"Why is that?" Dana asked.

  She glanced over at her co-worker, whose typing hadn't broken stride the entire time we'd been there. "Well, I reached out to a couple of contacts I got at the union, and the feedback I got was that the Riccis have the kind of bad side that you do not want to be on."

  My belly jumped as I thought about how we'd waltzed into their offices and lied to their faces.

  "What exactly did you hear?" Dana asked.

  But Bixby put her hands out in a surrender motion. "Nothing concrete. Nothing to hang your hat on. Just enough murmurs that I thought it best to use an alias when I accessed the public records."

  That was smart. Wish we'd thought of that when we'd stormed their office.

  "Anyway." Bixby stood, pushing her chair away from the desk. "I hope that helps you kids out."

  We shook hands, and Dana mumbled some thanks and told her she'd see her on set next week, before we pushed through the doors of the office.

  Once back out on the sidewalk beside Dana and Ricky's car, Dana turned to me. "What did you think?"

  "Bixby needs a new decorator."

  Dana grinned. "I meant about the Riccis and their new architect. With the magic touch."

  "Gavetti." Ricky looked like he was turning the name over in his mind, committing it to memory.

  "Well," I said slowly, "I think it looks a lot like someone was greasing palms at City Hall."

  "Exactly!" Dana pointed a finger at me. "The Riccis probably bribed every official they could to get the project done."

  "And Gavetti looks the other way?" Ricky said.

  "Or helps," I offered. "The more greasy palms the better."

  "My dad wouldn't have any part of that," Ricky said hotly.

  Dana and I shared a glance. "No," I said slowly, "I don't believe he would."

  "Which is why the Riccis needed to get him off the project and Gavetti on," Dana added.

  "So they killed my mother." Ricky tone was flat.

  "Maybe it was meant as a warning," I offered, not liking the scary look in Ricky's eyes. "Maybe they set the fire thinking no one was home. You and your dad were at the movies, right? Officer Willis did say it was just bad luck Beth was there at the time."

  Ricky shook his head. "Luck or not, if they set that fire…" He trailed off, his voice menacing.

  I glanced at Dana, suddenly worried that Ricky looked like he might do something stupid. Like barge into the Riccis' offices and demand an explanation.

  "Look, there's no evidence they were involved at all," I said, playing devil's advocate to cool his emotions. "I mean, even if they bribed people to push the project along when Gavetti came on, maybe it was coincidental and had nothing to do with your mom's death."

  "She's right," Dana added. "And there's still the missing money."

  Ricky turned to her. "Missing money?"

  Oh. Right. Ricky hadn't been there for that conversation. I could see that fact dawning in Dana's eyes too. "Yeah," she said slowly. She looked to me for help.

  "We, uh, found out that your mom had taken some money out of the bank before she died," I said. I quickly filled him in on the missing forty-five thousand dollars, glossing over just how we'd gotten that tidbit of info. I finished by telling them both about my visit to Uncle Bart that morning to ask him about it.

  "He took it, didn't he." Ricky wasn't asking a question.

  "I don't know," I told him honestly. "Bart said she gave him five thousand but flat out denied knowing anything about the rest of it."

  "Because he's an honorable guy." His bitterness was evident.

  "You're right. He could be lying." In fact, I thought there was a great chance he was lying. "But there was something else he said." I glanced at Ricky.

  "What?" Dana asked.

  "Well, he got the impression that it was possible Beth had been seeing someone. A man."

  "What do you mean?" Ricky asked, his expression going dark.

  "You mean Beth was having an affair." Dana shook her head.

  I nodded. I looked at Ricky. "I'm sorry."

  He snorted. "I don't believe a word he says."

  "What did he say exactly?" Dana pressed.

  I quickly relayed the story Uncle Bart had given me, feeling more terrible for Ricky with every word. When I finished, both he and Dana were frowning.

  "Beth was cheating on Robert. I wonder if he knew?" Dana mused.

  "Of course he didn't know," Ricky said quickly. "Even if he did, so what?" he challenged.

