She jerked her gaze back to the road. She didn’t want to go to prison. Or for him to see that pain in her eyes. Pain she’d learned to live with. Pain she didn’t intend on sharing.
They lapsed into a strained silence as he veered past the turn to the heart of River’s Edge and followed the road leading to Golden Gardens. Nestled in the mountains, away from town, the facility offered privacy and serenity to its residents and patients. Its location and security gate also helped waylay passersby from venturing onto the property.
Her trust in strangers had been shattered five years ago. Not knowing who’d threatened her made her suspicious of every man she met.
Special Agent Maverick stopped at the gate, identified himself and was buzzed through. He followed the narrow road leading to her apartment complex in silence. The white brick building was flanked by giant live oaks and pines with the mountains rising behind.
Ever cautious, she scanned the property and was relieved to see her car still in its place. The fog thickened, enveloping her building in that same smoky gray that gave her a chill.
The agent parked, climbed out and came around to her door, but she’d already stepped from the SUV, anxious to escape his scrutiny.
His dark eyes narrowed as if he’d read her mind. “I’ll walk you to your door.”
“That’s not necessary,” Peyton said. “I have to relieve the nurse who took over my patients today and check on Mama. She’ll be wondering where I am.”
He stood ramrod straight, his look so intense that a shudder coursed up her spine. Then he removed a card from his pocket and offered it to her. “Ms. Weiss, please call me if you remember anything else about the night Inman’s wife died, or about the night of the fire.” His gaze settled over her, rattling her even more. “I know you want justice in both matters just as I do.”
Guilt nearly choked her, but she simply nodded and took the card. His fingers felt warm as they brushed hers, a sharp contrast to the coldness in his eyes. She wondered if he ever smiled.
It didn’t matter, she told herself as she unlocked her door and hurried to change into her scrubs. He was FBI.
As soon as she was dressed, she texted Joanna that she was back. She spent the next three hours tending to her assigned patients and doling out medications, then helping them to PT and to dinner. Her mother looked agitated when she joined her at their usual table.
“This strange man was here today,” her mother said as she wiped her mouth with a napkin.
Agent Maverick hadn’t spoken to her mother. He’d come straight to her place. “A man? Who was it?”
“I don’t know.” Her voice cracked the way it did sometimes when she struggled with her words. “But I didn’t like him. He smelled like cigarettes and sweat.”
Maybe her mother was just confused. Sometimes her memories blurred, and the past mingled with the present. Peyton’s father had been a smoker and died of lung cancer when she was just a kid.
“Did you talk to this man?” Peyton asked.
Her mother sniffed and pushed away her plate, her vegetables uneaten. “No, but he said he left something for you.”
Peyton went stone still. “For me? What was it?”
Her mother toyed with her napkin, folding it one way then another, as she did when she was agitated. “I don’t know, dear, but I was glad when he left,” she muttered. “I told Fred, and he checked around outside, but he said no one was there. Said my eyes were playing tricks on me.” A hint of fear that the security guard was right made her mother’s voice quiver.
But fear slithered through Peyton. On another day, she might dismiss her mother’s comment as paranoia related to her dementia. But in light of the news report, Inman’s arrest and the fact that the FBI had shown up at her door, she couldn’t ignore it.
Chapter Four
Liam’s phone buzzed just as he reached the sheriff’s office in Whistler. Early evening shadows cast a grayness over the town, made drearier by the storm clouds above. Already the days were growing shorter, night setting in and drowning the area in darkness long before Liam was ready to call it a day.
He punched Connect.
“It’s Bennett,” his partner at the Bureau said. “I’ve been looking into Peyton Weiss’s financials, but haven’t found anything suspicious. The woman seems squeaky clean. Not even a parking ticket. And no complaints ever filed regarding her work.”
“Except for her name being mentioned by Barry Inman,” Liam said.
“Yeah, that’s true. But you got me thinking, so I obtained a list of every staff member who worked at Whistler Hospital around the time of the fire, and also ones who left within six months prior to the fire.”
“Did you find anything?”
“That’s a serious list,” Bennett said with a chuckle. “It’s going to take some time to go through them.”
It had already been five damn years. But Bennett was new to the case and they could use a set of fresh eyes.
Bennett cut straight to business as usual. “So far, I did find one name you should check out. A med tech, Herbert Brantley. Thirty-five, works at River’s Edge Hospital now. But a few months after the Whistler fire, he made some fairly big purchases. A cabin on the lake, an expensive convertible and custom motorcycle.”
“The man likes to play,” Liam said. “But where did he get that kind of money?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” Bennett said. “I’ll let you know when I get some answers.”
“Any reports of misconduct or problems on the job?” Liam asked.
“Not that I’ve found. But I’ll dig deeper.”
“Jacob and I will go have a talk with him. Text me his address.”
“It’s coming your way.”
“I have another job for you, too,” Liam said. “Peyton Weiss mentioned the hospital kept a list of drug seekers who strike the ERs. She said security escorted a homeless man from the hospital that night. Hospital records were destroyed in the fire, but if he was a repeat offender, he might have gone to an urgent care or another hospital close by.”
“On it,” Bennett agreed.
Liam ended the call, then climbed from his vehicle and walked up to Jacob’s office. Jacob met him at the door. “Did Peyton Weiss reveal anything more on the way home?”
Liam shook his head. “We just talked about her ailing mother. She’s pretty devoted to her.”
“She’s hiding something,” Jacob said. “I can feel it in my bones.”
Liam gritted his teeth. “Me, too. Anything else from Inman?”