“That other guy you mentioned. Duquette. He dead, too?”
There didn’t seem much point in lying. “Yes. Unfortunately.”
He whistled through his teeth. “Then no offense, but glad I don’t know him.”
Even though it went against her nature, she reached over and touched Darin’s hand. “I’ve got to go. But I promise Tanner will look into what’s going on with your transfer.”
“Sounds like your man has trouble enough of his own to worry about.”
She nodded and let go of his hand. “He does. But I’m going to make sure that gets cleared up. And once I do, he won’t forget about you.”
He just gave a one-shoulder shrug. “I won’t hold my breath. I’ve been forgotten by damn near everyone.”
Before she could say anything further, he stood and walked toward the door.
THEHOURBREEwas inside the prison was one of the longest of Tanner’s life. He alternated between cursing himself for allowing her to do this at all and remembering that she was a genius and had handled circumstances worse than this since she was twelve years old.
Still, seeing her walking toward him with her unnaturally blond hair meant he could finally let out the breath he’d been holding for the past hour. Her gait was leisurely, and she was pretending to talk on the telephone—both smart. Nothing about her drew any sort of attention. She could be one of any hundreds of women her age walking across a parking lot.
He forced himself to stay in the car. It was the least he could do in order to help her sell her act.
But it took every ounce of his control not to grab her and pull her into his arms and never let her out again.
“Any problems?” he asked when she got in beside him.
“We have all sorts of problems, but if you’re asking if I had any trouble getting inside, then no.”
Thank God. Tanner started the car and pulled out of the parking lot. “Okay, so what were the problems?”
She began taking out the pins that held her wig in place. “This is probably going to sound like I’m just trying not to start my sexual experience as part of a conjugal visit with you...but you can’t turn yourself in yet.”
He swallowed a bark of laughter. This woman. “Colorado doesn’t allow conjugal visits, but I’ll still hear you out on why I can’t turn myself in yet.”
“I think this is all more complicated than we even thought.”
He didn’t even try to stop himself from rolling his eyes. “Of course it is. What did you find out?”
“I don’t think Darin Carrico had anything to do with the murders. I told him Anders and Newkirk were dead, and he legitimately seemed surprised.”
“What about the emails he sent?”
“I don’t think he sent them at all. Someone just made it look like he did. If I look a little deeper, I wouldn’t be surprised if I found the emails hadn’t originated from Camp George West at all. Damn it, I should’ve looked into that further rather than take it at face value. It was stupid.”
He reached over and placed his hand on hers, which had curled up into fists on her lap. One of his hands could cover both of hers. “Hey. You’re doing the best you can under much less than optimal circumstances. If it wasn’t for you, I’d be sitting in a cell with zero information about what was going on.”
“It was still a careless mistake.”
“Yeah, well, your mistakes are still providing us forward progress, so let’s focus on that. If you don’t think Carrico has anything to do with the murders, then who do you think is involved?”
“I think all the answers might be withGlenCarrico, not Darin. Evidently he somehow knows Michalski’s wife, and I think Glen might be the one who hacked the doctor’s files.”
“And he’s setting up his brother to look like the murderer? They seemed pretty friendly a few days ago.”
“No, I don’t think so. I’ll have to dig deeper about the emails. But I definitely think Glen is the puzzle piece we’ve been missing in all this.”
He squeezed her hands. “Then you’re right. It’s time to pay the other Carrico brother a visit.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
