Marjorie and I ended up at a small café for a late lunch. Melanie joined us. She had driven into the city with Jonah and Ryan, who were visiting Larry Wade. I was nervous, waiting for a call from Tuck. I knew we probably wouldn’t hear anything for a while, but Tuck could be speedy sometimes, especially where a lot of money was involved.

I’d rather he take his time and get it right.

“I’m thinking…” Melanie began.

“Yeah?” I took a bite of my BLT. Tasted like sawdust with mayo.

“We’re not too far from that psych place where they’re holding Wendy Madigan. Would you be willing to go speak to her?”

I nearly jumped off my chair. Go talk to the woman who might be my lover’s mother? A woman who was batshit crazy? A woman who knew my father a hell of a lot better than I did? “Hell, yeah.”

“Would they let us in?” Marjorie asked.

I pulled my clutch open and pulled out my badge. “This will.”

Melanie nodded. “I was hoping you’d agree. I just want to talk to her. I’m not looking for any specific information. Just want to get a feeling, you know?”

“Actually, with your psychological expertise and my investigative training, we might be able to get somewhere.”

“If you two don’t mind, I’m going to bow out of that one,” Marjorie said. “I’ll do some shopping. I’m afraid I might just kick the shit out of the bitch.”

I felt Marjorie’s pain. “I understand.”

“Me too,” Melanie said. “We’ll text you when we’re done, and we can meet up later.”

I shuddered. This would be another betrayal of Ryan. But I was all in already. I’d given Marjorie his hair and arranged to have the DNA testing done.

God, I hoped it was negative and we could all go our merry ways. Still, that in itself would be a lie. What had I gotten into?

Didn’t matter. The test would be positive.

In the depths of my marrow, I already knew the truth.

Wendy Madigan was Ryan’s mother.

And she was going to answer to me.

---

Wendy Madigan had medium-dark hair with gray roots. Her eyes were a dull blue. She might have been quite pretty in her day, but now, her hair was slicked back on her head and she wore hospital scrubs.

Did she know my face? Did she know I was the person she had texted? Two orderlies escorted her to our table, one male and one female. The female’s nametag read “Mary.” Perhaps this was Mary Moon, whose phone Wendy had stolen.

“Are you Mary Moon?” I asked.

“Yeah.” She nodded.

“Keep better track of your phone,” I said.

She arched her eyebrows at me and patted her pocket. “It’s right here.”

I said nothing more as Wendy sat down, an orderly on each side of her.

“Detective Lee,” Wendy said, staring straight into my eyes. “How nice to see you.”

Okay. Question answered. Wendy Madigan had eyes in all places. Time to figure out who was seeing for her and why.

“Nice to see you too, Ms. Madigan,” I said with as much nonchalance as I could muster.

Melanie looked understandably confused. “Do you two know each other?”

“Oh, we go way back,” Wendy said.

“Hardly,” I said. “But you obviously know I’ve been seeing Ryan Steel. I’d suggest you quit stealing your orderlies’ cell phones. That can get you put in solitary lockup.” I didn’t know if there was such a thing as solitary in psych, but I didn’t much care at the moment.

“And aren’t you a lovely thing,” Wendy said to Melanie. “You’re Joe’s new wife. What a lucky woman you are. Jonah looks so much like his father, so dark and dominant.” Wendy closed her eyes. “How I miss him.”

I could tell Melanie was agitated. Truthfully, so was I. We’d both have to do a better job of covering it up.

“How do you know who I am?” Melanie asked.

“I keep tabs on all my boys,” Wendy said.

All her boys? This wasn’t sounding good.

“We’re here for some answers, Ms. Madigan,” I said. “Just exactly what do you mean when you say ‘all my boys?’”

“Brad and his sons, of course.”

“You told Jonah and Talon that you were Ryan’s mother,” Melanie said. “Is that true?”

She squirmed. “Oh, that? I was just teasing them. Of course I’m not Ryan’s mother.”

A sigh of relief escaped me. Thank God! Ryan would never have to know about the DNA test now. He’d never have to know how I’d betrayed him by giving his hair to Melanie and keeping this secret from him. That feeling I’d had earlier? In the marrow of my bones? It was just my fears getting the best of me.

That was what I wanted to be true. But Wendy Madigan was a known liar. I swallowed a lump in my throat.

Melanie wasn’t convinced either. “Why would you lie to them about that? This is killing them.”

“I never wanted to hurt Brad or any of his children, but some things can’t be avoided.”

“Meaning?” Melanie said.

“It’s so sad about the middle one. What those men did to him.”

“Look, Ms. Madigan,” I said.

“Call me Wendy, dear.”

“Fine. Wendy, dear.” I fake-smiled. “One of those sick men is my father, and we need to find him. Larry Wade is in prison, and Tom Simpson is dead.”

“Yes, so sad.”

“What? That he’s dead?”

“Any end of life is sad, don’t you think?”

“No, not really. At least not that one.” She was trying to get me off track. I recognized her tactic, and I was sure Melanie did too. “We need your help finding Theodore Mathias, my father.”

“It is unfortunate that Theo is your father, dear. But that is precisely”—her voice went lower, darker—“why you need to stay the fuck away from my son.”

My skin chilled as goose bumps erupted on my arms. “What? You just said—”

My phone buzzed. It was a text from Tucker.

I have the results.