Chapter 8 - The Wedding Ring
Grant swore he hadn't tied anybody up.
"I just opened the dressing room," he told Ortiz. "Someone else was supposed to handle the woman."
"Who?" the detective asked.
"I never saw a face. They paid in cash."
Ortiz didn't argue. She had the payment records and Grant's phone preserved for forensic review. There was no need to give him room to invent a better story.
In an empty guest room, Tessa sat while a medic rechecked her wrists. Adrian knocked before entering. She smiled weakly at the small courtesy.
"You have every reason to walk away," she told him.
"From you?"
"From the mess I brought."
"You didn't create the mess. Somebody shoved you into it." He sat beside her. "I'm sorry I doubted you."
"You asked a fair question. You just didn't like the answer."
They held hands for a minute. Then Tessa remembered the ring. "The person behind the flowers wore a black stone. Your dad has one. So does Grant?"
"Grant doesn't. But my father's office keeps replicas in a display case. The old Rowan family signet was used to stamp contracts."
Adrian's stomach turned. Somebody had wanted Tessa to see the stone. Somebody had wanted Gideon either blamed or protected by the confusion.
Downstairs, Alisa confronted her husband with Walter's letter. Gideon read the first line and went very still.
"This is cruel," he said. "You're bringing a dead man's private fears into our son's wedding."
"My father believed you locked the gate."
"Walter had enemies."
"Did you?"
"Alisa, please."
She slipped off her wedding band and set it on the piano. "For once in our marriage, give me an answer without telling me how much you love me first."
Gideon stared at the ring. "I did lock that gate," he said.
May you like
Alisa stopped breathing.
"But I wasn't the one who started the fire."
