Page 133 of Lights Out

With that, she shoved me out of the bathroom, and we joined the rest of her family in a formal sitting room. Everything about this house was formal, I was coming to realize. The ceiling was sky-high, with white-painted beams bisecting each other in asquare pattern. A stone fireplace took up most of the far wall, and a roaring fire had been built in it that turned the room toasty. In the center, beneath a crystal chandelier, sat a trio of white couches facing a circular table filled with refreshments and appetizers.

I’d been expecting a crowd, but only three of Aly’s cousins stood with their parents, Greg nowhere to be seen. I was the only significant other in attendance and didn’t know how to feel about it. Were these dinners supposed to be for the family, and I was intruding? Or had the boys’ partners been excluded because there’d be shop talk tonight?

“Red or white?” Nico asked, gesturing to a pair of wine carafes.

“White,” Aly said.

I eyed the pristine couches before seconding her request.

Nico passed us each a glass.

Aly took a sip of hers and then trained her gaze on the family patriarch. “What’s going on with the investigation?”

Her second oldest cousin, Alec, lifted his brows. “What happened to ‘Hello. How are you?’”

Aly didn’t even acknowledge him, still zeroed in on Nico. “You told me you’d fill us in tonight.”

He gave her a reproachful look. “We don’t talk business until after dinner.”

“That sounds like bullshit,” Aly said.

Moira interjected. “It does, but it’s also a tradition. Food and booze first. People are nicer when they’re tipsy and full.”

“Yeah,” Alec said. “It’s called hangry for a reason.”

Aly frowned. “So, what do we do until then? Exchange frivolous pleasantries and pretend we’re not all waiting for that conversation to happen?”

Moira clinked her glass against her niece’s. “You catch on fast.”

Aly sent me a frustrated glance.

I took a deep pull of wine to keep from having to say anything. Cowardly? Absolutely, but I knew better than to meddle in other people’s family drama, and I wanted to stay in Nico’s good graces as long as I could. I just hoped no one crossed a line with Aly because my Switzerland status only extended so far.

I also understood my girlfriend’s frustration. Brad was all over the news. A child of mega-rich parents had turned out to be a serial rapist and possible serial killer – so far, only the two bodies in the basement had been found, and you needed three for the “serial” title. He was suspected of killing more, and there were plans to excavate the backyard and search the woods we’d fled through looking for further victims.

Nico had stayed true to his word, and a man who looked an awful lot like Brad had been caught on CCTV withdrawing cash from an ATM close to the Canadian border. The crossings up there were on high alert, and Brad’s passport had been flagged. No additional sightings had been reported, but every night, the local news reminded people there was a killer on the loose, and the entire city was on edge, wondering if he’d really fled or if his family was hiding him somewhere nearby.

His parents were housebound because of the media attention, and their lawyers had been extra busy dodging questions and dragging their feet as they tried to slow the police investigation. It turned out the Bluhm’s initial acquiescence mostly came from shock, and now they were doing everything they could to save face in the public eye and distance themselves from what their spawn had done.

There was so much scrutiny on the case that I hadn’t hacked back into the police system despite how desperate Aly and I were to know what was happening. That left Nico as our only source of information.

He gestured at Aly with his glass. “How’s work been?”

She eyed him. “Has your little mole not been filling you in on my daily life?”

Nico grinned. “Greg’s been preoccupied with his own responsibilities.”

“And what would those be?” Aly asked.

“Janitorial, of course,” Nico answered, looking nonplussed.

Aly glanced around. “Where is he tonight?”

“Busy,” all of her cousins said at once.

Well, that wasn’t suspicious.

Aly honed in on it. “With what?”

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