CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
Sitting on the hotel room bed, Riley turned to face away from her colleagues. She was trying to process what April just said.
Jilly’s birthday party had been tonight—and Riley had forgotten all about it!
On the phone, April’s voice was still explaining, “We all understood that you were on a case and you couldn’t be here. But we’ve been waiting for you to call. When you didn’t, I figured you must be in the middle of something serious—a gunfight or something life and death like that, and I hated to bother you. But Jilly’s not taking it well.”
A painful silence ensued.
In a slow, quiet voice, April said, “Oh, Mom. Please don’t tell me you forgot!”
Riley wanted so much to lie, to say something like …
“Yes, I’m sorry, but we had an urgent development and I couldn’t tea
