Knocking on the front door to the Oakley house, Rush sighed as she realised she hated doing this part. Having to ask a father if he had murdered his daughters lover to stop her from being hurt like her cousin had before realising that he'd done it himself by taking away the father to her child was always going to be hard.

The man answered and she could have sworn for half a second she saw the old Joseph Oakley, his face wrinkling with disgust at the sight of police officers standing at his door. "Come on detectives, can't you a let an old man hang out on his own?"

"Your wife not in, Mr Oakley?"

"My wife is out with her friends not that it's any concern of yours."

"Oh that's good Mr Oakley. Because it's you we want to talk to." Scotty said before stepping in after Lily and moving towards the living room where Joseph was heading.

"What do you want now?"

"You knew about Daniel and Jordan's relationship."

"If you could call it a relationship." Joseph snorted leaning back in his armchair, his fingers lacing together in his chest.

"You don't call it a relationship?"

"No disrespect to my niece, I love her to pieces she's like a daughter to me, but back then she was a little easy and didn't know when it was best to say no."

"So you didn't see anything happening with between them?"

"Definitely not. I mean, Jordan believed she was in love with a new guy every week! I knew that she "loved" Daniel." What was bad he actually used air quotes as he said the word loved. "And I knew she'd move on just as quick."

"So you didn't do anything about the whole relationship?"

"Are you accusing me of killing Daniel, Detective Rush?"

"Are you suggesting that you didn't?"

"Not suggesting. Telling." He said coldly before laughing over at him. "I'd never hurt Louise like that. She'd fallen hard for Daniel. And Hallie was so close to him too." He stopped for a minute and looked down at his feet. "Their grandmother had fallen ill just a couple of months before he arrived and I hadn't seen them so happy. It was amazing to know that something could light up their faces again."

The two girls came flying into the living room, their hands linked as they laughed happily looking over at their parents. "Hey, guess what!" Hallie said tying to control her over excited laughter.

"What?" Their father asked from the computer, his eyes never leaving the screen.

"We made friends with Daniel Hunt again!" Louise said throwing their arms into their air and making them both jig together.

"I thought last time you guys spoke to each other he had…" He stopped as he turned to look at them. He could see their beautiful smiles again. The ones that reached their ears and made their eyes sparkle with happiness. "I'm so happy for you guys."

"We are too…" Hallie cheered before taking hold of Louise and pulling her out of the room again, causing Joseph to chuckle again.

"I'll always remember that smile. The way the two of them literally looked as if they were dancing on air." He whispered fighting back tears.

Lily felt tears forming in her eyes as she looked over at Scotty, knowing somewhere deep inside that Joseph Oakley wasn't Daniel's killer.

****

Louise Oakley sat in her bed, she'd never felt so sick before. She'd always known that with her illness she'd always feel bad. And sometimes she'd feel like praying for her life to over. But now she knew it was a different feeling rumbling around in her stomach. She knew and felt as if her life was nearly coming to an end and she knew there was one thing left in her world to do.

She looked over at her son who had just entered the room. "Danny?"

"Yes mother?"

"Can you ring them two detectives? I have something they might want to know."

"Mother?"

"You'll know soon enough." She promised without a smiling.

***

Lily stepped out of the house, wrapping her coat tighter around her as she battled with the bite of the fresh air, before turning to look at Scotty. "It wasn't him."

"I've never seen a man that size nearly break down in tears." Scotty grumbled and Lily sensed how awkward it must have felt. Men always reacted like that.

"It's okay." She whispered squeezing the top of his arm gently and smiling at him before reaching into her pocket for her cellphone that was buzzing. "Rush…" She waited a couple of minutes. "We'll be right over." She turned to look at Scotty again. "Louise Oakley wishes to speak to us."

"What about?"

"Your guess is as good as mine."