  "If he did, he might be pretty upset at his wife," I said slowly.

  Ricky's eyes narrowed. "Don't tell me you're implying that my dad killed my mom in some fit of passion?"

  I shook my head. "I didn't say that."

  "There's no possible way my father is capable of that," Ricky went on. "He loved my mom. He was devoted to her."

  "Of course he was," Dana said gently. "I'm sure he and Lillian had nothing to do with this."

  "Lillian?" Ricky frowned. "Why are you bringing her into all this? She didn't even know my dad then."

  Dana and I exchanged a glance. Oh boy.

  Dana licked her lips. "I told Lillian I'd let her explain."

  "Explain what?" Ricky demanded.

  "Well…we found a photograph," she said carefully. "Of Robert and Lillian, together. It was taken in front of your dad's red Mustang."

  Ricky shook his head. "How is that possible? He didn't even have that car when they met."

  We didn't say anything for a moment, giving him time to process the implication. Then Dana said quietly, "We confronted her about it, Ricky. She confessed to the affair."

  "You confronted…?" He shook his head in disbelief. "This is ridiculous. I didn't grow up on Peyton Place, you know. My parents loved each other. You know my father. I can't believe you'd even think this way, Dana."

  Dana's face paled with distress. "I didn't want to believe it. I still don't. But they're just people, Ricky. People make bad choices sometimes."

  Ricky looked at me. "And you knew about this too?"

  I nodded. "Dana's right," I said, trying my best to soothe him. "Who knows what led them to the choices they might have made?"

  He closed his eyes, letting his head drop back for a second while he took a deep breath. "We're nipping this in the bud right now," he said at last. He yanked the driver's side door of his car open. "Let's go talk to my dad."

  * * *

  Half an hour later, I'd followed Dana's Tesla up the 101 to the Valley, and we were parked outside of Ricky's childhood home. It was a comfortable looking ranch house down a suburban street with mature trees and large yards—the idyllic Southern California neighborhood to raise a family in.

  Ricky silently led the way up a cement walkway into the house, Dana and me trailing behind. I could tell by the look on her face that the conversation on the ride over must have been a tense one. Her strawberry blonde brows were drawn together in concern, her pink lipstick partially nibbled away.

  "I'm back here!" Robert called as we followed Ricky inside. Despite the current stacked packing boxes and empty floor space, it was obvious that it had been a cozy home, with gleaming hardwood floors and a soft neutral color palette. I tried to imagine a young Ricky playing with his toys in a pool of sunlight beneath the large bay window while the aroma of the family dinner cooking laced the air. But the image left me sad when I remembered the house had been the one Beth had spent her final moments in.

  "Dad, it's me," Ricky called back. "Can I talk to you?"

  A moment later, a smiling Robert emerged from the hallway, whisking his hands together. "Well, this is a nice surprise." His gaze encompassed Dana and me. "What brings you by?"

  Ricky stood with his feet spread, in almost a combative stance. "Were you cheating on Mom?"

  I winced, thinking I might have opted for a more tactful approach. But Ricky's anger practically radiated off him, and I couldn't blame him for it.

  Robert's smile melted instantly. "What are you talking about?"

  "You know exactly what I'm talking about. Lillian." Ricky crossed his arms.

  Robert's gaze went to Dana, telling me that Lillian must have already told him about her conversation with her stepdaughter-in-law.

  "I won't have you saying anything against her," Robert warned.

  "Were you cheating on Mom with Lillian? Just answer the question."

  "I don't think I want to answer that," Robert told him. His combative stance was a mirror image of his son's. "It's really none of your business."

  "She was my mother." The pain in Ricky's voice was raw. "Don't you think I have a right to know?"

  Robert looked from Dana to me to Ricky, breathing heavily as if contemplating his next move. I suddenly wished I could shrink into the woodwork, feeling like I was distinctly intruding on a family moment.

  "Maybe I should just…" I trailed off, taking a step toward the door.

  "No." Robert shook his head. "No, you've obviously heard everything already too." He heaved a defeated sigh.

