The Body in the Backyard

The fourth installment in the Riley Thorn series opens with a flash-forward to a violent Saturday shootout, then rewinds two days to show how Riley Thorn, a psychic and office manager at Santiago Investigations, and her PI boyfriend, Nick Santiago, end up defending their home from armed attackers chasing Riley's despised ex-husband.

On Halloween afternoon, Nick's birthday, two disasters arrive simultaneously. The roof of the neighboring Bogdanovich mansion collapses, sending its elderly residents through Nick and Riley's front door. These include Mrs. Penny, Nick's eighty-year-old, purple-haired business partner, along with Lily, Fred, and Mr. Willicott. Then Griffin Gentry, Harrisburg's morning news anchor and Riley's selfish ex-husband, throws himself at her feet begging for help, claiming someone is trying to kill him.

Nick loathes Griffin, but Mrs. Penny accepts Griffin's $20,000 retainer before Nick can refuse. Nick relents when he discovers that Santiago Investigations' bank account is dangerously in the red after he neglected the business while obsessing over a previous case. Riley, whose psychic abilities allow her to sense others' thoughts and receive visions from spirit guides, already knows about the financial trouble and agrees they should take the case.

Griffin's evidence is thin but escalating: a vague typed note reading "You'll pay," a prank that dyed a hot-pink G into his chest hair at a salon, and a bullet hole in his windshield. Riley's psychic vision confirms the shooting, and the team assembles a suspect list that quickly fills a whiteboard and several pages, given Griffin's lifelong habit of swindling and humiliating everyone around him. Nick assigns Josie Chan, Brian Kepner's pregnant and fiercely combative wife, as Griffin's bodyguard, while Brian, the team's wheelchair-using tech genius, runs background checks.

Nick and Riley canvass Griffin's cul-de-sac. Belinda Farnsworth, a retired Hollywood showrunner, provides a solid alibi but recounts a legal dispute over a nude statue Griffin erected facing her property. Lyle Larstein, a disgraced health insurance executive on the other side, answers in a cocaine-fueled rage. Both remain suspects.

That evening, the couple borrows formal wear and attends a masquerade gala as Griffin's undercover security. Nick provokes Ingram Theodoric III, a wealthy bank vice president who clashed with Griffin over pickleball, and Riley's vision reveals Griffin slept with someone close to Ingram. She also interviews Claudia Mendoza, the anchor Griffin's father fired years ago, who claims inner peace but still glares at Griffin across the ballroom. Later, Riley spots a shadowy figure behind Griffin on the grand staircase moments before he pitches down the stairs.

The next morning, Nick deploys Mrs. Penny undercover as Griffin's grandmother to babysit him. Nick and Riley interview Bella Goodshine, Griffin's fiancée, who shows no recognition of Riley despite multiple prior meetings, a condition her trainer attributes to "female face blindness." Riley's vision reveals Bella plans to marry Griffin, catch him cheating through a prenup infidelity clause, and collect a payout. Riley rules her out. They also meet Chupacabra Jones, Bella's personal trainer, and Henry Wu, Griffin's unpaid personal assistant.

Nick and Riley then visit Wilfred Peabody, a jeweler on the suspect list, undercover as an engaged couple. Wilfred explains that Griffin commissioned $25,000 custom cuff links and refused to pay, forcing him to close his three-generation family business. While Riley tries on a ring for their cover, Nick is struck by the realization that he wants to marry her.

That afternoon, Mrs. Penny reports a dead body in Griffin's backyard. Near the electrical meter, whose wiring has been cut with bolt cutters, lies a facedown corpse. Nick suspects Lyle Larstein electrocuted himself trying to sabotage Griffin's power. Homicide detective Kellen Weber arrives to investigate. Nick tells Griffin the threat is over and demands payment, but Griffin plays dumb. Privately, Nick steals the unpaid cuff links from Griffin's closet to return to Wilfred and notices stamps from Colombia in Griffin's passport.

The resolution does not hold. Weber reveals Larstein's death has been reclassified as a homicide, meaning the real killer is still at large. Then Griffin calls in a panic: Armed men are chasing him. The novel's opening scene plays out as Griffin crashes through Nick and Riley's gate with a powder-blue Fiat of shooters on his tail. Nick and Weber open fire from their barricade while Mrs. Penny, perched on the porch roof, fires a handgun that drops a tree branch onto the Fiat. The two shooters surrender and are arrested but refuse to speak.

At the police station, a high-powered attorney arrives with extradition papers traced to a holding company in Grand Cayman. The shooters are professional contract killers being extradited to Colombia on murder charges and are released to US marshals within hours. Whoever hired them has significant resources and remains at large. Weber agrees to an unofficial alliance with Nick, exchanging leniency on minor infractions for shared information.

Brian's background checks reveal troubling connections. Claudia visited family in Colombia, the country where the shooters face murder charges. Ingram comes from a wealthy family with a history of violence. Chupacabra placed herself as Bella's trainer shortly after her cousin Pete lost his livelihood to Griffin's fraudulent injury lawsuit. Riley also stumbles into a Griffin Gentry Sucks Support Group at a grocery store. The group's organizer, Kiki Knappenberger, makes a veiled offer involving "a tarp, a shovel, and no questions."

Danger escalates during a live TV interview at Griffin's house when someone sabotages a studio light. Riley's psychic flash gives her just enough warning: She and Nick shove Griffin and Bella clear as the heavy fixture crashes where they had been sitting. The rescue airs live, making Nick and Riley publicly known as Griffin's protectors. Nick moves the entire group to his parents' house as a safe house.

Nick leaves before dawn with a plan. After a day managing the household, Riley receives his call to bring Griffin home. At Griffin's house, Nick has assembled every top suspect for a dramatic reveal inspired by The Thin Man films Riley gave him for his birthday. Standing on a coffee table with a slide presentation, he exposes each suspect's motive: Kiki's stalking, Chupacabra's undercover infiltration, Claudia's bitterness, Henry's confession to the waxing prank, and Ingram's violent temper. Riley's vision shifts the picture: Griffin's mysterious "medical leave" and slightly increased height point to cosmetic surgery performed abroad.

The real culprit reveals himself. Dr. Byron Dilbert, a fugitive New York plastic surgeon who faked his own death after botching a mob boss's surgery, enters through a second-floor window and holds the room at gunpoint. Having fled to Colombia with stolen mob money, Dilbert rebuilt his practice and took out life insurance policies on clients who might skip their bills. Griffin received calf-extension surgery to gain an inch of height and refused to pay. When Dilbert's hired killers failed, he came to finish the job himself. Nick distracts him by smashing Griffin's portrait over his head, Josie throws a knife that pins the doctor's gun hand, and Weber's tactical team storms the house.

In the aftermath, Nick proposes to Riley in Griffin's kitchen with a cushion-cut engagement ring quietly purchased from Wilfred's store. He tells her she is his partner in everything and confesses he kept the proposal hidden from her psychic abilities by following their spiritual adviser Gabe's deliberately bad advice not to plan anything in advance. Riley says yes. Jasmine Patel, Riley's best friend and attorney, arrives with legal documents formalizing Riley as an equal partner in Santiago Investigations.

Mrs. Penny ensures Griffin pays by revealing a clause her lawyer great-nephew Billy inserted into the contract: Every minute Griffin delays payment, the fee increases by $10,000. Griffin panics and writes a $50,000 check, and Nick distributes portions to those Griffin wronged. As the couple heads upstairs, Riley's nose twitches with a new psychic signal hinting at more trouble ahead. They choose to ignore it, at least for tonight.