m kind of on a time crunch here. Yesterday, Dahlia’s new team released a statement about her past and—”

“What about her past?” Cara interrupted.

“Her former agent created a fictitious back story about her when she first signed. There are some things in her past she worried would affect her chances, so she went along with it. Now, she wants to come clean. It could get ugly.”

Luke knew he didn’t do the best job at hiding the worry in his voice. It was her decision, and he was proud of her bravery, but the thought that the public might punish her made him want to hit something.

“Who cares where she comes from?”

Wes stroked his hand over his wife’s blond hair. “People can be cruel. And they love to tear down people they think have more than them.”

Cara sobered and then squared her shoulders. “Every time I spoke to Lia, she was really nice.”

“Dahlia,” Luke snapped. “Her name is Dahlia.”

“Sorry,Dahlia.” Cara drew out the name so there were multiple syllables and Luke narrowed his eyes, knowing she did it to irritate him. “Whatever it is, it can’t be that bad. She doesn’t kick puppies, does she?”