Rhys jumped to his feet and paced. Uncertainty turned over in his gut, and anxiety percolated in his blood. “Does that help us?”
“Actually, yes,” Vivian said. “One person is causing all of this. It’s good news.”
“Then why don’t you sound like it’s good news?”
She paused.
Everything that had been curdling in the back of his mind landed on him like a lead weight. “What?”
Wes arched his eyebrows.
“Mason Marlow doesn’t have an alibi for the fire,” Vivian explained. “Neither does Olivia.”
His mind raced. “What about Tabitha?”
“Not only does Tabitha have an alibi, but her alibi is a gold-plated one. She was with Peyton and Diane Lowry all night long. Spent the night in their guest house. Never left their residence.”
“That doesn’t mean shit, Viv, and you know it.” Rhys didn’t know how to connect the dots, but his intuition screamed Tabitha’s name. “Tabitha is obsessed with Jules.”
“She’s low-key obsessed with the Lowrys,” Viv countered. “All of them.”
“Hard disagree, boss. Jules is her pinnacle.”
“Tabitha Shade wants fame and money and attention.”
Rhys paced the viewing room’s tight space. “Tabitha Shade would die for the Lowry name. Simple. End of story.”
“Which does not mean Jules. She’s done everything in her powerto be famous, but so have ninety-nine percent of the people who are in Hollywood with stars in their eyes. She’s not an arsonist.”
“And Mason Marlow is?”
“He played one for Netflix—”
“I’m being serious, Viv.”
“You want to loop this back to the stalker? Tell me what Tabitha would gain from Jules retiring,” Vivian demanded. “What would she gain from a house fire? Nothing. Mason Marlow? He still has a horse in this race.”
He balled a hand into a fist. “Jules isn’t a horse race.”
“But sheisa brand. A company. One with entities and investors, with parts that we know nothing about.”
“I know enough.” He glanced into the interrogation room and realized it was empty.
“Here’s something you don’t know jack about: there’s something more going on with the dissolution of Jules and Mason’s relationship—”
“I know everything I need to know about that.”
“Even if you did, you don’t know Mason has been shopping for a cutthroat legal team with enough balls to go up against the Lowry family.”
“Any attorney stupid enough to do that is too stupid to be in court, sitting across from them. Nothing will come of it except for legal bills.”
“Be that as it may, it’s something to consider. If her mansion is community property—”
“It’s not community property,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Then it burns to the ground, and Mason collects a check and doesn’t have to deal with the delay of listing it and waiting for the sale to close.”
Rhys dropped his head back and stared at the low-paneled ceiling. “How would her house be community property? They didn’t get married!”
