Still, he asks why she feels the need to use a fake name.

Nicki responds, “I’m no longer that girl. I wanted to put that name and that life behind me.”

Broadus says, “Then why not make it legal? Why not go to court and have your name legally changed?”

And Nicki says, “I planned to. I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.”

I ask, “How long have you been using the alias?”

Detective Broadus answers for her: “Eighteen months.”

Which of course is the exact amount of time I’ve known her.

Mom says, “Detective, I appreciate all the hard work you’ve put into this, but Nicki’s clearly got nothing to do with my husband’s death. She’s a friend of the family, and I regret that your comments last night made us doubt her.”

Broadus says, “Miss Walker?”

Nicki says, “If you want my cooperation you’ll call me Nicki Hill.”

“Very well. Miss Hill, would you be willing to take a polygraph?”

“About what?”

“I’d like to see what the polygraph says about you having a sexual relationship with David Thorne, or if you were blackmailing him.”

We all look at Nicki, who says, “If I take the test and pass it will you accept the result and guarantee no police officer or detective will ever question me about this again?”

“Absolutely.”

“Will you put it in writing?”

“We don’t work that way.”

“Then no. Sorry.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s one more thing, and I haven’t done anything wrong. You know for a fact I wasn’t even in Lexington when David hanged himself, and nor did I have an affair with him, and nor did I ask him for money, and nor did I keep the money he sent. I’ve never committed a crime and never used my old or new names for illegal purposes.”

“You didn’t want the money David offered?”

“Of course I did. But I’m not a prostitute.”

“I didn’t claim you were.”

“You claimed I was blackmailing him.”

“Weren’t you?”

“Of course not.”

“You said you never asked him to pay you the money.”

“That’s correct.”

“Yet he wired the money to your personal account.”

“So?”

“If you weren’t blackmailing him, how did he know your account information?”

“What do you mean?”

“How did he know your personal bank account number and the bank’s routing number? It seems to me the only way he’d know that is if you told him where to wire the money.”

6.

NICKI ROLLS HER eyes because once again Detective Broadus is making her look bad when she’s done nothing wrong.

“I’ll take this one,” I say. “Dad does all our taxes. Last year he offered to do Nicki’s, and she didn’t want to impose, but this year she said yes. So he had all her financial information, including her checking account number.”

Broadus frowns and looks at Rudd.

Rudd shakes his head.

I can see it in their eyes: they’re done. Mom sees it too, and says, “Detective? Please. Let it go. We just want to move on.”

Broadus says, “It doesn’t bother you that your husband sent this young, good-looking lady a million dollars?”

“Of course it does,” she snapped. “But it bothers me a lot more that my husband was a pervert who stole her panties and drooled over her naked pictures and wanted to run off with her, and it bothers me he got naked and hanged himself and that my daughter had to find him like that, and…” her voice trails off, and Detective Broadus says, “I’m sorry, ma’am. To be honest, the reason I’ve pursued this line of questioning so aggressively is the department only gave us 24 hours to wrap this case up, and because of the…circumstances surrounding your husband’s death we knew the insurance company would be all over us to be as thorough as possible.”

Detective Rudd adds, “Although we have some lingering doubts about Miss Hill’s influence on your husband’s actions, we can’t pursue her personal and financial records without extending our time frame, and the scope of our investigation. If you’re satisfied we’ve done our job, our report will show it’s our opinion Mr. Thorne’s death was accidental.”

“Thank you,” Mom says. “And yes, we’re satisfied you’ve covered all the bases.”

Jess says, “Detective Broadus? I think you owe Nicki an apology.”

Broadus says, “That would be pushing it.”

Nicki says, “Thanks, Jess. Detective Broadus? No hard feelings. In fact, if anything ever happens to me I hope you and Detective Rudd get the case. But with regard to this case, I’ve done nothing wrong.”

“Let’s put it this way, Miss Hill: if you did, you got away with it.”

I can’t help but notice the effect his words have on Mom: she’s visibly agitated. And when the detectives finally leave, she says, “Nicki, you and I need to talk. Just the two of us. Would that suit you?”

And Nicki says, “I’m looking forward to it.”

And Mom says, “Let’s go to my room.”

7.

Jessie

THE FIRST TIME Michael brought Nicki home to meet the family we were worried as hell because all his previous girlfriends turned out to be worse than zombie crypt creepers. But Nicki made such a good impression we couldn’t believe his good fortune.

“What’s your opinion?” Daddy asked, after her first family interrogation.

“I love her,” I said, and if I didn’t mean it literally at the time, I soon did. Nicki built an instant rapport with me by doing something no brother’s girlfriend—or anyone else—would ever do: after dinner she said, “Jessie, I’d like to get to know you better. Would you show me your room?”

Michael said something stupid, like, “Her room’s a disaster,” but Nicki instinctively knew that was the perfect way to discover the real me. So she followed me into my room, closed the door behind us, sat on my bed and said, “I’m gonna tell you something about me that no one in the whole world knows.