“RELAX.” Bill grabbed Abby’s arm. “You look as if you just mainlined a triple shot of espresso.”

Espresso? She felt like a million ants were crawling under her skin. “How can you say relax? This guy says he knows what I’ve been looking for practically my whole life.”

They’d put Sanders in an interview room while they waited for DA Drew, and Abby had been pacing like a caged tiger.

“Consider the source.”

That stopped her. She held her partner’s gaze. “You’re right. He’s trying to save his own skin.” Some of her jitter faded but not all of it. It galled her to realize that she would so easily trust a professional liar to solve the biggest mystery of her life. It took all her strength to stand still until they heard Drew’s wheelchair coming down the hall.

“Thanks for coming,” Abby said, working to tamp down raging emotions.

“That’s what I’m here for. I want to hear what he has to say, but you know that we’ll need solid proof to back up any allegation.”

Abby nodded.

Everyone filed into the conference room and took their places across from Sanders. Drew clicked on a digital recorder.

“It starts back years ago.” Sanders sipped his coffee.

Abby wanted to scream. It had already been a good fifty minutes since he first made his statement. Get on with it.

“We were in high school. I was a year behind your dad.” Sanders tilted his head toward Abby. She kept her face blank and empty, struggling to keep the emotions swirling inside her from showing. She’d seen Sanders’s picture in the yearbook the other night at Murphy’s. For twenty-seven years she’d dreamed about discovering the identity of her parents’ killers. Was that really going to happen today because of him?

“Buck Morgan and Lowell Rollins —they were tight.”

“The governor?” Drew interrupted.

“Back then it was Buck and Lobo —that was his nickname —joined at the hip. They were always up to something, usually something no good. But one night Buck and Lobo got in over their heads. It was a night they stole a car —”

“You saw this?” Drew again, and Abby knew it was because this was complete hearsay and would never be admissible in court even if Sanders wanted to testify. Not to mention statute of limitations on auto theft.

“No, but I heard the story from Lowell’s brother. He was a simpleton, and he hung around with kids my age, not kids his own age. The bottom line, Lowell was driving a stolen car and he hit and killed a man out for a walk.”

“Who?” Drew and Abby spoke in unison.

“Don’t know. Just know they killed him. They ditched the car and ran, and that hit-and-run was never solved. According to Louis, Buck and Lobo made a blood oath to never tell what happened that night. And that oath held for years.” He paused and drained his coffee.

“What does this have to do with the Triple Seven?” Drew asked.

Thank you, Abby thought. Get to the point, Sanders.

“I’m getting there,” Sanders answered Drew but kept his eyes on Abby. “Fast-forward several years to the Triple Seven. Buck and Lobo weren’t so close anymore. Lowell wanted to throw his hat into the political ring. He’d helped start the Triple Seven, but the day-to-day operation was completely in your parents’ laps. Buck was a loose cannon at the time. Your mom handled everything; that woman was a saint. She was the reason that restaurant was so big, so successful, but your dad was snorting and gambling away all the profits.”

“There’s no mention of that in any report,” Abby said.

“Because Rollins buried it. Or I should say his wife-to-be did. She was his publicist at the time. She believed Lowell was destined for big things and felt that even if Rollins had never done drugs, if it was discovered that his partner was an addict, it would torpedo his political career. Alyssa didn’t even want Buck in rehab. Too many tongues would wag.”

Abby stood and leaned against the wall, biting her tongue. True, she’d never heard that her father was a saint, but a drug addict and out-of-control gambler?

“Your mom, on the other hand, wanted out of the partnership. She hated Alyssa and felt if she bought Lowell out, she could then force Buck into rehab. She was ready to hock everything to buy Lowell out. But the restaurant was too big a stage for Lowell’s political aspirations for Alyssa to let him walk out of it.”

“There was never evidence of any buyout offer in the investigation twenty-seven years ago.” Abby could see the pages of the investigation in her mind. If there had been such evidence, Lowell Rollins would have been the prime suspect.

“It was hidden and the books cooked. Why do you think everything burned? Your house and the restaurant? Patricia had squirreled some money away from Buck and who knows what else. She had the money to buy Lowell out, but Lowell flat-out refused. So Patricia brought up the joyride. Buck had told her about it, and she held that over Lowell’s head, threatening to spill unless Lowell walked away from the Triple Seven. And that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

“Are you saying that Lowell Rollins killed my mother and father to keep a decades-old secret?” Abby cut Drew off.

But the DA raised her hand before Sanders could answer. “If you’re going to tell me that the governor is my suspect in this murder, you are going to need cold, hard proof.”

“Let me finish. Patricia was the only uncontrollable asset as far as Alyssa was concerned. Buck was controllable. I’m saying that Alyssa told Gavin Kent to handle it. Gavin pretty much did the same thing back then that he does now —he handled things.”

“So now it’s the First Lady of the state of California who ordered the killing?” Drew’s tone was acid with skepticism.

“I’m not saying that was what was meant, but that’s what happened. Louis Rollins, Gavin Kent, and Buck’s drug supplier, a guy known as Coke Pipe, visited the restaurant that day. And what went down is not what any of you think.”

“Then what did go down?” Abby asked.

“Kent told your mom to back off and stop threatening Lobo. There was a fight. Shooting started. Louis wasn’t clear on what exactly happened. But Patricia got hit, Gavin took a bullet in the leg, and your dad killed Coke Pipe.”

“There were only two bodies.”

“Yep, I know that. It wasn’t your dad who was buried with your mom. It was Piper Shea. Your dad is still alive.”