'Lucy seems . . . comfortable,' Stevie said as they walked up to the front door.

'She's not as rigid as you might think,' he murmured.

'Just be careful, JD,' Stevie warned. 'Hyatt's watching you.'

'I know,' was all he said, then knocked on Mrs Bennett's door.

'First name is Helen,' Stevie murmured just before the door swung open, revealing a chicly dressed woman who'd undergone way too much plastic surgery.

'Can I help you?' Helen asked.

'Yes, ma'am. I'm Detective Mazzetti and this is Detective Fitzpatrick. We're here to talk to you about your ex-husband, Dr Russell Bennett.'

Helen looked confused. 'They sent detectives? I never expected that. Come in.'

Stevie swallowed her frown. 'What were you expecting, ma'am?' she asked.

Helen led them into a very nicely furnished living room. 'Well, I expected a phone call at the most. You'll want the details for your report. Let me get the papers for you.'

'Wait.' Stevie gently held the woman's arm. 'Why do you think we're here?'

'Because of the fraud report I started with the bank this morning,' she said, then frowned. 'But you're not.' Her expression changed to panic. 'Is it one of my boys?'

'Sshh,' Stevie soothed. 'Not your kids. This isn't about your kids.'

Weakly, Helen sank onto a sofa. 'Thank God. Then what is it? What kind of detectives did you say you were?'

'We're from Homicide,' Stevie said. 'We're here about your ex-husband.'

Helen Bennett's face lost all its remaining color. 'Russell? He's dead?'

'We believe so, ma'am.' Stevie sat next to her. JD took a chair across the room.

'You believe so?' Helen repeated, her voice hollow and shocked. 'What does that even mean, you believe so? Is he or isn't he?'

'We're still working on a final identification,' Stevie said gently. 'But scars and bone breaks match. Your ex-husband was beaten too badly for a visual identification.'

Helen covered her mouth with a hand that shook. 'Oh my God.'

'I need to ask you some questions, Mrs Bennett, and they might not be comfortable ones. For that I apologize. Can you tell me about the fraud report?'

'Our bank funds were stolen. Russell kept a bank account for the boys, separate from my alimony and child support. It was for big, special things.'

'And you tried to use that account?' Stevie prompted.

'Yes. My oldest son is twelve today. I used the debit card for his gift this morning, but the card was denied. The bank said the account was empty. I called Russ, but only got his voicemail. I was furious. I thought he'd cleaned out the account again.'

'Again? He'd done this before?'

'A few times, if one of his floozies wanted something expensive.'

'When did you last speak with your ex-husband, ma'am?'

'Two weeks ago. Our youngest had a special recital and wanted Russ there.'

'Did Dr Bennett go to the recital?'

'No. He had some excuse, as usual. This time he was meeting a new client.'

'Which day did you talk to him?'

'Sunday, two weeks ago. Russ said he'd come, but then he called a few hours before the recital and said he'd gotten tied up. My son cried himself to sleep that night.'

'What time did he call you?'

'It was just after one. I should have known something was wrong.'

'Why?'

'Normally he just wouldn't show. But this time he called, said he was tied up and told me to tell the boys he loved them.' Tears rolled down her face. 'I told him to go to hell.'

Stevie patted her hand. 'Did he call your house phone or your cell?' Proof of the call would cement Lucy's alibi. Lucy would have been halfway to LA by then.

'My cell. Do his parents know?'

'No. We're going to tell them when we leave here.'

She nodded uncertainly. 'I should call them first.'

'We'd appreciate it if you wouldn't,' Stevie said softly. 'This is a police matter now. We need to talk to them. Do you know of anyone who wanted to hurt your husband?'

'Only every woman he two-timed, every patient he cheated. The only people who'll cry about his death are his parents and my boys and me for their pain.'

'Tell me about his patients. You say he cheated them?'

'He'd been sued more than once for shoddy work. If you want to make a list of people who hated him, you're going to need a lot bigger pencil.'

'Do you know any names of disgruntled patients?' Stevie asked.

'None from after our divorce, only patients from five years ago who actually sued.'

'I can get those names,' Stevie said. 'Ma'am, where were you on Sunday night?'

Her smile was thin-lipped. 'Same place I am every night. Right here, with my sons. And no, I can't prove it. Am I a suspect?'

'Right now everyone is,' Stevie said, 'until we can cross them off the list.'

'I wouldn't kill him. I hated him for what he did to me, but he was still the father of my sons, and even if he was a lousy father, they needed him.' Her thin smile grew bitter. 'Besides, now that he's gone, my alimony dries up, as does any child support.'

'There will be life insurance,' Stevie said and watched Helen's eyes flash.

'No, there won't be. Russell stopped payments on his policy last year. He said he could barely afford his malpractice premiums. I'll have to find a job and daycare and . . . Oh God.' Her panic returned. 'I can't believe this. How am I going to tell my boys?'

Stevie took out her card and wrote a name on it. 'This is a child psychologist who specializes in kids who've lost a parent violently. He's good. My cell is on there too, if you remember anything that might help.' She looked at JD, who had been surreptitiously checking the display on his own cell phone. 'Do you have anything for Mrs Bennett?'

'Just a few things,' JD said. 'When you told him to go to hell, what did he say?'

Helen looked away. 'He said "That's where I'm headed." I didn't understand then.'

'Why would you?' JD asked, understanding in his voice. 'Do you remember anything special about that call? Any sounds? Anything you were thinking?'

Helen drew a breath. 'There were birds. Seabirds. I could hear them. I accused Russ of ditching our son's recital to have brunch at the harbor with one of his floozies.'

