“You should think about your future, nonetheless...”

 “And challenge a will? Oh, wouldn’t the newspeople love that. No, if there’s a thousand bucks left, I’ll pay you. Otherwise, the idea of going after my father’s money just holds no appeal at all. I know, you’d think I’d be more pragmatic, but I watched what that whole thirst for money can do to a person. I’m cleaning toilets for a living, Mr. Justice. I have a boyfriend who’s a schoolteacher, a wonderful schoolteacher. I feel richer now than I did when I was married to Richard. I don’t need anything more. I’m good.”

 He was speechless for a moment. His hands were folded primly on his desk and he looked at her earnestly. “Emma,” he said. “It’s more than a thousand dollars.”

 “Well, how lucky for me,” she said with a laugh. “And here I thought Christmas was over. How much then?”

 “This would be half—what you were due at age thirty, with another payment due quite soon, when you’re thirty-five. Before even doing an audit to see if there’s more buried in there, it’s $463,072.”

 Emma’s mouth hung open and she stared at him in shock. Then her eyes rolled back in her head and she fainted, falling off the chair and hitting the floor with a thud.

 * * *

 Sitting at his desk Logan felt frustrated by his failed attempts to get Riley alone at all over the holidays. First came family, he understood that. And she had explained that people didn’t cancel housekeeping services, unless of course they were out of town and the office cleaning arm of the business stayed steady.

 And then there was her ex’s car accident. They might never have married but there was no disputing he was the ex. And although Riley insisted it was for Maddie’s peace of mind and not hers, she was spending an awful lot of time with the guy.

 But now the holidays were past, Maddie was back in school and the ex was cleared to go back to work. Everyone could get on a normal schedule and by the end of next month he and George would be closing out the surveillance on Emma Shay. Six months of watching and listening, no one had talked about money, the banking was tight as a drum, Emma was still cleaning houses and all seemed right with the world. It was possible the federal judge could extend the warrant, but it wouldn’t be based on anything George and Logan had discovered. No calls to Aruba, no suspicious dialogue, no funny money.

 “Good news,” Georgianna said. “We caught a break. She’s moving money.”

 “Huh?” he asked, dumbfounded.

 “Large sums, too. We got a wire transfer for almost a half million.”

 “No shit?” he said, stunned. “We know where it came from yet?”

 “We’ll know soon. We just have to exercise the warrant. And I think we notify the feds and offer to open an investigation.”

 “We can notify the feds and let them open an investigation,” he suggested.

 “It’s our investigation,” she reminded him.

 “It doesn’t have to be.”

 “Is this you making the easy choice?” she asked. “You skipping out so you don’t mess things up with the girl? Should we pull you out of this investigation for conflict of interest?”

 “There’s nothing to indicate Riley had anything to do with Emma Shay’s financial situation.”

 George sighed, took a deep breath. “Emma’s tied into the Kerrigan family in a big way. A bigger way than I think you realize. She works for Riley Kerrigan, she’s sleeping with Adam Kerrigan, she’s socializing with June Kerrigan, and the other guy? Your girl’s ex? That was her boyfriend in high school and they’ve rekindled their friendship. She’s referred to him in conversations with Adam. And there’s another twist that makes me uncomfortable and suspicious. Emma Shay is having serious dialogue with a teenage girl she calls Bethany and I’m asking myself if that could be Maddie Kerrigan with an alias or a close friend of Maddie’s. Emma and the girl are close. They seem bonded over something and I’m not sure what. The girl complains about her stepmother sometimes and Emma commiserates. Is it possible that it’s Emma’s child, given up for adoption? Could that be her motive for hiding money? A child?”

 “What?”

 “Just a thought. A guess, really. Quite a coincidence that Maddie Kerrigan is fifteen and this Bethany, whoever she might be, is fifteen and troubled. That aside, just with the money transfer we have enough probable cause. We’ll get the okay, we’ll get a little more traction on this then bring her in for questioning.”

 He winced.

 “There’s a reason we don’t get involved with our suspects.”

 “Riley isn’t a suspect!”

 “She’s a person of interest with a close relationship to our suspect.”

 Logan knew this was not going to bode well for their relationship. Riley was not dumb. She was going to have no trouble connecting the dots. He didn’t simply come upon her in the deli section, innocent of agenda or intention. He knew Emma had some connection to the Kerrigans and stumbled across Riley and then damn! She was just the kind of woman he wanted. Somehow, he thought he could get the skinny on Emma without damaging his budding relationship with Riley.

 “This is why we don’t shit where we eat,” George told him.

 He knew why. He just didn’t want it to be true this time.

 * * *

 It was the second week in January by the time Riley finally got around to having lunch with Logan. She invited him. They met at a small, quiet restaurant on a Sunday. Riley was already having a glass of wine when he arrived. He smiled a little sadly as he sat down at her table. “This is a little obvious,” he said.