  "So it's true." Ricky looked like he'd been struck. "My whole life has been a lie."

  "That is not true!" Robert said, apparently having a little fight left in him after all. "Lillian has loved you like you were her own, and you know it. What happened between your mother and me doesn't change that."

  "What did happen?" Dana asked softly.

  Robert slowly sank down onto a wooden packing crate, dropping his head into his hands.

  Dana bit more lipstick off her lower lip. I rested a hand on her back in comfort, saying nothing. It was unclear how this was going to play out, but I knew Ricky had to see it through himself.

  "You have to understand, son." Robert's head hung low, his voice muffled. "Our marriage was on the rocks. It had been for some time."

  "I didn't see that," Ricky said.

  Robert looked up. "That's because we kept it from you. Neither one of us wanted to burden you with our problems. You were just a child."

  "Lillian," Ricky repeated, the single word an accusation.

  Robert sighed. "Yes, I did meet her before your mother passed."

  "You were seeing her."

  Robert nodded. "I didn't intend for things to go that way, but yes. We were friends. She was a very good listener, and your mother and I were having problems, and…and, well, Lillian was very comforting."

  "I'll bet," Ricky mumbled.

  "It wasn't like that," Robert spat back.

  "And the day you supposedly met Lillian?" Ricky fired back again. "On the pier?"

  Robert chewed the inside of his cheek, choosing his words. "It wasn't a chance meeting. It was planned. She…she wanted to meet you."

  Ricky shook his head, and I could see angry tears backing up behind his eyes.

  Robert must have seen them too, as his tone softened. "I'm not proud of my actions back then. Neither is Lillian. We never intended things to happen the way they did. It just…it's how things ended up."

  "And Mom," Ricky said, sniffing back unshed emotion. "Was she seeing someone else too?"

  Robert looked genuinely surprised at that. "How did you—?" He shook his head. "I guess you deserve the whole truth at this point."

  "I've deserved it my whole life."

  "You were a child. We were trying to protect you." Robert's voice took on a note of pleading as he shook his head again. "Yes. I suspected your mother had feelings for someone else."

  "You suspected." Ricky's sarcasm was thick.

  "A man knows his wife," Robert said simply. His eyes flitted to Dana. "Things were different, in small but unmistakable ways."

  "Do you know who it was?" Dana asked.

  Robert shook his head. "I'm not sure I wanted to know. Truthfully, I'm not sure that it mattered. It certainly doesn't now."

  "It matters to me," Ricky said.

  Robert's expression grew sad. "Your mother was a good person. We both made mistakes. When you cool off, you'll realize your mother gave you all of herself."

  I noticed the inflection in his statement and saw the pain behind it. Despite their problems, it seemed clear that Robert had cared about his wife.

  "The money that Beth took out of the bank," Dana said softly. "Is there any chance she might have been thinking of leaving you?"

  Robert's eyes were haunted. "The money. I was furious when I found out about the money. At first I assumed she'd taken it out to give to her no-good brother. He was always at the door with his hand out, and she never failed to give him what he wanted." His face twisted into a sneer that told me exactly what he thought of Uncle Bart.

  "Did you ask her about it?" I asked.

  Robert nodded. "She denied that it was for Bart this time. I didn't believe her. We argued." He stared off into the distance, remembering. When he spoke, his voice was very quiet. "That's when it came out that she knew about Lillian. I don't know how she found out, but she knew."

  "What happened?" Dana asked softly.

  "Is that when she decided to leave you?" Ricky asked. "Leave us." He added this last part in almost a whisper. Wordlessly, Dana reached for his hand.

  Robert's focus sharpened. "She would never have done that to you." He pulled in a long breath of air, as if trying to pull fortitude from somewhere. "Look, I confronted her about the money, and she confronted me with Lillian. We put it all out on the table that night, so to speak. And we stayed up most of the night talking. I know that's a quaint notion these days, but that's what we did. We didn't run out and hire divorce lawyers."

  "So she wasn't going to leave you?" I clarified. I glanced at Ricky, hoping that idea gave him some comfort.

