Page 67 of Wild Frost

"No. Not that I'm aware of.”

"It's my understanding Cameron was a pediatrician?”

Lily nodded.

"You were home all night last night?"

She nodded again.

"Do you recall what you were doing around 2:00 AM?"

She gave me a quizzical look. "I was asleep. Why?"

"Just standard questions. I have to ask."

She gave an understanding nod.

I said her husband's assailant and Dr. Renick’s had the same appearance. "Can you think of anything that might connect the two?”

Her mouth tightened as she thought about it for a moment. "No. I don't think they knew each other.”

"When did you meet your husband?”

"We've been married for seven years now. We dated for less than a year. We knew right away." A fond smile tugged her lips as she recalled happier times. "Actually, a friend set us up on a blind date. It was kind of crazy. I wasn't expecting much. When I first met him, I wasn't all that impressed. But as the night wore on, we just seemed to have this connection. You meet people, and they just get you. He got me."

Her eyes filled again.

I offered my condolences once again and set my card on the glass coffee table. I told her to get in touch if she could think of anything helpful or if she needed anything.

She escorted us to the door, and we walked back to the Porsche. Brenda buzzed my phone as I climbed into the passenger seat.

"What have you got for me?"

"These murders are definitely related. Ballistics match. The same gun that was used to kill Dr. Renick was used in last night’s shooting.”

I thanked her for the info and updated Jack.

With a wrinkled face, JD asked, "What the hell do the three of them have in common?"

36

Back at theAvventura, I spent the next few hours searching the Internet, going down rabbit holes, trying to connect the dots.

That's when I came across several news articles, and it all started to make sense. I double checked with court records, and the full picture emerged.

I shouted to JD, "I think I figured it out.”

I had set myself up at the bar in the salon with my laptop, tapping away at the keys. I never thought I'd say this, but it was too cold to sit on the sky deck and do this kind of thing. With the overcast skies, the gusts of wind, and the dribbles of rain, it was below 50°.

The TV in the salon was tuned to a financial news network. The anchor said, “With me now is Frank Macy, CEO of Valterion Capital Partners. Thanks for joining us today.”

“Pleasure to be here,” Frank replied.

“Valterion's stock is up 37% in the last six months. You’ve aggressively acquired biotech startups and tech companies. You’re diversified into aerospace, real estate, agriculture, and the list goes on.”

“We believe the best way to position ourselves moving forward is to have a strong footprint in key areas. It’s hard to predict what the future will look like, but we know there will always be a demand for technology, communications, defense, food, land, etc.”

JD hurried into the salon, eager to hear my discovery. We both felt like we'd been running around in circles on this.