The woman paused again. “Do we have to?”

Mason straightened in his chair. “What?”

“Are we legally obligated to do something? Just because we’re related?”

He was speechless. “Ah… I don’t think so. Your husband won’t feel differently?”

She gave a humorless laugh. “I’m positive. He hasn’t spoken to his father in years.”

“Perhaps one of the other brothers will want to take charge.”

The laugh again. “That is doubtful, but you’re welcome to try.”

Mason tightened his grip on the phone. “Mrs. Cavallo, I don’t understand. When I spoke with your father-in-law a few days ago, he seemed very proud of his children. He mentioned them several times. What happened to this family?”

“I’m sorry, Detective Callahan. I can’t help you.”

The phone clicked in his ear.

He slowly set the receiver back in its holder. What had Lorenzo Cavallo done to his sons?

“You reach someone?” Ray asked.

“Yeah.” Mason relayed the odd conversation.

“What the hell?” Ray wrinkled his forehead. “I don’t understand.”

“That makes two of us.”

“I’m still sending a uniform over there,” Ray added. “I want someone to actually lay eyes on and talk to these fabulous sons of Lorenzo’s, so we know they’re still breathing.”

“Good idea,” muttered Mason. Had all the sons turned their backs on their father? What could cause that kind of divide in a family?

“What the hell?” Ray muttered, staring at his computer screen. “Did you look at this email from Victoria Peres?”

“No, I haven’t looked yet today.” Mason waited as long as possible to open his email in the morning, because once he did, it seemed like he got nothing done. He liked to clean up yesterday’s leftovers before adding more pork to the pot.

“You really should scan through first thing in the morning,” Ray rebuked. “You might see something important.” It was a regular argument that Mason chalked up to organizational differences. “It was sent to both of us.”

“Well, then I didn’t need to see it first thing, right? You’re on it.” Logic. “And if it was really important and something I needed to know right away, she would have called.” More logic.

Ray gave him the evil eye. “An arsonist hit Victoria Peres’s house last night.”

Shock spiked Mason’s spine. “What? Anyone hurt?”

“No. She wasn’t home.” Ray studied his screen. “Victoria says a skeletal female skull was found inside the home not far from the rock that broke the window. Someone threw in both items before a Molotov cocktail–type device to start the fire. Damage to the home was minimal.”

“She think that’s one of her missing skulls?”

“She wants to find out. Naturally, they didn’t let her walk off with it last night. Do you have anything from the Portland Fire Department? I don’t yet. She says she told them to contact us.”

Mason opened his email, his guilt prickling because he’d missed Victoria’s message. He would have opened it ten minutes earlier. That wouldn’t have helped much. Christ. He’d received forty new emails overnight. This was why he preferred not to look. “I don’t see anything.”

“I’ll reach out to them and get that skull on her table. I think she had X-rays. She should be able to tell if it’s one of the missing.”

“Why in the hell was it thrown in her house?” Mason asked, mentally adding an arson element to his odd case.

Mason clicked on Victoria’s email. Not surprisingly, it read like a report. Facts stated in chronological order. Some questions at the end. She and Seth Rutledge discovered the fire after midnight? What was the medical examiner doing with Dr. Peres at that time of night? Mason smiled.

“What’s so funny?” Ray asked.

“Nothin’. Just wondering what Seth Rutledge was doing over there at that time of night.”

“Christ. Get your head out of the gutter. She’s a nice lady.” Ray sounded doubtful. “Nice lady” was a term rarely used to describe the Bone Lady.

“Well, she and that medical examiner have a past. I don’t know exactly what, but he’s looking to get the fires going again, I believe.” He chuckled at his pun.

Ray snorted. “Lame.”

“But the skulls were stolen. Why give one back?”

“Maybe the thief didn’t need that one.”

“Why?” Mason pressed.

Ray struggled to theorize and threw up his hands. “Beats me. Maybe someone else was returning it. But why do it along with arson?”

Mason shook his head. “We still need to talk to Trinity about the shooting last night. This is another reason to get the girl in here ASAP. One boy says the shooter got riled because he saw Trinity Viders.”

“Well, at least we know the shooter didn’t set that fire. He was still in holding at that time.”

“Maybe he has friends.” More teenagers.

No doubt Leo’s message with the skull had made its point. The woman was as vulnerable as the rest of the world. The location of her home was not a secret. Her profession was not untouchable. Her safety was not a given. She should be feeling rattled. He could ruin her career and destroy whatever she held precious.