'And what did he say to that?'

'Nothing. He hung up on me.'

'Did he mention the name of the client he planned to see?' he asked.

'No. I assumed it was a woman for that reason, too. I should have known something was wrong, should have called 911.' New tears began to roll down her face.

JD took the chair next to her. 'I'm sorry, Mrs Bennett, but just a few more questions. Tell me, how did you first meet Dr Bennett?' he asked, in a way that told Stevie that he knew something.

Helen hesitated. 'I was his and his sister's babysitter,' she said and Stevie had to fight the urge to blink in surprise. 'I was home from college for the summer and earning every cent I could for school. But we didn't really meet until years later, at a party. We were introduced by a mutual friend and were so surprised to find we knew each other from before.'

'So you grew up in Anderson Ferry too,' JD said.

'No, I grew up here. My parents divorced and my mother moved there to share a house with a friend, when I was in high school. She moved out a few years later. Why?'

'Just gathering the facts, ma'am,' JD said. 'If you think of anything else, please don't hesitate to tell us.'

Helen haltingly walked them to the door. 'His parents will be devastated. Even though he was a disappointment to them, they loved him.'

JD paused at the door. 'One more thing. What would you say if I told you that Lucy Trask found your husband's body in the park behind her apartment this morning?'

Helen staggered back a step. 'What? Lucy found him? Oh my God. Poor Lucy.'

'Dr Trask was also threatened,' JD said. 'Who might hate them both?'

'Oh my God,' Helen repeated, horrified, then forced herself to calm. 'If Lucy was threatened, I can't see any of Russell's floozies doing it. We all love Lucy.'

'Because she broke his nose,' Stevie said.

'Partly. And partly because she stood up to him when he hit her friend.' Helen sighed wearily. 'Russell was a terrible husband. He'd hit me when he got angry. I stayed for the boys, but when I found out about the cheating . . . well, I couldn't stay, for me. If Lucy was threatened, it wasn't by one of the women.'

'Thank you, Mrs Bennett,' JD said. 'We are very sorry for your loss.'

Stevie waited until they were back at their cars. 'Now how did you know she had lived in Anderson Ferry?' she demanded. 'That woman had no accent.'

'Lucy texted me with it while you were asking Helen questions. I'd asked her to tell me everything she remembered about Helen Bennett, but she didn't know much. I don't know how she found about this.' He tapped on the car window and Lucy rolled it down.

'Well?' she asked.

'She lived in Anderson Ferry for a short time,' JD said. 'How did you know?'

Lucy handed him her phone. 'Facebook. You can find people who went to your high school. I was looking for people on this courier list when I got a what-if hunch. I checked a few years further back and saw her listed as Helen Anderson Bennett.'

'Wow,' Stevie said. 'Really good work, Lucy. How many others did you find?'

'Of the forty names on this list, so far there are twelve. That includes Gwyn, Brandi and Helen. Plus me.'

'That's a whole helluva lot,' Stevie said. 'Why?'

Lucy shrugged. 'Don't know. Ages range from Helen, at fifty-two, to a girl younger than Brandi. She's barely eighteen. I wrote down the names for you.'

Stevie nodded. 'Fine by me. You two go to the parents and I'll start running backgrounds on these Anderson Ferry names. Even if Mrs B thinks they're all members of the I-love-Lucy club, one of these women could have knocked him off.'

Lucy coughed. 'The I-love-Lucy club?'

'She says her husband's floozies think you're the bomb,' JD said dryly. 'We need to get moving. Oh, I almost forgot.' He pulled a small silver gift box from his pocket. 'This is for Cordelia. I wanted to give it to her myself, but . . . Tell her it's from me.'

Stevie smiled up at him, noting from the corner of her eye the look on Lucy's face curiosity and a touch of awe. 'You got her a graduation present? Thank you, JD.'

He frowned for a minute. 'You know, on second thought, you may want to check it before you give it to her. It seemed like a good idea at the time.'

Stevie waited until they'd driven away before opening the box. She sucked in a stunned breath. Oh. Tears sprang to her eyes as she lifted a silver locket from the box. The locket was open, revealing Cordelia's school picture on one side and Paul's face on the other. Nestled against the cotton was a small framed photo of a dirty but grinning Paul and JD a copy of the photo from which JD had cut Paul's face.

Stevie remembered the day the picture was taken. The men were playing baseball, the women watching. JD's wife had still been alive. So was my son. The pain that never died stabbed deep, taking her breath away. She missed her son, her husband. Every day of her life. But as she preached to her grief groups, life went on. And so do we.

She swiped her thumb over the photo, a caress of Paul's smiling face. Cordy would love the locket. It was so thoughtful of JD. Lucy Trask was a lucky woman.

Newport News, Virginia, Monday, May 3, 5.15 P.M.

Clay Maynard knocked at the door of the small house, hoping his luck would be better with Evan Reardon's wife who'd left him than it had been trying to track down Margo Winchester. The house belonged to Frank Parker, Evan's father-in-law.

The father-in-law opened the door, suspicion on his face. 'Yes?'

'My name is Clay Maynard. I'm an investigator. I need to talk to Sandy Reardon about her husband.'

Parker's expression darkened. 'She's got nothing to say about him.' He started to close the door and Clay knew he had to get the man's attention.

'Wait. I'm concerned about the safety of her children.'

Parker's face flashed pure fury. 'You take these kids over my dead body.'

'Whoa.' Clay held up one hand. 'Who said anything about taking her kids?'

Parker's eyes narrowed. 'You're not from Children's Services?'