A real smile lit Jacob’s eyes. “I am a lucky man. Another month and my son will be here.” He gave Liam an odd look. “I hope you find someone someday, too. You deserve it, Liam.”
Did he? His last conversation with his father echoed in his head. His father suggested he take a deputy’s position in Whistler just as Jacob had. But Liam had argued, insisted he wanted more than to be a small-town deputy. He wanted to make a difference, work big cases, real investigations.
His father had looked hurt but said he understood. Liam had kicked himself every day since that conversation. He’d made his father feel his work wasn’t big enough, good enough. But his father had put his life on the line to protect the citizens in Whistler and the mountains they called home. He’d also been a good father and a devoted husband.
What could be more important than that?
Liam would give anything to turn back time. To take back the hurtful words. To tell his father how much he loved and admired him. That everything he’d aspired to do was because he wanted to make his father proud.
“Liam?” Jacob murmured. “You okay?”
Liam blinked to banish the painful images from his mind. “Yeah. Maybe once this case is solved and we get justice for Dad, I can think about it.” But not until then. He’d waited too long to see his father’s killer pay to let anything interfere.
“About the origin of the fire,” he said, steering his mind back on track. “Griff and the evidence-response team agreed that the point of origin was near the ER, in one of the storage rooms that held chemical supplies. Which was beside the records room.”
“That’s right.”
A scenario took shape in Liam’s mind. “If Inman was right about negligence in his wife’s death and there was a record of it in her file, perhaps the fire was set to destroy that evidence.”
Jacob made a clucking sound with his tongue. “If Peyton made the mistake and her job was on the line, and she was sole provider for her mother who was ill, maybe she was desperate and set the fire to destroy proof of wrongdoing. Then the fire got out of control.”
Liam tried to reconcile the compassionate nurse her coworkers bragged about with a woman who’d take a risk by doing such a thing. But he couldn’t quite make the scenario fit.
“I considered that. But the director at Golden Gardens sang Peyton’s praises. It’s hard to believe she’d endanger lives like that.”
Jacob worked his mouth from side to side. “She seemed awfully antsy when we questioned her.”
His brother had noticed it, too. Peyton presented a calm front. But the little twinge at the corners of her eyes and the way she didn’t quite make eye contact was a tell.
She was holding something back.
“Look into her financials while I drive her back to her apartment,” Liam said. “Maybe she didn’t set the fire, but she knows something and was paid to keep quiet.”
Jacob nodded agreement. “I’ll see if I can track down the other staff members on duty in the ER the night of Inman’s wife’s death. They didn’t divulge anything to Dad, but if they learn we suspect that case is connected to the fire, someone might decide to talk.”
True. Covering for an accidental mistake with a patient was one thing. But covering for an arsonist who caused multiple deaths might be heinous enough to convince a witness to come forward.
* * *
EARLY AFTERNOON SHADOWS fell across the winding mountain road as Special Agent Maverick drove Peyton back toward Golden Gardens.
With days growing shorter and clouds moving in, the misty fog rolling off the ridges and steep cliffs painted the world a smoky, eerie gray, a reminder leaves were dying, and winter would soon barrel around the corner.
Peyton shifted, knotting her hands in her lap. The FBI agent’s gaze was scrutinizing her every movement. She couldn’t blink without the sense that he was analyzing her and finding her lacking.
She’d never met a more intimidating man.
Or a more ruggedly handsome one. Instead of a suit and badge, he looked like he should be wearing a cowboy hat, tight jeans and boots and riding across the wilderness atop a stallion with the sun slanting off his chiseled face.
Heaven help her. The fact that she’d noticed his good looks was pathetic. Had to be due to the fact that she hadn’t dated in over five years. She’d been afraid to get close to anyone.
Afraid they’d see that she was a liar.
She swallowed hard. She had to maintain her composure for a few more minutes. Then she’d be back in her own place and she could crash in upon herself.
He cleared his throat. “How is your mother’s health?”
The question took her off guard and seemed innocuous enough. Except she had a feeling that everything this man did was calculating and meant to extract information he could use against her.
“She’s seventy-nine so dealing with multiple health issues,” she replied. “RA, a thyroid condition and her memory’s starting to slip.”
“That’s the reason you moved her to Golden Gardens? She needs assisted living?”
Again, she felt as if he was using his interrogation skills on her. “Yes.” She had to keep her answers as honest as possible. Still, she refrained from explaining that the security measures had also been a draw.
“Why did you take a job there instead of another hospital?”
His voice sounded concerned, not accusatory. Was he trying to wear her down by winning her trust? “I enjoy working with elderly patients,” she answered. “There’s a huge need for good medical and memory care for seniors. I also wanted to be close to my mother for as long as she’s around.”
“Do you have siblings who help out or visit?”
Peyton shook her head. She did have a younger sister. The pain from watching the addiction take control of her life until she was living on the streets wrenched at her heart. The realization that Val had sold her body for a fix caused her mother to have a nervous breakdown at one point. Peyton had worked hard to help her mother recover. But Val’s disappearance from their lives hurt as much as if they’d buried her. Maybe more, because each day they lived with the worry of where she might be, if she was hurt or sick. If she might turn up dead in a ditch or an alley.
But she didn’t like to talk about her sister.
“No, no family, just me. I promised Mama I’d be there for her, and I intend to keep that promise.”
“That’s admirable.”
She cut her eyes toward him, almost believing him. But he was an expert at his job and although he hadn’t arrested her, the Miranda Warning she’d seen on TV crime shows echoed in her head. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law...