Page 147 of Weight of Guilt

Something eased just slightly in Nash’s expression. “Yeah, he is.”

“And I’m still here. For you. Whatever you need. You saved my son’s life.” Wren looked at him another second. Then she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him.

Nash went still at first, then one arm came around her, and he pulled her close.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “For everything.”

His hold tightened for half a second.

Wren pulled back, and their eyes met. Something passed between them. Something she didn’t have the energy—or courage—to name right now.

Apparently, Nash didn’t either.

Neither of them looked away, though.

“Sorry to interrupt.” Prine had a notebook in one hand.

Wren stepped back.

“I need statements from both of you. Separately, while it’s fresh.” Prine turned to Nash. “You first.”

“Of course.”

“Before we start, I want to make sure we understand each other.” Prine let a beat go by. “You forced entry into a private residence with no warrant. You brought a civilian through that door with you. You’re on medical leave and forty miles outside anything resembling your jurisdiction. A man is on that stretcher with a hole in his chest.”

Nash didn’t answer.

“Your agency is going to open its own review. So is my office. So is the district attorney, because that’s how this works.” She clicked her pen. “The gun stays in evidence. Your phone stays with me tonight.”

“Understood.”

“You’ll be cleared.” Prine’s voice stayed even. “I’ve been doing this twenty-two years, and I can tell you how it ends. Two witnesses, a kidnapped child, a weapon in his hand.”

Nash’s jaw tightened. “That’s not the part I’m worried about.”

Something shifted in her expression. “No. I don’t imagine it is.”

Wren looked between them, and something cold worked its way up her spine. She’d heard the whole story in that hospital cafeteria. The review board. The clean report. A mother on the news saying his name.

He’d been cleared then too.

“How long?” Nash asked.

“Weeks. Months if the DA drags it.” Prine tucked the notebook under her arm. “And if he dies before morning, everything I just said gets longer and louder.”

“I know.”

“One more thing.” She glanced toward the ambulance. “You’re not part of this investigation anymore. Not the interviews, not the evidence, none of it. You’re a subject of one now. I’d have said that whether you were TBI or not.”

Nash absorbed that without argument.

Prine walked toward the cruiser and waited for him to follow.

He looked back at Wren before he went, and she couldn’t read a thing on his face.

Nash stood near the edge of the yard and watched the paramedics work around Jacob.

He knew better than to stare, but he did it anyway.