“I can certainly leave if it will make everyone more comfortable,” I said. It would certainly make me more comfortable.
“Of course not, Doc. I would’ve told you all of this by now anyway if we were having sessions.”
I warmed. We weren’t having sessions because I had been required to take a three-week leave of absence. Gina Cates’s parents had filed a complaint against me with the medical board. If her parents were behind the attack on me, their complaint would have no bearing. However, I would first have to prove they were behind it, and I wasn’t sure I would be able to. Only Jonah and the police knew what had happened at this point, and tonight was not the time to divulge the information. Talon clearly had something else on his mind.
Talon continued, “Felicia is our housekeeper, as you know. Has Jonah told you about the business card belonging to Jade’s ex-fiancé that we found lodged underneath the carpet in her bedroom?”
I nodded.
“There are three sets of fingerprints on it. We identified one set as Larry Wade’s. Jade matched them against the attorney database. One set we have yet to identify, although we are assuming they belong to Colin himself. The third set belongs to our housekeeper, Felicia Diaz.”
“And Felicia is the nicest person in the world,” Jade piped in.
“Yes,” Marj agreed. “None of us for a minute think she could be behind any of this.”
“How did you get
her fingerprints?” I asked.
“We all had our fingerprints taken after the card was found,” Talon said. “We wanted to make sure that we could rule out anyone in the house.”
“I see,” I said.
“Anyway,” Talon said, “She’s coming here to talk to us tomorrow morning at ten. Joe, I really need you to be here.”
“Of course I will,” Jonah said.
“And Doc, feel free to join us as well.”
I shook my head. “I’ve never met Felicia, and I’m sure it would be more comfortable for her if she didn’t have a strange person there.”
“Come anyway,” Jade said. “You can keep my mother company. She’d love that.”
I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend the morning making chitchat with the former supermodel, but it would save me from being alone in Jonah’s house. “Maybe I will. I’m sure your mother is a lovely woman.”
I wasn’t speaking the truth, of course. I had heard the stories about how Brooke had abandoned Jade for her modeling career.
“Anyway, we need to talk about how to handle this,” Talon said. “Felicia’s been with us for a long time.”
“Yeah,” Jade said, “and she didn’t seem to get upset when you asked her to have her fingerprints taken.”
“True,” Talon said, “but the only reason I gave her was that I was installing the new security system that would be fingerprint identified.”
“I see,” Jonah said. “So she had no idea why we were really asking.”
“No,” Talon said.
“I think we should just be upfront with her,” Ryan said. “None of us really think she could’ve had anything to do with this.”
“But then how did her fingerprints get on the card?” Jonah asked.
“We’re all kind of stumped about that,” Marjorie said.
“Are you sure we should all be here, Tal?” Ryan asked. “She might feel like we’re ganging up on her.”
Talon rubbed his forehead. “I don’t know. Maybe you have a point.”
“I can definitely sit this one out,” Jade said. “I haven’t known Felicia for as long as the rest of you. I think the four of you siblings can handle things without me.”