I tried to remember who else I might’ve seen chatting with Richard.
A vague memory emerged, of neighbor Tim in an enthusiastic discussion with the younger man. Could be nothing, but at least it was a start. But first, I had more important business.
Chapter 44
Private notes: Detective Callum Baxter (LAPD)
Date: Feb 23
Time: 09:06
Bastard must’ve been born under a lucky star. The partial fingerprint on the fucking critical engine component isn’t enough for a match.
Time: 19:09
Perez thinks we missed something. Because either Tavish Advani is a master criminal…or we’re looking in the wrong place. I can’t see it. Advani fits every single parameter. He has the motive. He had the means—access to Virna’s house and vehicles. And he’s got a track record of dead lovers.
Man is also the kind of smart that’s dangerous.
Virna had no enemies, and her son has his own millions. He didn’t need to kill Mom to get his hands on the inheritance. There are no other suspects.
Chapter 45
My wife lay unmoving, but the tube down her throat was gone, the ventilator silent.
“She doesn’t need it anymore,” said the senior nurse who was there when I arrived, her face holding a smile. “That’s excellent improvement, given her injuries. Your wife’s a real fighter.” She made a note on the chart.
“Do you think the doctors will bring her out of the coma soon?”
“They’ve already started the process—her team is very concerned about the brain injury and wants to assess her while she’s conscious.”
“That’s from the stab wound to her head?” I said, unable to comprehend how Bobby could’ve done that to the sister he’d kissed so lovingly on the forehead before our engagement party.
Can’t believe you got married by Elvis, kiddo. What a story for your grandkids.
The nurse glanced up from the chart as Bobby’s affectionate comment floated to the surface of my memories. “No”—she frowned—“from the blow she took to the skull.”
The words reverberated around my own skull.
“Could you tell me more?” I asked, thinking back to that first conversation with the surgeon, when I hadn’t asked for details. Later,when I had wanted to know, the Kumars had arrived before Dr.Chen finished going over everything. “Truth is, I wasn’t…all there, immediately afterward. I didn’t absorb what I should have.”
Expression gentling, she pointed to the bandage on the left side of Diya’s skull. “She was either hit with something there, or fell against a very hard surface. She hasn’t shown any signs of a buildup of pressure, so her prognosis is excellent, but traumatic brain injuries can be unpredictable.”
There was another rock nearby. Blood and hair on it.
Sound telescoped into an echoing void as I remembered what Kamal had said about the murder weapon that had taken Ani’s life. A rock, smashed into her tiny head. It couldn’t be a fucking coincidence that Diya had been attacked the same way.
Had that been the start, the knife only coming into play when Bobby realized two adult women were a lot harder to smash to death with a rock than a little girl? But for even that to work…the elder Prasads must’ve already been dead. Else the four of them could’ve brought Bobby down—and at least one would’ve been able to call emergency services.
He must’ve separated the group somehow, attacked them one by one.
“…poor thing, though,” the nurse was saying when I tuned back in. “To wake to what’s happened. At least she has you and her sister-in-law.”
“It’s going to be tough,” I managed to say past the roar in my head, “but we’ll get through it together.”
I took Diya’s hand after the nurse left. “I love you. You’re my one and only, Diya. Always and forever. If you can hear me, then know that when I married you, I had no idea who you were or any inclination of your family’s wealth.”
She was the most impulsive decision I’d ever made.