  "No." Robert shook his head. "In the end, we agreed to give things between us another try. For your sake."

  Ricky took a moment to digest that. "What about Lillian? She's still in the picture. She's been in the picture."

  "I stopped seeing her," Robert said. "I explained everything to her, that I couldn't just throw away my family, and she understood. She just wanted what was best for me, and she respected my decision."

  "What about Beth?" Dana asked. "What about this person she'd been seeing?"

  Robert was quiet for a beat. "Maybe it was cowardly, but I never asked her about the other man. I didn't really want to know at that point. What would it have done, other than erect another roadblock between us? I just wanted to put it all in the past and move forward with Beth." His face crumpled. "But I never got the chance. She died less than a week later."

  "How awful," Dana murmured.

  I had to agree. It was awful. A tragic ending to what could have been a happy story.

  At least for Robert and Beth.

  Ricky's words about Lillian echoed in my head. She had been in the picture all along. Robert had broken it off with Lillian, Beth had died in the fire almost immediately afterward, and Robert had apparently gone back to Lillian and wound up marrying her and living happily ever after. It wasn't much of a stretch to connect those dots. My eyes met Dana's, and I wondered if she was thinking the same disconcerting thoughts.

  "What about the Ricci Brothers?" Ricky asked, clearly going for full disclosure now that he had his dad talking.

  "Who?" Robert's eyes hit the ground, avoiding his son's, I noticed.

  "Ricci Brothers Construction," Ricky repeated. "We talked about them on the phone."

  "You were working on the Sunrise Towers hotel with them at the time of the fire," Dana reminded him.

  He nodded. "I was." His gaze went from Dana to Ricky. "Why? What do you know about the Riccis?"

  "I want to know what you know about the Riccis," Ricky said.

  "That was a long time ago, son."

  "Why did you leave the project after Beth died?" Dana asked point blank.

  Robert stared down at his clasped hands. "Beth never did like me working for them. She didn't trust them. She said they seemed too crude and at the same time too slick."

  She sounded like she'd been a good judge of character.

  "She wanted me to leave the project almost from the start," he went on. "Remember that red Mustang?"

  Ricky nodded. We all knew it well at that point.

  "It was a gift from Dominic Ricci. A bonus, as he called it. I was thrilled, but your mother, well, she thought it came with strings attached."

  "Did it?" Ricky asked.

  But Robert just shrugged. "Your mother made me give it back. She wanted me to quit the whole project. We argued about it often, but there was a lot of money in it." He took a deep breath before continuing. "However, as the project went on, I agreed with her. I didn't like the way they did business either."

  "Why?" Dana asked. "How did they do business?"

  Robert's eyes were still on his clasped hands. "I suspected they were cutting corners. They were over budget. And I knew they weren't following the plans I'd drawn up, at least not the way we'd originally talked about."

  "Did you tell anyone?" Dana asked.

  "Look, a lot of builders do this. Make changes based on cost as the project goes on."

  "Or they'll circumvent building codes," I suggested.

  Robert said nothing, but the way he didn't deny it made me more certain that the Riccis had indeed added some grease to palms when it came to inspections and obtaining Certificates of Occupancy.

  "Why didn't you do something?" Ricky's voice had the angry edge back.

  "I didn't have any hard proof they were doing anything illegal," Robert said. "Like I said, it's not unheard of to revise plans. I could hardly storm into the property owner's office, pointing fingers and screaming accusations." He paused. "I did go to Dominic privately to express my concerns. After all, it was my professional reputation on the line as the project architect."

  "What was his response?" I asked.

  Robert shrugged. "He waved off the concerns. Said it was standard operating procedure. Promised that if I 'worked well' with him, he'd throw a lot of business my way in the future."

  "That clearly didn't happen," Dana pointed out.

  "No." Robert averted his eyes.

  "Did you leave the project, or did Dominic ask you to leave?" Dana asked quietly.

  "I left," he said quickly. "When Beth died and I had to take care of you and figure out how we were going to rebuild our lives." But again I noticed his eyes were not meeting any other pairs in the room.