Page 48 of Murder Notes

“No,” I confirm. “I do not.”

“Are you thinking a setup? Blackmail?”

“It feels like a cover-up of some sort.”

“This is a difficult question, Lilah. Are we talking cover-up by local officials?”

“It feels bigger than that.”

“Well then, screw the confession. Spare me the investigative details you’ll report later. Do we have grounds to claim jurisdiction?”

“We could, but what if I’m right? What if this is a series of assassinations? Assassins are hired. I not only want to catch the assassin, I want to know who hired this one, and that means letting them believe this cover-up is working.”

“You really believe this is an assassin?”

“Yes.”

“All right then. I’ll give you the benefit of your exceptional track record. What are you suggesting?”

“Ideally, we get to this suspect before he ends up dead and blamed for all the murders. Or even the local ones to push us out of New York. We get him. We talk to him. We convince him to work with us with the promise of protection.”

“We can lend the locals immediate resources.”

“I’d rather those resources be funneled through me and quietly. That way the locals believe I’m bowing out of this case but hanging around for personal reasons I’ll create.”

“The locals are your people, Lilah.”

It’s a statement, but it’s clear that he means it to be a question. “Not all of them.”

“A reasonable answer,” he says. “I’ll assign you a point person.”

“I want Jeff Landers. He’s already helping me.”

“He’s not my typical choice for point man, but consider it done. That said, let’s be clear: I’m not shutting down our local investigation on this end. I cannot have us back off a series of murder investigations and have your end amount to some sort of localized scandal, but Jeff will make sure there is no crossover.”

“Understood.”

“And I need to ask a question and have you answer it quickly and honestly. People are dead. More could die. Are you too close to this to do your job properly, Agent Love?”

“I am not,” I say firmly. “In fact, I’m uniquely positioned to recognize a problem someone else would not see.”

“And what happens if you find out that someone you love is involved?”

“I’ll do my job,” I vow.

He is silent. One beat. Two. Three. Until finally he says, “Make sure you do. Communicate. Update me tomorrow.” He ends the call and his question replays in my mind, taunting in a way not even Eddie achieved tonight: What happens if you find out someone you love is involved?

What indeed?

My mind turns to the easiest betrayal to swallow. Eddie and his hunger for power and a path to the higher ranks of the local elite. Alexandra’s stupidity, considering she and her money actually married the man. Of course, Pocher’s long-rumored corruption, in both the private and public sectors, has never been proven, but after looking into his eyes, I know at least some of the stories are true. Now that he’s involved with my father, I don’t like what that says about my father, but political misconduct doesn’t equate to murder. I hope.

And then there’s my brother. I’d been angry with Andrew inside the house, but the minute we were out here alone, our conversation was easy, and it had felt just like old times. We’d felt like us again. His answers had been perfect. And yet, I go back to the existence of Samantha in his life. No matter what he says, she doesn’t fit him. But then he thinks Kane doesn’t fit me. Kane does fit me, all too well, and too often, which is exactly the problem. Kane doesn’t scare me. I scare me when I’m with Kane. He connects with the parts of me I don’t want to exist. He accepts them and makes it easier for me to accept them. He makes me embrace the real me that only he knows. That’s why I can’t be around him. But that brings me back to Andrew. If he doesn’t know me, then maybe I don’t know him. I don’t like that idea. I don’t like the chatter in my head that says the bad has only just begun.

I need to find answers. I need to find Woods. He has the answers. And so does someone else. Kane might claim he’s not his father’s successor, but I’ve seen things. I know things. This is Kane’s territory. He owns this town, as his father had before him. And I’d once asked him how his father was as dirty as he was, and yet East Hampton Village, his home, remained so peaceful. He’d told me his father’s cardinal rules: Don’t work where you play. Don’t kill where you rest your head.

In my determination to stay removed from Kane, I haven’t let myself tap into how well I know him. Kane isn’t behind this murder. That means Woods really did randomly choose to kill a woman that just happened to be Kane’s employee on the very night that I arrived. Or someone wants Kane, and myself, to believe that, to keep one or both of us out of their business. If I’m right on the latter, Woods will be framed for all the murders. And my family is either involved or being used to set this up.

Holy fuck. Holy hell. Holy fuck.