His brows pitch. “That alone is confirmation she’s not all put together upstairs. It looks as if I’ll have to dig a little deeper with her. So what happened when she read your palm?” He takes another bite of his food before looking over at me.
“First, she admitted to being a fraud—to herself, of course. She fed Juni a bunch of malarkey about expecting a phone call from a man who was interested in her. And Georgie was told she was going to be famous and that a younger man would slip her his number. Of course, she was playing wingman to her co-worker Brad, who, you guessed it, slipped Georgie his number before we left.”
“And your hand? What truths did it have to speak?”
A sly smile rides up my cheek. “She was stunned, internally, of course.” I shake my head. “She said something about reading up on the fine art of palm reading, and that she didn’t believe people like me existed. She said I had a pink vein in my hand that signified I was prone to the paranormal.” I show him the hand in question, and Jasper plants a kiss in the middle of it.
“She was right. And she doesn’t even know it. I can appreciate that, but I can’t appreciate her, especially with all that twisted behavior she’s displaying. She could very well be our killer.”
“Aww,” I give a sarcastic coo. “You said our.”
Sherlock barks. I told you he’d come around, Bizzy!
I’m about to relay what Sherlock said when a thought comes to me.
“Gatsby?” I lean his way and the magnificent beast lifts his head a notch. “What do you think about Molly? Did you see anything suspicious that night?”
Jasper lifts a finger. “I have questioned a lot of people. I’ve witnessed a lot of other detectives question people, but the fact you can question the suspect’s dog puts you a cut above the rest.”
Fish lets out a lazy yowl. I knew he’d come around, too.
Gatsby moans before letting out a soft bark. Molly wasn’t the greatest girlfriend Wyatt ever had, but she was interested in him—too interested. I’m not proud to say she caught Wyatt and that young, ditzy girl kissing, who, by the way, kept trying to convince me to go vegan. Molly was justifiable in her anger.
“Ooh, that’s right.” I wince. “There might have been one more thing Molly’s co-worker told me that I forgot about, and Gatsby here just confirmed.” I quickly tell Jasper about Wyatt’s indiscretion with Stormy.
Jasper takes a breath. “Sounds like we just secured a motive.”
Gatsby barks again. Molly did say she was going to make him pay. And she has made him pay for many things before. But she was all about making him suffer—in an unnaturally prolonged manner.
I do a quick translation and Jasper leans his way.
“Gatsby”—Jasper looks right at the fuzzy pooch—“did Wyatt know that Molly caught him in a compromising position with another woman?”
I don’t know, the cute pup warbles. I saw her enter the office while the two of them were in there, and she left in a hurry.
“When was that?” I ask.
A week ago.
I let Jasper know and we stare at one another a moment too long.
He nods. “I’ll talk to Molly. I’ll get this done.”
I make a face without meaning to. “I know you want to protect me, but I want to be a part of this, too. I was stuck holding the knife, remember?”
“I know. And I’m the lead homicide detective who cleared you.” He puts his plate down on the coffee table, and I do the same. “I got some info on that ring.”
My mouth falls open. “And are you willing to share it with me?”
His silver eyes spark over mine. “Heck yes.” He picks up my hands. “Bizzy, I’m not shutting you out. I love you. You are brilliant, not to mention you have a psychic edge that cannot be denied. That being said, I shouldn’t be talking to you about any open homicide investigation.” His lips twitch. “But I do want to share this with you. The only thing I ask is that you don’t put yourself in a dangerous situation.”
“Thank you,” I whisper. “And I would never put myself in a precarious position—on purpose.” I jostle his hand. “Now spill it, Detective. What have you got?”
“Wyatt and Thomas went to Somerset University in New York.”
I invert my lips to keep from shedding a greedy grin.
His eyes narrow in on mine. “You knew that, didn’t you?”
I shrug. “What can I say? I had a very informative meeting with Molly. But she knew nothing about the ring.”
“Okay, I’ll start there. I spoke to the people over at Johnson Jewelers. They said thirty-two of those specific rings were made and purchased all at once over ten years ago.”
“Thirty-two. Enough for a frat house?”
He nods. “That was my next step. I looked into all the fraternities and dug around. They don’t traditionally have rings, but those that did weren’t anything like these. They all had a mention of Somerset. In fact, I found out the fraternity both Wyatt and Thomas belonged to was called Alpha Omega Nu. I reached out to one of the recent actives. He had no idea what that ring was or what it could mean.”
“So it’s a dead end?”
He tips his head back. “Oh ye, of little faith.”
I can’t help but bite down a smile. “All right. Get to the good part.”
“I spoke with Wyatt’s older brother. He’s on base in Hawaii and we had a nice little video chat. He’s broken up over what happened. He said Wyatt was a good kid. Clean-cut, the whole nine yards—with the exception of that dark period in college.”
“What?” I give his arm a
