know about his gambling. Maybe that's why she doesn't want to meet with me. She doesn't want to speak ill of the dead."
"There are a lot of people like that," Knox agreed. "Unfortunately, murder cases don't care about politeness."
"I'm not going to take no for an answer tomorrow," Ryan replied grimly. "I'm going to show up at her office and not leave until she talks to me. If she gives me a hard time, I'll call the detective on the case and they can bring her downtown. Perhaps she'll get the idea that we're not playing a game here."
They talked about Knox and Ryan meeting with Caroline, Danny, and Theo again. If anyone would know about Brad's gambling, it would be one of those.
"How about I order us some dinner?" Mariah offered. Ryan had had such a shit day she didn't want to ask him to fix a meal. And heaven knew she couldn't cook. She'd poison all three of them. "Pizza? Italian? Chinese? Burgers? There's a new sports bar that dropped off a menu a few weeks ago. There's cheese fries."
Ryan loved cheese fries. Or at least he had.
Knox placed his hand over his heart and sighed. "I would crawl over hot coals for a double cheeseburger. Do they have wings, too?"
"You bet."
She retrieved the menu from a drawer in the kitchen and everyone put in their order, plus she said she'd add several items to share. They'd have leftovers, too.
"Do you guys mind if I go lie down while we wait for the food?" Knox asked, his hand on the doorknob. "I didn't sleep well on the flight."
"Go ahead," Ryan urged him. "Make yourself at home."
Knox was sleeping in the guest room of Ryan's apartment.
"He may have been tired but I think he also wanted to give us some time alone," Ryan said.
"He sounds like a good friend."
"He is. I'm lucky that all of my coworkers are good people."
"I'm going to call in the order," Mariah said. "Help yourself to another beer, if you want."
She put in their order, adding a few dishes that would make nice leftovers for the next day. By the time she was finished Ryan had left the living room. She looked in her bedroom, the guest room, and then finally found him in her studio space. He still had his beer in his hand and he was studying a painting she'd hung on the wall. It was a landscape of a spot in Central Park.
Their spot.
It had been a family vacation that was half business as well. Mariah had trailed along with the Becks because she was dating Ryan and best friends with Liza. It had been a lovely spring day and she and Ryan had gone for a walk through Central Park. At one spot there had been a beautiful flower garden and they'd stopped to look at it. Holding hands and kissing like the new lovers that they were, Ryan had told Mariah that he loved her. She had, of course, happily said it back. It was one of her best memories of the past. The entire day had seemed so incredibly romantic. Like something out of a movie.
"I remember this place," he said.
"I have to admit that I still go back there whenever I visit New York. I still remember that day like it just happened."
He nodded, a smile playing on his lips. "You hung this one up. You didn't sell it."
"Because I don't normally paint landscapes, and I'm awful at it. It's not very good."
She didn't say that she'd never even tried to sell it. There's no way she could have.
"I think it's great," he said with a shake of his head. "But I'm glad you didn't sell it."
"I painted it for me."
"When did you paint it?"
He spoke so softly she almost didn't hear the question.
"Several years ago." She knew what he was really asking. "Before I got married to Bobby."
"Did you love him?"
She'd known that eventually they'd have this talk but she still wasn't quite prepared for it.
"Yes, but..."
She wasn't sure how to put it all into words.
"But...?"
"But not in the right way. I loved what he could have become, not who he was at the present. That's not a good basis for a marriage. I should have loved him for who he was."
"And he loved you."
"Yes, but I think he loved me in the same way that I loved him. He loved what he thought he could mold me into. He thought that after we got married