“Can we focus?” Atticus asked. “I have research to get back to and I can’t do that until we figure out who’s after Dad.”
“I was entirely focused,” Asa said. “In case anybody was wondering.”
“We weren’t,” several people chorused.
“Rude,” Asa muttered.
“What did you find, Lola?” Aiden asked, his exasperation obvious.
“Like I said, most people were dead or scattered to the far reaches of the Earth, but then I found something. The coroner. I figured if there was something weird going on, like a cover-up, he’d know all about it.”
“And did he?” Adam asked.
“Yeah, did you talk to him?” Lucas asked.
“No. He has dementia. He’s in a care facility and they wouldn’t let me talk to him because I’m not family.” Thomas watched as people all around the room seemed to deflate with disappointment.
“So, how did you find out it was a murder-suicide if you didn’t talk to the coroner?” Calliope asked, leaning forward, sounding excited.
“I talked to the nurse. She mentioned that nobody ever comes to see the patient, even his family because he was a real asshole and apparently a bit of a hoarder. She then casually mentioned that they disliked him so much that they had pretty much just locked the door to his house and never went back.”
“But you did?” Calliope prodded. “You went to his house, didn’t you?”
“I did. It was just like the nurse said. Filled to the brim with boxes and papers and notebooks and photographs. Including the real Mulvaney crime scene photos.”
“We need to get our hands on everything in that house,” Aiden said.
“I figured as much,” Lola said before hopping from the counter and grabbing her phone. She panned the camera around the room, showing dozens of boxes. “He lived about an hour away from you. I’m already here. I’ll drop a pin with the address.”
“Aren’t you worried people will ask questions if we all just swarm into some old guy’s house?” Cree asked.
“The man lived alone on six acres,” Lola said. “His nearest neighbors are livestock. Trust me, nobody is gonna notice.” She gave the boys and then Thomas a look. “I’d leave the Prada at home, though. This place isn’t going to win any good housekeeping awards. Dress accordingly.”
“Is she saying those are her casual clothes?” Felix asked, then looked at Avi. “She’s perfect. Seriously. Hot, smart, stylish. Can we keep her?”
Cricket snorted, then looked at Lola. “Girl, run.”
Lola cackled. “See you soon, Mulvaneys and assorted Mulvaney associates.”
Thomas and Aiden rolled to a stop just outside of a sagging aluminum gate and a fence made of chicken wire which now sat flat enough to drive over. Once upon a time the gate had probably served as a deterrent to anyone who dared to trespass, but now—like the fence—it was barely clinging to its post. Aiden hopped from the passenger seat and gripped the free end, grunting as he hauled it from the rut it made in the ground to drag it open. How had Lola opened this herself?
Once the gate was swung wide, Thomas drove inside, the other vehicles trailing in behind them like a convoy. Not everyone had come along. There was no need. The coroner could only provide a very narrow scope, if any at all. He was clearly not the man they were looking for and there was no guarantee they’d find anything to even tie him to the blackmailing. But Lola seemed to think it was important for them to at least see the mess with their own eyes.
So, they’d decided to divide and conquer.
Jericho and Atticus had stayed behind with his boys in case they needed to run down any leads. Adam and Noah were at Calliope’s beck and call as she tried to digitally run down this AlwaysChristmas character Mac and Archer had stumbled upon to see if it was all a bizarre coincidence, another fucking problem, or the man they were looking for.
The twins—along with Felix and Zane—had all but insisted on coming along. Aiden feared Cricket was right, that Felix and Zane were already wondering if maybe parenthood was something theywereinterested in, and if so, could Lola be the one. It was all too weird for Aiden. For a thousand reasons.
Lucas and August were there as well at Aiden’s insistence. Lucas’s gift would be invaluable. It had practically taken an act of congress to get him to leave the girls; he only said yes when Mac and Archer agreed to babysit.
Aiden smiled to himself. For a group of psychopaths, they were surprisingly gentle with the girls. It was like when a gorilla was given a kitten. The boys were both fascinated with them and overly gentle, fearful of accidentally injuring them. Well, all but Adam, who played with them like they were puppies, rolling around on the floor until they were squealing with laughter that echoed through the house and made Thomas smile. Aiden was grateful for anything that made Thomas happy like that.
And he was relieved Lucas had acquiesced, reluctantly or not. They needed him. They’d all have targets on their backs until this was solved. And this house felt important. While the coroner wasn’t the blackmailer, whoever that was must have been there at some point. How else could he have gotten a hold of the photos?
Aiden hated this shit. It felt like the answer was…right there, just out of reach. This vague notion like they had all the pieces but not the picture on the box.
The coroner’s house was just as Lola described, a ramshackle Victorian-style farmhouse that looked as if it had fallen from the sky into the middle of a desolate nowhere. Which was good for them. No prying eyes to watch what they did.
