Well, Ryan, your time is up.

I pulled up to Ryan’s house on Steel Acres Ranch. He hadn’t called, and I was determined to make sure he was okay. I’d called his cell first, but he hadn’t answered, so here I was, going after him like a bitch in heat.

That wasn’t true, of course, but that’s what this situation would look like from his angle. In truth, I was simply concerned. The last thing on my mind was sex.

I walked to his door and knocked.

Ricky ran to the window next to the door, wagging his tail.

“Hey, Rick,” I said through the door.

When no one answered, I knocked again and rang the doorbell. After a few minutes, I tried the doorknob, and to my astonishment, it opened. It wasn’t like Ryan to be so careless. My nerves lurched, and I drew my gun, just in case.

“Hey, there. Where’s Ryan?” I petted Ricky’s soft head and then let him out the back door to do his business.

I checked the bedroom and all the other rooms. Nothing suspicious. Unfortunately, Ryan was nowhere to be found either.

I jerked when my phone rang. “Detective Lee.”

“Ruby, hi.”

Ryan! “Where are you? I didn’t recognize the number.”

“I’m calling from Talon’s landline. I left my phone at home.”

“You also left your door unlocked.”

“I did?”

“Yeah, you did. I’m here now. I let the dog out.”

“Oh, thanks. What are you doing there?”

“Looking for you. I was worried. You said you’d call me today, and when you didn’t, I feared the worst.”

“I’m sorry, baby. I’ve been kind of stuck in my own head. Things are still a little fuzzy.”

I could understand that, given recent events. “It’s okay. I’m just glad you’re all right.”

“I’m fine. Talon and I have been doing some research, and I wanted to tell you that you were right about your hunch. About Anna Shane.”

Anna Shane? I searched my memory. Right. Ryan’s ex-girlfriend. “Oh?”

“We found some documents. Apparently my deranged mother didn’t think Anna was good enough for me and got my father—or rather, the Steel Family Trust, which none of us knew existed—to purchase their ranch. I had no idea we owned the Shane ranch. None of us did.”

“Wow. Interesting.” My mind reeled. He’d said the Shanes moved only recently, which would have been after Brad Steel’s death. Was Wendy Madigan somehow involved with the Steels’ money?

“That’s not all. It was conveyed by quitclaim deed so there wasn’t any record of money exchanging hands. But they obviously got enough to relocate to Hawaii and live happily ever after.”

If they were still alive. I hated the words as soon as I thought them.

And then I recalled some other words.

Stay the fuck away from my son, bitch.

Wendy’s words to me, more than once.

Was I in danger from Wendy Madigan?

Not going there. She might be crazy, but she was locked up. She was no danger to me or to anyone. If I could believe anything in this mess, I could believe that.

“I’m thinking your mother doesn’t think anyone is good enough for you, Ryan.”

“You are.”

“Not according to her.”

“Has she said something to you?”

I was done lying to—or rather, keeping information from—him. “She texted me from the number of a female orderly at lockup. Told me to stay away from you. Then, when Melanie and I went to see her, she told me again. Of course, that was after she denied sending me the text and told me how happy she was for us.”

“She’s nuts.”

“For sure.”

“You want to come over? Help us keep looking through this stuff? I’m not going to be home for a while.”

“Uh…yeah. I guess.”

“Great. Grab my phone, will you? It’s in the kitchen.”

I let Ricky back in and fed him, grabbed Ryan’s phone, and was on my way.

---

When I got to Talon’s home, Jade and Marjorie were also there. The five of us were in the basement going through old boxes. Ryan had hardly said hello to me, let alone hugged or kissed me. I chalked it up to how involved he was in this process. Sounded good, anyway.

I was at a disadvantage in that I didn’t know what I was looking for, but when I voiced the concern, the others told me not to worry.

“None of us know exactly what we’re looking for,” Marjorie said. “Just tell us if you find anything that might be suspicious.”

“What might that be?” I asked.

“You’re a cop. You’ll know when you find it,” Ryan said.

“As a cop, I approach everything as suspicious. But I’ll do my best.” I leafed through the documents on my lap.

Nothing, nothing, nothing,

Until…

It was a death certificate. That alone wouldn’t raise my suspicions if it belonged to someone in the Steel family. But it didn’t. The name on the certificate was John Cunningham. How the hell did all these documents—from after Ryan’s father’s supposed death—get in the house?

I looked at the date. He’d been born around the same time as my father.

The same time as Bradford Steel…

“Ryan, when did your father die?” I asked.

“About seven years ago,” he said. “Why?”

So had this poor schmuck. “Was he about six feet three, two hundred pounds, by any chance?”

“About. Why?”

I handed him the death certificate.

He scanned it. “Ruby, what is… Oh, shit.” He handed it to Talon.

“Have any of you seen your father’s death certificate?”

“Yeah, of course. It’s around here somewhere,” Marjorie said. “What’s going on?”

Talon handed the certificate to Jade. “What do you make of this?”

She scanned the document.

“Did you ever check the number?” I asked Ryan. “The one your father supposedly called you from?”

“No. Mills and Johnson have been off the map, and that’s who we’d have do it.”

“Your new phone won’t show the call. All I need is permission to access your records, and I can do it through the department.”

“You’ve got permission,” Ryan said. “But I don’t want to take advantage.”

“Besides,” Talon said, “our father is not alive. We had him cremated, for God’s sake.”

“Are you sure?” Jade asked.

“Of course I’m sure. What kind of a question is that?” Talon said.

“Easy, babe. I’ll check this document against the database tomorrow. It may be nothing.”

“Just out of curiosity,” I asked, after texting the requisite department to get Ryan’s cell phone records, “who identified the body after your father died?”

“He was taken away in an ambulance,” Ryan said. “He had a heart attack and was dead on arrival.”

“Still, someone would have had to identify the body for the coroner,” I said.

“I don’t know,” Talon said. “Did either of you?”

Ryan and Marjorie both shook their heads.

“It must have been Joe then,” Talon said. “Oldest brother and all. He probably volunteered.”

“Call him,” I said. “Let’s get to the bottom of this.”

“For Christ’s sake,” Talon said.

He got up and left the room, Ryan and Marjorie following.

“This is a lot for them to take,” I said to Jade. “I’m sorry about that.”

“It’s not your fault,” Jade said. “You’re asking the kind of questions a cop asks. As for me, I’m going to do the lawyer thing and check this out.” She fingered the death certificate of John Cunningham. “If I were a betting person, I’d bet this isn’t anywhere in the requisite database. Scratch that. I’ll bet it is, right down to the number on the cert. But I’ll bet it bears Brad Steel’s name, and that John Cunningham never existed, according to records.”