12

"An actress?" Jasp said.

Edna stood and started collecting the dishes. "Yes." Mr. Rong started helping her.

"No wonder Mom made her be a detective. Mom thought actresses are stupid," Jasper said.

"She still thinks that," I reminded him. "But that doesn't matter."

He frowned. "What do you mean?"

I stood. "I mean we'll support Lisa."

"Oh."

I raised an eyebrow. "You've always told me you want your twin to be happy. Well, we just found out today that she isn't. So we'll help make her happy."

He stood. "Ed, what if her dream changed?"

Edna snorted. "Isn't it obvious, Jasper? Even if she changed her mind you'll still support her."

I nodded. "She's right." I turned to Edna. "Thanks for the dinner. Now that I know this I want to talk to Mrs. Light."

She looked outside. "Best do it tomorrow. It's late."

I smiled. "I know. I'm not that stupid." Though I really just want to get information on her before I show up making accusations.

Jasper went to go get the kids. Edna looked me in the eye. "Please help Lisa. She's a good person and needs all the support she can get." She smiled. "Even if it's from her brother-in-law."

"Don't worry. I love my sister-in-law. I'' do anything to make her happy." I glanced at Mr. Rong. "I'm assuming he's staying the night?"

She frowned. "Yes. Why do you ask?"

I grinned. "Just make sure to use protection."

She blushed. "Edward!"

I laughed as I went out to my car. Timothy hopped in and Jasper buckled Am into her car seat. "I'll meet you at home. I have a few things to do at the lab," he said.

I kissed him. "Okay." I drove home and put the kids to bed. Then went to bed myself after a few hours of research and looking at reports. I woke when Jasper came to bed then fell back to sleep.

In the morning, I drove to the Light household. The kids ran in when I released them Not that they were going to be staying long. But Mrs. Light doesn't know that. She smiled. "They're always so happy to come here."

I nodded. "That's true. May I talk to you for a minute?" What? I'm polite even if I find something horrible about a person.

"Um, sure." We sat in the chairs on the porch. "What do you need, Edward?"

I sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. I can't believe I'm about to confront my mother-in-law. This is going to be difficult but I have some stuff up my sleeve that will help me out. "I know you made Lisa become a detective."

"I don't know what you're talking about. Lisa had wanted to be a detective."

Seriously, she's denying it even though she knows I can tell she's lying? "She had wanted to be an actress. I found out from her closest friend. Lisa had also told me right before she quit." Well, she said her mother had forced her to be a detective but I saw no reason to mention that. "You should know by now I get my facts together before I confront anyone," I added.

"Lisa quit?"

"Yes, and I'm glad she did because she should get to be what she wants."

Mrs. Light thought about it. "I'm sure I can get your boss to let her back in. The I'll…"

"Stop," I said with a little bit of anger in my voice. "Will you listen? I will not allow you to keep making her unhappy. Lisa had been a terrible detective. She never paid attention to the right things and always gave stuff that she shouldn't have away. The boss doesn't know these things because I kept them from him. Jasp and I will support her if you won't. You will not call my boss or I'll tell him you let Mr. Hoot get away with murder because he slept with you every day. Got it?" Some of the people we found in his basement had been her cases. It had shocked me when they said they found her fingerprints in Mr. Hoot's house and blood. However, it wasn't much blood because it had only been a small cut.

She blinked. "How did you find out?"

I stood and looked down at her. "I'm a detective. I do my research before I confront someone, I should be arresting you right now for helping a killer but I won't because I'm not that cruel." For now. "Just know that you're on thin ice. Kids!" I called. Am and Tim appeared. "Come one. Grandma and Grandpa can't look after you today. How about I take you to Faith's house?"

"Yay," Am said and raced Tim to the car. She won but that was only because Tim had been letting her win. Of course, he had to buckle her up then he hopped in himself.

Mrs. Light looked at me. "You're keeping them from me?" There was shock in her eyes.

I looked at her coldly. "When you've earned my trust again, you can watch them. As it is, I don't know whether you'll kill them or not and I'm not losing my kids. Jasper isn't planning to talk to you either." I left. I hated how I just resorted to blackmail but it was the only way. Though I will be arresting her later. Mostly because it's part of my job. She helped a killer, for hell's sake. Wish I had known that before we started leaving our kids with her. I dropped the kids off at Edna's and drove to Lisa's house. I knocked but got no answer. The door was locked so nobody broke in and her car was in the driveway. I circled the house and everything looked fine. I know she isn't sleeping because she can never sleep when the sun is out.

I moved back to the front door and knocked again. Still nothing and I was beginning to get worried. I grabbed the key she had given me for emergencies and went in. The house was extremely warm. "Lisa?" I called. No answer. My unease grew as I searched the bottom floor. I started upstairs already knowing that when I found her, she wouldn't be alive though I was still holding out a little hope. When I got to the top I called her name again. I searched all the rooms then turned to her bedroom.

She never let anyone in there. Not even her many boyfriends. Jasper had asked her once if she kept pictures of inappropriate things and she had said no. I had then jokingly asked if it was bodies she was hiding. She had snorted and asked if she looked like someone who could kill anyone. I had said possibly and she had dumped green paint on me while Jasper had laughed. Then she added blue for good measure. That had taken weeks to get out of my hair.

Then it took several more weeks to stop getting tricked when she said I had missed a spot. Though to be fair I did the same to her when I had dumped yellow paint into her hair for retaliation. Now it was just a good memory of all of us laughing. We tried to do it to Jasper but he caught us every time. Fine, I was stalling. But I really didn't want to go in there. I was scared of what I would find even though I already knew. I knocked on the door. "Lisa?" I said. "Are you in there?"

No answer. I bit my bottom lip. "I'm coming in." I put my hand on my gun in case I needed it and opened the door. I groaned at what I saw.

There, hanging from a ceiling fan in the middle of the room, was Lisa.