“Mine either,” Kate replied. “I’ll keep you posted. Thanks for talking to me at such an early hour.”
“Where’s the body?”
“We haven’t moved it yet,” she said. “We’re still examining the scene.”
“What about Wolf?” I asked. “Jonathan’s father?”
Kate closed her notebook and slipped it into her back pocket. “He’s been notified.”
“How’s he taking it?”
“Not well.”
Wailing sobs echoed off the white penthouse walls. Wolf had thrown himself to the floor, curled in a ball atop his furry rug. As he writhed in mental agony, a group of police officers stood around with their hands on their belts, averting their eyes from Wolf’s breakdown. None of them had signed up to babysit the dead guy’s eccentric father.
Kate gestured that it was okay for me to go inside. The officers gladly parted for me as I made my way to Wolf’s side and knelt down on his level. Another keening cry left his mouth.
“Wolf?” I said gently, attempting to pull his hands away from his face. “It’s me, Jack.”
When he looked up, I hardly recognized him. He wore no makeup, and his eyes were bloodshot. The skin sagged off his cheeks and chin. Tears and—was that blood?—tracked down his face.
“Get me a wet washcloth,” I snapped at the nearest officer. “And call a paramedic. Don’t you people have any sense?”
The officers rushed off to do my bidding, glad to do something other than watch Wolf lose himself in grief. When one returned with the washcloth, I used it to wipe the watery blood from Wolf’s face. He had scratched himself around the eyes with his fingernails.
“The paramedics are on their way up,” another officer informed me.
I grunted, my way of letting him know I’d heard. Carefully, I drew Wolf’s face between my hands. “Wolf? Do you know who I am?”
His eyes darted to and fro, trying to find something to focus on. “Jack?”
“Everything’s going to be okay.”
“Oh, Jack!” He threw himself into my lap. “My boy is gone! It’s my fault. It’s all my fault.”
“No, it’s not,” I assured him. “There was nothing you could have done.”
“I wasn’t there for him,” Wolf cried. “I should have been more supportive. I should have tried harder to fix our relationship.”
“Jonathan didn’t do this because of you,” I said. “You can’t think that way.”
Kate nudged me from behind, and I remembered the reason she’d allowed me to come up here in the first place: I wasn’t invited to the penthouse to comfort Wolf. I was here to retrieve information.
“Wolf, do you know what time Jonathan came home last night?”
His breath hitched. “Wasn’t he with you?”
“Yes, but he dropped me off at my room around midnight,” I said. “Do you know if he came home right after that? Were you awake?”
Wolf managed to shake his head. “I take medication every night. It puts me right to sleep.”
“Every night?”
“Yes.”
Jonathan’s voice echoed in my head. He’s a good liar.
“Where’s your medication, Wolf?”
He gestured vaguely to the enormous bathroom. Kate went to fetch it and returned with several bottles of prescriptions.
“There’s a sedative here,” she said.
I showed the bottle to Wolf. “Is this what you took last night?”
He blearily blinked at the label. “Yes, it helps me sleep. Sometimes, the pain is too much. It keeps me up at night. I didn’t hear Jonathan come in. If I had—”
Wolf dissolved into another bout of ugly sobs. I took a pillow from the couch and moved it to rest beneath his neck. In a few hours, he would regret laying on the hard floor for so long, especially in his condition.
“Did Jonathan ever hint that he might do something like this?” I asked Wolf. “I’m sorry to ask, but we need to know.”
Fat tears leaked over Wolf’s lashes and spilled down either side of his nose. “My son never spoke to me unless he had to. I have no idea what might have led him to do this.”
He’s a good liar.
Kate tapped my shoulder. “Don’t press him. We don’t need to stress him out anymore. Can you get him on the sofa?”
“He doesn’t like help unless he asks for it,” I said.
Wolf grasped my forearm and tried to pull himself up from the floor. I helped him get into a sitting position, but he didn’t let go of me.
“Jack,” he gasped. “I can’t do this anymore.”
“Do what, Wolf?”
“Pretend.” His eyelids drooped, and his head tilted backward. “I can’t pretend anymore.”
I caught his head and lowered it to the sofa before he could hurt his neck. A moment later, he was asleep or unconscious. Just in case, I felt his pulse.
A paramedic’s fingers replaced mine at Wolf’s wrist. “I’ve got it from here,” she said to me. “Thanks for calling us.”
“He has Ehlers-Danlos,” I informed her. “Be careful with him.”
“Will do.”
I let the paramedic do her job and stood up to join Kate.
“Well?” she prompted. “Do you believe him?”
“I don’t know who or what to believe,” I murmured, propping my hands on my hips. My gaze wandered to the door between the penthouse suites, where men in suits took pictures of Jonathan’s body. “I’ve known these people for less than a week.”
Kate lifted the bottle of sedatives. “Enough of these could kill a horse.”
“Do you think Jonathan had access to them?”
She watched as the paramedic evaluated Wolf. “I think we’ve got our work cut out for us on this one.”
Once the police asked me another round of questions about my night with Jonathan, my only desire was to return to my own room, lay in bed, and succumb to the blissful nothingness of slumber. Unfortunately, my life did not often go according to plan. As I approached the room, Evelyn came out of it, pulling her coat across her shoulders.
“We need to pick up my brother at the airport,” she reported, turning me on my heel to lead me to the elevators. “How’d everything go with Godfrey?”
So far, I hadn’t had any time to process Jonathan’s death. The police hadn’t let me see his body, and for that, I was
