“Let me see the death certificate.”

“I don’t have it.”

“Then give me his name. I’ll go to the records office and get one myself.”

His face turned ruddier. “I don’t have to tell you anything.”

I lunged at him, grabbing him by the collar and pushing him up against the wall. “That’s where you’re wrong. We’re not leaving until we get the information we came for.”

“I’ll call the cops on you.”

“Go right ahead. I’m sure they’ll be interested in the information I want from you too.”

Melanie stepped forward. “Dr. Cates, please. Gina would never give me this information. I don’t know why, but I have my hunches.”

“Your hunches aren’t worth anything,” he said. “You let my daughter die.”

“What if I didn’t?” she asked. “What if your daughter was murdered?”

Cates’s face reddened. “That’s not true. She committed suicide. We found her dead in the garage in that damned Eldorado.”

“But what if someone put her there? Like someone tried to do to me?”

He said nothing.

“Look,” I said. “I want the name of your brother-in-law. I want his date and cause of death. And I’m not leaving here without those pieces of information.”

“While you’re at it,” Melanie said, “we also need the name and phone number of Gina’s friend. The one who told you she was in love.”

“I don’t have to give you anything.”

I pushed him harder into the wall, grasping his collar in my fists. “Listen,” I said through clenched teeth, “you see what I did to your door. What do you think I could do to you? I could grind you into a fine powder. Then you would call the cops on me, and they would take me away in handcuffs.” I laughed. “You know something? I don’t fucking care. My attorneys would have me out on bail in twenty-four hours. They would get me off on some technicality and expose every dirty little secret you’re hiding to discredit you. That’s the kind of money I have. So give us the information we want, or I will beat you into a finely mashed pulp and to hell with the consequences.”

He closed his eyes. Two tears squeezed out of the corners. “All right, all right. Just don’t hurt me.”

I loosened my grip. “Your brother-in-law—is he dead?”

Cates shook his head. “No, he’s not.”

“That’s what we thought. Did you tell Gina he was dead? Or did you tell her to tell everyone else he was dead?”

“We told her he was dead. We never told her how or why. She asked a few times, and we changed the subject.”

“You know, there are some people in the world who should never have children, Cates. I put you in that category.”

“Jonah…” Melanie touched my arm.

“For God’s sake, Melanie. I’m right, and you know it.”

She sighed. “Yes, I do believe you’re right.”

“How dare the two of you judge me?” He looked to Melanie.

I tightened my grip on his collar again. “First, you don’t talk to her. Ever. Don’t even look at her. You don’t deserve to. Second. What the fuck is the name of your brother-in-law?”

“I don’t know.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? You don’t know his name?”

“I only know his birth name. He goes by a lot of other names. I don’t know what he’s going by now.”

I let Cates go, and he fell to the floor.

“He uses aliases?” I said.

Cates nodded. “He’s got…issues.”

“You think? Really? A man who rapes his niece has issues?” I shook my head. “You disgust me. A guy who cuts in line has issues. Your brother-in-law is a goddamned psychopath. Now, what’s his fucking birth name?”

“Theodore. Theodore Mathias.”

“Any middle name?”

“I…don’t know.”

“And you know some of his aliases?”

“There are several, and I’m sure I don’t know them all. John Smith. Nicholas Castle. Milo Sanchez. I can’t think of any more right now. I know I’m forgetting some of them.”

My blood ran cold. “You get a piece of paper, and you write all those names down. Got it?”

He stood, brushing off his scholarly tweed jacket. He walked into the kitchen, and I followed at his heels. He took a pad of paper and a pen out of a drawer and wrote.

“Do you know his birth date?”

“I don’t. Erica might know it. She’s his younger sister. Her full name is Erica Helene Mathias Cates.”

“Jonah”—Melanie touched my arm—“I really don’t want to bother her. She’s in a fragile mental state at the moment.”

I turned to her. What a wonderful woman. Even now, she was thinking of others, always helping people. After all she’d been through, she was still Melanie. A good soul.

“You’re lucky that Dr. Carmichael is so forgiving,” I said. “I, however, am not.” I took the piece of paper he handed me and handed it right back to him. “You forgot the name and number of Gina’s friend. The one who said she was in love with someone.”

“Oh.” He hurriedly wrote down another name and handed the paper back to me. “Marie Cooke, with an e.”

I took my wallet out of my back pocket. I folded the paper and placed it in my wallet, and then threw a couple thousand dollars in Franklins on the floor. “That should cover the damage to the door, and then some.” I turned to Melanie. “We don’t have any more use for this guy. Let’s go.”

Chapter Thirty–Two

Melanie

I wasn’t sure what to say to Jonah as we drove back to the ranch. He had arranged for us to have dinner with Jade and Talon at the main house. He wanted me to tell Talon what had happened to me. And he was right. It was time. None of it had been my fault, and I needed to talk about it. I knew as well as Jonah that sweeping something under the rug didn’t help at all.

Brooke’s nurse had taken her into Grand Junction overnight for physical and occupational therapy, so she wouldn’t be around. Marjorie was there though, which I didn’t mind.