“He’d gone from being all about being with her and genuinely interested in pursuing her to cold and distracted.”

“Doesn’t mean anything though.” I run my hand over my face, trying to piece together what Grant is telling me.

“The other thing is she never spoke to Carmen about you. She didn’t give her an interview as much as Carmen pushed for one. So she told me that—at first—she was trying to tell you that. Then Graves kept asking her about you. Why she slept with you . . . sorry, Luce.”

“Hey, it was before my time. She didn’t have a chance once I lured Cal in with my womanly charms,” she replies.

I choke on my coffee and look at her in humored disbelief. “Lured me in is right,” I muse, noting her eyes are warm and dancing with amusement.

“Anyway,” Grant says, clearing his throat. “She is . . . was . . . worried about him being so fixated with you. Then when she came to the office and made that scene, he threatened her to keep her mouth shut, and to leave you alone. Said you’d told him to remove her and after manhandling her out onto the street, he intimated that he would do a lot worse to her if she saw you again.”

“So if this is true, why did she call me last night? Why am I suddenly a part of this?” I ask.

“I told the police about the notes, the way Graves was always eager to work with you, and then surprisingly, they asked whether he had access to personnel files, building plans, et cetera.”

I shake my head. “I feel like I’m missing something.”

“Me too, but they’re looking at him for more than Jodi’s death.”

“What?”

“That’s all they’d tell me. But as of right now, he’s no longer working for us.”

“No shit, Sherlock,” I reply, and Grant’s eyes bug out at me while Lucia sniggers.

“Did you honestly just say that?” he asks me.

“Did you hear the words come out of my mouth?” I say back.

He turns to Lucia. “You, my dear, are the best thing to happen to this man.”

“I keep telling her that” I reply dryly.

“The detective is going to ring you later this morning when they have more information, but he warned me we need to be vigilant. We’re not to engage with Graves and to call them straight away if we think of anything else.”

“I’m not finding the connection. I don’t see how her and Graves would’ve met in the first place and why she would’ve given him the time of day.”

“You’re the connection, Cal. Her heart was involved when it came to you.” Lucia notes.

My eyes grow wide. “But I never promised her anything more than what she got.”

“Yes, but then you did a complete one-eighty and met Luce and the rest is history.” Grant says.

“I just feel sorry for her,” Luce says quietly. “No one deserves to die like that.”

I glide my fingers in between hers and squeeze. “No, they don’t. I’ll call her parents today.”

“We could go see them,’ she suggests, yet again shocking me with her compassion.

“Sounds good, sweetheart.”

“Cal, if I can have a shower and steal a suit, we can go into the office together.” Grant says.

“Yeah, of course. Just get something from my closet.”

He nods at me and stands up, putting his cup on the kitchen counter and disappearing up the stairs.

I turn to Lucia, leaning down to kiss her softly. “Do you want to stay here today?” Wrapping my arms around her waist, I pull her in close.

“I need to go home, start organizing moving my stuff, and contact my landlord. I might give Gino a call and tell him what’s going on.”

“I don’t want you working tonight. If Graves is responsible for Jodi’s death, I’d feel better if you were here with me.” She nods in agreement, reaching up and running her fingers through my hair at the side of my head.

“You okay today?” she asks, tipping her chin.

I rest my forehead against hers. “It’s just a shock.”

“Yeah. I can’t believe she’s dead.” She leans into me, dropping her hands to my chest. “Are you worried about Graves?”

“We’ll cancel his swipe card and inform security when we get to the office. I just hope he’s found soon,” I reply.

“Then we can focus on other things,” she replies.

“Better things,” I add.

I give her one last kiss before standing and pulling her up with me. “We need to get ready. I’d feel better if you came in with us and used the car service today.”

“Sounds good.”

And that’s what we did, getting ready together, then Lucia dropped Grant and I at the office and headed off in the town car to her apartment.

Around ten a.m., there is a knock on my closed office door.

“Mr. Alexander, Detective Lawrence is here to speak with you.”

“Send him in. Thank you, Annie.” She nods and steps out, the detective appearing in her place with two uniformed officers behind him.

“Callum, thank you for seeing me at such short notice.”

“Of course,” I reply, gesturing toward the chair opposite my desk.

“I wanted to keep you abreast of the developments in the case. First, I have two officers outside in reception. We have a warrant to search Gregory Graves’s desk and cubicle.”

“Go right ahead,” I say without hesitation.

“We’ll try not to cause too much of a disruption,” he adds then looks over his shoulder to the officers and nods to give them the go ahead. Turning his attention back to me, he continues, “Second, we searched Mr. Graves’s apartment a few hours ago and thought you needed to know what we uncovered.”

His words put me on edge, and I find myself automatically leaning forward in anticipation.

“From what we found, we feel that Mr. Graves has become somewhat fixated on you. He has copies of numerous newspaper articles and photos, building plans and correspondence regarding your current waterfront museum project.”

My eyes widen, my hand lifting to rub over my mouth and chin as my breath catches. Suddenly, as I run his words over in my mind, things click into place.

“I met Gregory at an alumni function. He approached me and told me his class was studying my work and he talked about Spera House in Boston, and asked about the possibility of applying for our internship program.”

“He knew what to say and when to say it?”

“Yeah,” I reply with resignation.

“We think he’s been a fan of yours for some time, but recently, something has switched his attention from admiration to fixation, and now we believe he is determined to punish you. For what, we do not know. We were hoping you could shed some light for us?”

“I honestly have no idea. He’s been working out well for us. Apart from the recent revelations from both yourself and what Grant told me this morning, he’s very skilled, is a hard worker, is willing to put in the long hours when required, and seems enthusiastic to help out.”

The detective sits back and crosses his legs, quirking an eyebrow at me. “Enthusiastic?”

“Very. Actually . . . now that I think about it, he’s been trying to show me his plans for a college project. He’s been quite determined about it, in fact. Unfortunately, I’ve had to cancel every time for one reason or another.”

“The night of your function at Santorino’s restaurant, was Mr. Graves actually out of character?”

“Not that I’m aware of. The fact he brought Jodi as his date for the evening was surprising.”

“And why’s that?” he asks.

“Because I know Jodi . . .” I look over his shoulder as my chest tightens. “Sorry, knew her. She didn’t seem like his type.”

“And what was her type?”

“To be honest? Me. She was a social climber. She went for professional, wealthy, and successful. The higher the profile, the better.”

“Do you think that in not having you, she settled for Gregory Graves?”

“The Jodi I knew would never settle for anything or anyone. She would continue on the path she’d set herself until she achieved the desired end goal—a rich husband. A grad student working for my firm does not fit into that category.”