“Uh-huh.”
My face froze, unease crawling up my spine. “Court, he didn’t do it. He didn’t go upstairs until after nine thirty-seven. The police only made him come to the ballroom the morning after because they wanted to know if he saw or heard anything strange. Not because he was a suspect.”
“Okay, maybe all of that’s true. But I do feel pressed to point out that anyone can mess with a broken clock and put the hands back to whatever time they choose. Like to before they came upstairs,” she said, opening the floor up beneath me. “But if I’m wrong and Alex— The same Alex who was just as threatened by Omma’s dying plot to send proof of their jewelry theft to the police. And the same Alex who must’ve lost his billions in terrible circumstances too, or Rhodes wouldn’t have said he was supporting a family offiveall on his own—”
“Hold on—”
“If that Alex is telling you the truth, then it’ll be easy to prove,” she stated. “There will be an outgoing call to his aunt on the night he said and at the time he said, and if there isn’t, then he didn’t go upstairs to talk to Auntie. He went upstairs for another reason, and then he lied to your face about it. And thanks to a couple dumbass cops and a broken clock, he’s been getting away with that lie.
“Smart, charming, disarming people like Alexander Montgomery tend to be very good at looking innocent, and isn’t it lucky that he started being all of those things the day after your mother died—when up till the day before, he was still acting like an ass.”
Stiffly, I turned to Alex, my gaze latching on to the handsome, smiling man laughing with my niece.
“And what if it goes even deeper than that?” Courtney continued—unaware she was pulling my heart out through my butt. “I thought it was odd when I first heard your recordings, but the more I thought about it, the stranger it was. Every time you questioned one of the guys, they immediately lied, shifted blame to someone else, and then confessed to a lesser sin when caught in that lie.
“Rhodes turned you on to Agassi and his fraud. Micahhappenedto see Mrs. Finley sneaking around upstairs. And then it was,yeah, sure, I lied, but I was only in Omma’s office deleting the evidence that would’ve put me in prison.Andforsure, she stole seven fucking billion dollars from me, but I got over it.
“They just keep pointing the blame every which way except at each other or themselves, even though the people who hated Omma most in this world were always sleeping right down the hall from her. Honestly, they likely would’ve been the main and only suspects from the start if it wasn’t for a conveniently thrown anniversary party that filled their house with cops, suspects, witnesses, and a bloody knife that found its way into the bag of a woman who had a very public shouting match with Omma the last time she saw her,” she cried.
“And another thing—”
I hung up.
Ending the call, I quickly turned off my phone—reducing it to nothing but a black brick.
“Oh, yeah, good idea,” I said, raising my voice. “I can pick you up— Hello? Hello?”
I turned on Alex, beaming away. “Alex, my phone died. Mind if I call Courtney back on yours?”
“Sure.” He picked it up off the table, typed in the code, and tossed it to me without hesitation. “Oh, did you remember to order my tom yum goong?”
“Of course.” I was already in his recent calls, swiping through as fast as possible without being frantic. “Told them to slide me some of that sweet, sweet mango sticky rice for my man too. They didn’t want to do it at first, but I bribed them.”
Alex chuckled. “Did you happen to bribe them with the stated price for the mango rice?”
“Works every time.”
His chuckle rolled into a belly laugh. “Well, then, I owe you a thank-you.”
I scrolled faster—still stuck in the calls from the week before.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.” I forced a laugh. “Just trying to remember the last number. You know, all those experts might be right about screens and technology. The impact on our memories and attention span is...”
The date of the party shown proudly on the screen, where it did indeed log a call from Alex to his aunt... in the morning. There was no other incoming or outgoing call between them for the rest of the day. There was no call between them that night.
“Shocking,” I finished, meeting his eyes over the screen.
You lied to me. You didn’t go upstairs to make a call, Alexander Montgomery, so why did you feel the need to lie about where you were in your own house?
Unless you were somewhere you shouldn’t be.
Quickly, I hit the phone app and tapped in Courtney’s number. The forced smile remained on my lips as I backed away, breaking free of his gaze as the call picked up.
“Hello?”
“Court, it’s me.”
