Private #1 Suspect (Private 2)

“Christ. What the hell does that mean?”

What did it mean?

“That semen,” Justine said. “If Tommy had sex with Colleen, the DNA would be the same.”

“Right,” Sci said. “His DNA and Jack’s are identical.”

“So the cops are saying what? I had sex with Colleen, killed her, and then called my brother? Or we killed her together?”

“Jack, what I know is that Mitch Tandy wants to get you for this, and if he can get Tommy too it’s a very big day for Tandy.”

CHAPTER 44

TOMMY.

I had to face it. My goddamned brother could have been involved in Colleen’s death. Had he gone insane? Had he killed Colleen to hurt me?

I thought back to the break that had divided us for good. It had happened when Tommy and I were in the ninth grade, fourteen years old.

April Lundon was a year older.

She was charming and flirtatious and spontaneous. She could walk on her hands and ride a horse bareback, and she’d been to Paris. She’d had a French boyfriend the summer before and knew bedroom French.

She liked to walk between me and Tommy with her hands hooked into the backs of our pants. She said she liked us equally—and we were both crazy for her. April wouldn’t choose.

We agreed, Tommy and I, that only one of us could have the girl. April set the terms, a kissing contest. She would be blindfolded. The best kisser would win. And there was the implied promise that the winner would take all.

We were testosterone fueled and cocky. The idea of a “kiss off” was delicious. We both thought we would win, and we never considered the consequences. It never occurred to either of us to just walk away.

The competition was on for a Saturday morning, and a dozen kids showed up at the beach behind the juice bar to cheer us on in this wicked and daring contest.

April kissed Tommy, then she kissed me. I put my whole heart into that kiss, as if I would never kiss a girl again. April picked me.

Then, best two out of three, she picked me again.

Tommy didn’t forgive April and he didn’t forgive me. Our dispute was encouraged by our father, who would favor one of us, then, for no reason we could see or understand, favor the other. He was unpredictable and cruel.

Our bitterness escalated, got dirty, got physical, and lived on after April Lundon was in college, married, a mother of four. Continued even after my father gave me fifteen million dollars and the keys to Private.

Continued even after he was dead.

So there was bad history between Tommy and me, but could he, would he, get revenge by committing murder?

I thought he was capable of it.

But I didn’t know if he had done it.

I stared through Sci and Justine, thinking that I’d go to his office, drag him out, do whatever it took to get him to talk.

I called to Cody, “I need Del Rio and Cruz. Now.”

But Justine reached across my desk and put a hand on my arm.

“Wait,” she said. “Wait until you have enough evidence to box Tommy in.”

CHAPTER 45

JACK MORGAN’S multimillion-dollar crime lab took up the entire lower level of Private: twenty thousand square feet of cutting-edge forensic laboratory, regarded as one of the top independent labs in the country. A service for Private clients, Private’s lab was also a profit center, hired by police departments across the country when they needed fast results and only the most advanced technology would do.