Page 84 of The Grave Artist

I violated my clients’ trust by investing their savings in a risky fund, and I cannot go on in the knowledge of what I have done and the misery I have caused.

I now can admit to hoping that you, my goddesses, can ever live in peace, amen.

—RobertoMateoSanchez

His eyes widened. “Damn. That was smart.”

“There are still some mysteries.” She pointed out the Greek letter/numbers, 4:19, in the corner. And the fact his middle name was underlined. “I can’t figure those out yet. I’ve been online looking for dirt on Dad’s clients, to see if one of them has a record or some mob connection maybe.”

She added that Carmen was busy chasing a serial killer. “So I came to the one person I thought could help. My own knight in shining armor, who also happens to work homicide in the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.”

“Who’s that? Maybe I work with him.”

She kissed him again. Harder. With better aim.

She and Ryan had been dating only a short time, but she already knew he was the type to pitch in when he saw a need. In other words, he was one of the good guys.

As he opened a can of food for the cat and plopped it onto a plate, he asked, “How’d you get the list of clients? I’d need a subpoena for that.”

“Fell into my lap.”

“Then don’t tell me any more.”

“Deal.”

Hall was wearing dark slacks and a white shirt. He tried twice to knot his tie. Selina took over and got it done on the first attempt. Nowheinitiated a kiss. It landed on the top of her head.

Not her first choice, but still it sent that wonderful jolt through her.

She nodded to the coffee table, where the list of names sat.

“Find anything?”

“No,” she conceded.

“We always start there too.”

“The police use Google?”

“Yep. Hardly ever does any good, though.”

“Maybe you could run a background check,” she offered with a coy smile.

“I could. If a case were open in Riverside County. Which it isn’t. And if I had the staffing to run fifty names.” He was looking at the list. “Which I don’t.”

“It’s only forty-eight.” She refilled his mug from the fresh pot of coffee she’d made when he woke up. “What do I do, Ryan?”

“Forget background. Start at the beginning. So, Jake was the one who found out your dad was murdered, right?”

“His associate—someone called Aruba—was investigating a dark website where people hire contract killers.” She swallowed the lump forming in her throat at the thought. “And Dad’s name was on it.”

Ryan reached out and pulled her to him. She leaned against his chest, finding comfort in his strength. She wasn’t normally the type to simper and fall into a man’s arms, but this investigation was more personal, and more emotionally taxing, than she would have believed.

“Good. A starting point. The hit man. We always work up the chain. In drugs, it’s user to street dealer to wholesaler to importer to cartel boss. That’s what you and I’ll do.”

Selina thrilled at the two pronouns. “How?”

Hall released her to take another sip from his mug. “He died here, right? LA?”