I wasn’t sure which was worse, watching my beloved Olive standing by the portraits of our son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter while sobs shook her frail shoulders, or seeing my grandsons standing next to her, each face heart-breakingly stoic. All except for Blake. He’d been furious with the world from the moment he’d woken up in the hospital, and nothing Olive or I had been able to do had changed that.

A part of me still felt like this was all some horrible nightmare, that I’d wake up and find my wife sleeping peacefully next to me. She’d tell me that none of it was true, that Chester and Abigail were safe at home with Aimee and the boys. I’d go back to sleep, making plans to see them all soon so I could put this terrible dream to rest.

Except, only the real world could hurt this much.

And it couldn’t be a nightmare because that would’ve meant I’d been able to sleep. In the past few days, I’d barely managed twenty or thirty minutes a night. Every time I closed my eyes, I was back in the hospital, standing next to my son’s bed, listening to the doctor tell me that he’d never wake up, that I had to decide if I wanted to keep his body alive, or let him go. Or I was in the morgue, identifying Abigail and Aimee, both barely recognizable.

As awful as that had been, the worst moment was when I had to tell the boys. Blake was only four. He didn’t really understand what it meant that his parents and sister were gone. For him, I didn’t think it had sunk in that they would never return. Slade was only a year older, but he was starting to put things together. When I tried to leave the house yesterday to come here and deal with the paperwork that inevitably came with death, he wrapped his arms around my leg and begged me not to leave. When Jax had come over to get him, Slade had started screaming that if I left, I’d never come back.

I watched Jax now as he leaned over to Slade and fixed his brother’s tie. He’d been helping with his brothers, most of the time without even being asked. I hated seeing such a weight on his little shoulders, but I didn’t know how to tell him it was okay to just be a kid. I’d never been someone who’d expressed emotions easily. Olive had always been best at that, and Chester had been like her.

I was just grateful that I wasn’t doing this alone.

“Mr. Hunter.” Officer March drew my attention away from the boys. “If I could have a moment of your time.”

I shook his hand, then motioned for him to follow me away from the long line of people still waiting to offer their condolences. Chester and Abigail had been well-liked, and everyone had loved Aimee.

“I’m sorry to approach you like this,” he said, pitching his voice low enough that no one else could hear. “But I’ve been ordered to close the case and stay away from you.”

It took a moment for his words to process. “What, exactly, do you mean?”

Officer March scratched the back of his head, his eyes darting around as if he was still worried about someone overhearing us. “My partner wasn’t too keen on me telling you that I thought what happened was no accident.”

“I remember,” I said, “but I believed you would be investigating anyway.”

He nodded. “I was; and I did, actually. I visited the crash site again. Looked over the autopsy reports. Something was off, but I was still trying to figure it out when my captain called me into his office and told me that I needed to stop stepping on the detectives’ toes.” Another furtive look around. “The thing is, I spoke with the detectives yesterday, and they told me that they were getting ready to sign off on the accident report. My asking questions apparently made it look like they weren’t doing their jobs.” He looked away and then back again. “Or, at least that’s what my boss said.”

“You don’t think that’s the case?”

“I think someone doesn’t want anyone looking too closely at what happened.”

I shifted on my feet, my mind racing. I’d been going over this in my head every moment that hadn’t been consumed with planning and business. A true accident – black ice, an animal crossing the road – would be awful, but the idea that someone had done this on purpose…it was unimaginable. What sort of person could put a plan into motion that would not only leave a family without their father, but almost guaranteed collateral damage? I knew that Chester’s investigative journalism had created enemies, but I doubted any of them had the impudence to take a life.

Still, despite all those doubts, my gut said there was more to what happened than most people were seeing. I hadn’t managed a multi-billion-dollar business from the time I was twenty relying only on visible logic. I’d always had good intuition, and now it was telling me that something smelled fishy.

But I was still going to be smart about it.

“What makes you think that you can’t take the request from your captain at face value?” I knew Captain Hartman, and he was usually a straight-shooter.

“Because the order about staying out of the case wasn’t all he said.” Officer March leaned closer. “He told me to stay away from you specifically, that you didn’t want me poking around in things.”

My stomach sank. I hadn’t spoken to Hartman about Officer March. In fact, the only conversation we’d had since the crash had been when Hartman had said It’s a hell of a thing, losing members of your family like that.

Idiot.

“You’re right,” I said. “Something isn’t right about it.”

“If I keep looking into this, it could be my job,” he said. His eyes were wide. “What do you want me to do?”

I scrubbed a hand across my chin.

“Grandfather.” A tug on my sleeve made me look down as much as Cai’s quiet voice. His little face was solemn, bright blue eyes clear. “May I be excused?”

I swallowed hard against the lump in my throat and nodded. Cai didn’t run off. He walked, calmly and like he knew exactly where he was going and why. It wasn’t a seven-year-olds way of doing things, but Cai had never been a normal child. Out of all my grandchildren, he was the one who reminded me the most of myself. Focused and serious, never showing how he felt about anything. Not even after losing three members of his family.

“How are they?” Officer March asked. “I mean, I know they aren’t fine, not after what happened, but…dammit. You know what I mean.”

I nodded. I did know. “They’re as good as can be expected.”

Cai disappeared around the corner, and I found myself wondering where he was going, and if I might join him. Cai had asked if he could go back to school this week, and I understood the sentiment. It had been difficult this week not to throw myself into work and escape that way.

“Mr. Hunter,” Officer March spoke again. “What would you like me to do?”

I didn’t look at him as I answered, “I don’t want you to lose your job.”

I heard his sigh of relief over the chatter around me.

“I’d hoped you’d understand.” His hand touched my arm, and I turned to see him holding out a piece of paper. “I took the liberty of writing down the name and contact information of a private investigator I know. He’s a good guy. Knows his shi-stuff, and he’s discreet.”

I glanced down at the paper before putting it in my pocket.

Bartholomew Constantine.

After all of this was done, I’d give him a call, see if he could find anything.

If there was anything worth finding.