Page 12 of Murder in the Lighthouse

“As in?”

“Like talking to the people who knew Dad best—band members. That means talking to Graeme, Nigel Brighton, and Gordon Mayer. They were all there during the multiple tours.Original bandmates. They were all there leading up to my conception.”

“Don’t forget Jack Milliken, head of security, who was never that far away from your father.”

“Ah, yes, him too. I’ve decided to zero in on the Scandinavian tour, specifically Indigo’s time spent in Sweden. That narrows down the timeframe a bit. Could that be where I began, and something awful happened to my birth mother? Enter Rachel Brinell, the wealthy American heiress with all the money available to pay off anyone for their silence.”

“And let’s not forgettheDelia Gregson, who loved to pull the strings from high on her throne back in the States. She’d do anything to protect the family name.”

“Exactly. There’s a mystery about my origins, Lucien, and I need to know who I am. If we ever want to have kids, I need to know.”

“Of course you do. I’ll help in any way I can. But you already figured that out,” Lucien said, reaching to lay a comforting hand on her shoulder. “We’ll figure this out together.”

“Like always.”

“Yep. Like always. Let’s go to bed and map out our strategy.”

3

The next morning over breakfast, they went over the plan they had devised the night before. Brogan had decided she would reach out to Graeme first, knowing that he needed Lucien to pursue his stalker. It felt like the best excuse for a perfect segue.

“I believe Graeme is the most level-headed of the lot and more willing to talk openly about the past.”

“What? You’re kidding?” Lucien questioned. “Are we talking about the same guy who never wants to do anything with his kids but loves to brag about all the women he’s slept with over the years?”

“That’s just it. Until three nights ago, he didn’t know he had kids, plural. Now he does. Once you brought up Evan, he was willing to get to the bottom of it and discuss what happened back in the day. That’s more than I can say for a lot of rock legendswho slept their way across the world and prefer to forget all of it ever happened.”

“If they remember what happened at all,” Lucien corrected. “How many times did we find our dads passed out in hotel rooms at noon after parties that lasted until four a.m.?”

“That’s beside the point.”

“No, that is the point. If you want Graeme to talk about the Scandinavian tour, we’ll need to offer the best environment for it to happen.”

“Get him drunk? Is that the plan?”

“If that’s what it takes. On our turf, though. Wait. What if we invited the entire band to an overnight dinner party somewhere? Call it a reunion in honor of your dad or something.”

Brogan frowned into her coffee mug. “You mean invite them to a beach house or a lodge for a private getaway and grill the band about something that happened almost thirty years ago? That sounds a lot like one of those cheesy mystery movies. It might work.”

“It’s the only way to get them talking, to reminisce about their European tours, then toss in the questions about what specifically went down in Sweden.”

“It might work,” Brogan reasoned. But she was still skeptical. “The direct route might be the best way to go. Forget the subterfuge.”

“Since when did the direct way ever work? If they’re all under one roof, there’s little wiggle room to dodge the tough questions.”

“All right. However, we need a bit of planning. We’ll need to consider the right questions and how to handle each of them. They’re all such different personalities. In the meantime, we still need to find out what happened to Bethany Heywood. I know you don’t feel like bumping heads with Theo on Sam’scase, but the sheriff’s department is the one handling Bethany’s disappearance.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that we let Theo do his thing to find Sam’s killer but do our own digging into Bethany’s disappearance, then meet him in the middle. Dangle what we have as a way to get him to include us. You know the two cases are connected, right? They have to be. A woman from Santa Cruz meets someone online and agrees to meet them for a hike at Wilder Ranch. Then she disappears. It happens all too often these days. Why do people still do that? Why do they agree to meet up with strangers miles away from home? What happened to meeting up at a coffee shop around the corner for the first time?”

She let out a sigh. “Anyway, the family gets worried. Lacey told Beckett she got worried. Which is it? Or does it matter? They send her brother to look for her. But in a weird turn of events, he goes missing too. Theo finds his car parked at the lighthouse. Then, three days later, he’s found dead inside the lantern room at the top of a locked lighthouse.”

“Supposedly locked,” Lucien remarked.

“You think Theo’s lying about that?”

“No, of course not. But I do think the only viable explanation is that the lighthouse was unlocked at some point when Heywood went in there to meet the killer. And then the killer locks the door when he leaves.”

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