“And Silverstein confirms all this?” I asked.

“He said if he were going to kill someone it would have cost Alexis the entire agency,” Biancho grimaced. “And I believe it. Anyway, he has no reason to lie. Maury knows enough to understand I wouldn’t let anything happen to any of the Rowes or Browns.”

Everyone was finally on the same damn page and it didn’t make for a good read. Biancho believed Alexis and Silverstein; I believed Biancho. Only now I’d run out of suspects.

“Even if I buy this, there are still too many questions,” I pressed, scratching to hold on in the face of case interruptus. “Like toxic fumes.”

Alexis shook her head. “I already told you, Matt. There are worse disasters lurking in the Hacienda. The bitch won’t spend a dime.”

I wanted to jump her nerves. Burrow under Biancho’s skin as well. Even if I accepted the furnace “accident,” I still believed Lauren was being followed. Believed it enough to dig deeper. “Even a ‘safe’ drive-by is a helluva stunt to run your mother out of the house. What’s that about?”

“Daddy’s girl,” Biancho muttered.

“You son-of-a-bitch!” Alexis snarled. He’d struck a nerve. She turned her back on me, trying—but failing—to regain her composure. “Since when have you been on top?” she challenged the Chief.

“I’m through being bottom dog, Alexis. No more evasions, no more lies, no more unanswered questions. Jacob may not need to know why you did what you did, but he ought to. The man treats his own better than we treat ours.”

“Do you act like a big shot with Bunny, too?” Alexis smiled in my direction, but there was a tick in her cheek and her pupils were dilating. Biancho was calling her on something she didn’t want to touch.

“Her name is Barbara, but I think of her as Princess Bunny. Teddy had to marry a prom queen.” Alexis stared at me but her words were whip-cracks aimed at Biancho. “So fucking classic. The poor outsider returns home in triumph. Our town’s brand new cop with his own redheaded bimbo. Just had to prove he was better than everybody who ever looked down on him. You forced your way to Chief because a Police Chief can push people around with a tin badge. Nobody who grew up with you believes any of your crap about making your hometown safe.”

Alexis kept her gleaming eyes on me while she continued to slap Biancho. “You still feel like a great big nothing, but you think I’m the only one who knows it.”

Alexis waved her hand encompassing both me and the Chief. “Two ass-licking ball-less wonders. If either of you had the guts to be honest, you’d spend your nights strapped up in a leather bar.” Alexis’s outstretched arm was shaking.

Biancho and I avoided each other’s eyes while I blasted back. “The Chief called it ‘Daddy love.’ I call it ‘hate.’ Which do you think, Alexis? Or are you afraid to really look at yourself?”

She rose to her feet and I stood to meet her head-on.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Look at what gets you off, sweetheart. Shows what you think of men, doesn’t it? Last I checked your Daddy had a dick.

“See, I don’t buy this ‘doing it for Dad’ crap,” I continued. “You don’t give a shit about anyone. Either you want the Hacienda for yourself, or you’ve got some fucking john waiting to be fleeced.”

The words clipped across her pale face. My attack pushed her deeper into herself and she answered as if speaking to a large audience from the rear of a dark stage. “I don’t believe how stupid you are. You make me sound like my mother, but I’m not her. I did what I did for my father. She’s fucked him over their entire life.

“I’m not going to let him watch Lauren and Lou play house in the Hacienda.” Alexis moved upstage even as she shakily grabbed the back of her chair. “I can’t stand what their relationship does to him.”

“Does to him?” I shrugged. “He been out of your mother’s world for decades. “Get real! Your father’s life has very little to do with Lauren or the Hacienda. And certainly not Lou.”

“Annie means less to Dad than Princess Bunny means to Teddy here,” Alexis spat. “Lauren has his heart. Always will. It doesn’t matter whether they’re together or not.” Her voice zeroed in on shrill.

I waved off Biancho’s interruption before he could open his mouth. “So tell me about it,” I invited. “Tell me why you tried to poison them out of the house.”

“The furnace was a fucking accident. What isn’t an accident is what’s happening to my father. He doesn’t sleep, barely eats, spends enormous amounts of time with Mom’s mother. I’m really worried about him, don’t you understand? If Lauren’s romance lasts, the least he deserves is the one place he truly thinks of as home.”

“Anne might have something to say about what’s home and what isn’t,” I jabbed, but my sense of foreboding was beginning to grow.

“For Christ sake, back off! Don’t you see how upset she is?” Biancho snapped. He led Alexis to her seat, and gently helped her down. Alexis’s heart did belong to Daddy.

“Damn right, I’m upset. His fucking father-in-law is moving in!”

Biancho placed his hand on her shoulder and began to lightly squeeze. Maybe he still thought there was a chance to salvage. Or maybe he just had to play out his role.

But I had to keep probing. Paul and Lauren’s relationship was back on Red Alert. “Okay, Alexis, I got it. Daddy’s having trouble dealing with Lauren and Lou so you want to make sure he gets the Hacienda.”

“He’s the only one who puts any effort into the place. Why should Lou prance in and reap the rewards? If Dad can’t have what he really wants, I’ll make sure he gets something.”

“And what is it he really wants, Alexis?”

“His wife. His wife!”

“His ex-wife. And your grandmother? How does she fit into this?”

“Until I understood what Lauren did to him, Vivian was the only person who did. She knows what my mother means to him.”

“You keep talking in generalities, Alexis.”

“What are you after, Jacob?” Biancho protested. “Either you believe her about the wire or you don’t. I can’t see forcing her to talk about the family.”

“It’s our family, Chief. Lauren and Lou are getting married as soon as her divorce is final. I want to know what I’m getting.”

“Are you sure?” Alexis asked wild-eyed.

I nodded.

Her face seemed to shatter. “You want to know what you’re getting? Someone who turned her children against their father. Someone who blames my father for Stephen’s homosexuality and Ian’s self-destructive behavior. If that’s not enough go ask Lauren! She’ll be happy to tell you what you’re getting!”

Time to reel her in. “So you want your dad to have a fair shake and you figure the Hacienda is it. Does he agree with you?”

“He doesn’t know anything about any of this.”

I glanced at Biancho who had returned to his seat. “I don’t know what Brown thinks,” he shrugged.

“Enough already,” Alexis complained wearily. “You’ve solved all your little mysteries.”

I didn’t know what I’d solved. “It’s difficult to believe your father has nothing to do with your scheming, Alexis. He’s the one to score.” Julie’s words rang in my ears: “Cherchez le cash.”

Her fatigue flared into instant anger. “My father wouldn’t lift a finger to drive Lauren out. He’s somebody who keeps everything inside. He sometimes does stupid things but...”

“What stupid things?

She was too deep into her rap to hesitate. “Annie. He didn’t have to live with that bitch. But he felt bad about what happened with Jim.”

“Jim?”

“Her husband.”

“Aren’t we stretching here, Jacob?” Biancho snorted. “You’re not joining that family.”

“No, Teddy,” Alexis shook off his intervention. “I want him to know the kind of person Dad is. It was Lauren’s affair with Jim Heywood that ruined both marriages. Something else you can ask her about.”

I’d managed to outstay my comfort zone. Alexis had kicked open a door I wanted shut. “Your dad’s living with Annie because he wants revenge for Lauren’s affair with her husband?”

I felt the revulsion rise in my throat. Lauren and her “overlapped family” were the incarnation of my worst nightmares. If I didn’t bring this scene to a quick close, my personal phobias would shift into overdrive, disintegrating the fragile accommodations I’d made for Lou and Lauren, for me and Boots. Whatever small corner I’d been able to turn was suddenly turning back; it was time to find my way out the door.