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“We can do that.” He urged Nina forward. “Let’s go. Follow that ambulance.”

Jackson gave Nina the front seat while he took the back.

“Do you think she hired Zane and the others to come after me because my father asked her to?” Nina asked after a few minutes of silence.

That was a question swirling around in his mind, too. “I don’t know. But you can be sure we’ll ask him about that, among other things.”

“Okay.” Nina glanced at the officer driving, then fell silent. Jackson suspected she had other questions about the case, too, but had decided to wait until they were alone.

Once they were in the emergency department, the medical staff cut through Corrine’s zip ties to examine her. As soon as they’d finished, Jackson took the cuffs from Officer Sands and slapped one around her wrist and the other to the frame of the bed.

“That’s hardly necessary,” Corrine protested.

“It’s our protocol for all suspects in custody.” Jackson wasn’t swayed by her words. “You tried to flee the scene of the crime and that makes you a flight risk.”

“I was interviewing my client,” Corrine insisted. “Nothing more.”

“Tell it to the judge.” Jackson secretly wished he’d recorded the bit of conversation he’d overheard. But he hadn’t. At this point he could only hope and pray Zane Cartland saw the light and cooperated with the investigation by agreeing to testify against Corrine.

Nina tugged on his arm, drawing him a few feet from Corrine’s bed. “Is it possible she’ll skate on this? That the conversation you overheard will be deemed inadmissible because of attorney-client privilege?”

“No, I don’t think so.” He took her hand and gave it a quick squeeze. “For one thing, they were talking outside in the open, not in a closed conference room. And for another, you heard Zane. He’s already figuring out that he’s in deep trouble. I’m sure Creed will convince him to save himself. She’ll go down for her role in this, Nina.”

“I hope so.” Nina gripped his hand tightly. “She deserves jail time and more. The way she used her clients as hit men is despicable.”

“Agreed.” He longed to pull her into his arms, but a commotion out in the hallway caught his attention.

“I don’t care if she’s in custody, I demand to see my wife!”

Another part of the protocol was to deny prisoners any visitors. That was because there were several cases across the country where a visitor had smuggled a weapon into the hospital to help a prisoner escape.

In this case, though, Jackson wanted to see Douglas Tillman for himself. As it turned out, Tillman didn’t bother to follow the rules. The man barged into the room, stopping abruptly when he saw Nina standing there.

“Anna? Is that you?” The older man’s shocked reaction was too genuine to be faked.

The guy’s expression said it all. There was no doubt in Jackson’s mind that Nina was this man’s daughter.

FIFTEEN

Nina stared at the man who had fathered her. Douglas’s probing gaze made her feel uncomfortable. It was as if he were seeing her mother again, after all these years.

But then he seemed to gather himself. “I’m sorry, you’re too young to be Anna. You must be—her daughter?” He glanced briefly at Jackson, then asked, “Is your mother here with you?”

Nina stared at him, her eyes narrowing with suspicion. Was he a good actor or did he really not know that Anna Lange had been killed?

“No.” Nina regarded him coolly. “My mother was murdered ten days after I was born.”

“Murdered?” Douglas fell back a step, as if he’d taken a round to the chest. “No, that’s impossible.”

Nina sucked in a breath, watching him closely. He truly seemed shocked by the news.

“Oh, it’s true,” she said. “And even worse, her murder was never solved. My mother was a Jane Doe, badly beaten and then shot in the abdomen. She crawled to a fire station with me cradled in her arms. I was Baby Girl Doe. The firefighter who found us adopted me. My name is Nina Dobson. Trust me when I say my mother was brutally murdered.” Douglas’s face blanched, but she pushed forward. “Maybe you can explain how that happened?”

“Me?” He appeared dumbfounded. “I would never have hurt Anna. I loved her.”

“You idiot!” Corrine glared at her husband. “Shut up, Doug. Just shut up!”

Nina glanced at Jackson, who was watching their interaction with interest. “Are you sure you didn’t kill my mother? Because you didn’t want anything to do with me, your daughter?”