AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Where would this end? Ryker didn’t know. Both of them could walk away with a broken heart when it was all said and done. Fear was an insidious thing. It crept in at unexpected times and he’d always moved back to a safe position with romantic relationships. He’d never leaned forward.
Hannah made him want to choose differently.
But could he?
TWENTY
Two hours later, Hannah leaned back in her chair with a sigh of contentment. The center of the table was littered with the remnants of lunch. Fried chicken, creamy mashed potatoes, and all the homemade rolls had disappeared. A few lone vegetables littered one platter. The only thing better than the food had been the conversation. Seated around the table were Ryker’s colleagues and his family. As if by unspoken agreement, everyone had avoided discussing the case. Instead, there had been funny stories and lighthearted teasing.
Charlotte was nestled on Ryker’s lap. When she’d fussed, bored with being in her highchair, he’d scooped her up so Hannah could continue eating. The baby looked so tiny against him. And happy. Ryker patiently rattled a toy for her amusement, and when the baby knocked it from the table, he picked it right back up. Hannah couldn’t stop watching them. Even now, her gaze drifted in their direction.
What would it be like to have Ryker as a husband? She mentally gave herself a shake for even pondering the question. Hannah wasn’t some schoolgirl with a crush, and one stolen moment was a far cry from a lifetime commitment. Their shared kiss had gone straight to her brain and hijacked her thoughts. But, oh, what a kiss. Her cheeks heated with the memory of it.
Ryker met her gaze across the table. Some hint of her secret thoughts must’ve been written in her expression, because his mouth tipped up in a heart-stopping grin. When her cheeks heated more, his smile widened, and he winked. She tore her gaze away from his under the pretense of wiping her hands on a napkin. From the corner of her eye, Hannah caught Ryker’s mom watching her with a curious expression on her face. Then Zoe’s gaze went to her son. A smile played on her lips.
Goodness. Had their exchange been noticed? It certainly seemed that way. Fear threatened to creep in, but Hannah refused to allow it. These feelings for Ryker felt good. It’d been a long time since she’d even thought about a man romantically. Maybe things would end with her heart broken, but right now, she didn’t have the energy to fight these growing feelings.
“Mrs. Montgomery, you outdid yourself.” Claire, dressed in her sheriff’s uniform, pushed away from the table. “The food was fantastic, and I hate to break up the party, but I’ve got a to-do list that would make you weep. You won’t mind if I steal some of your guests away for our meeting, will you?”
“Not at all.” Zoe stood. “Y’all go on into the living room. I’ll make coffee and bring in dessert.”
Ryker’s cousin, Walker, and his wife, Hayley, jumped up to clear the table. Jack stood and waved for Ryker to hand over Charlotte. The baby went willingly to his dad, her plump hand patting his weathered cheek. It seemed everyone in the Montgomery family had a way with kids.
Hannah went into the living room and took a seat on the couch. Ryker joined her, sitting close enough to brush her leg with his. The contact sent a bolt of electricity through her body. She leaned into the touch. Took comfort from it. Whatever news Claire and the others had to share, she wouldn’t have to face what came next alone.
“Dusty Stillman is still missing.” Gavin sat in an armchair before turning to face Hannah and Ryker. “But we’ve made significant progress in uncovering his connection to the Andersons. Eli and I”—he waved a finger between them—“interviewed everyone who worked for Thomas and Julie. Other than Lorrie, no one remembered seeing Dusty in the office. We confirmed Julie was acting strangely in the weeks before her murder. If you remember, at the time, we thought she’d uncovered Thomas’s affair. Now we believe it was more serious than that.”
“More serious?” Hannah frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Julie was writing fake prescriptions to factitious patients. Initially, we believed that was the connection to Dusty. He’s a known drug dealer, after all. But further investigation proved that she wasn’t the one entering the electronic prescriptions into the system and sending them to the pharmacy. It was done after hours. We can prove she was at social events or with her family during those times.”
Ryker inhaled. “Thomas was using her name.”
“Precisely.” Eli leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees. “Since Julie was a dentist, she could write narcotics prescriptions. She and her husband shared an office and staff. Thomas was smart enough to use her name in case the authorities figured out what was going on. We suspect that’s what Julie uncovered before she was murdered. Looking through her computer history again, we noticed she was tracing the prescriptions. Times they were written. Pharmacies that were used. Julie was slowly putting the pieces together.”
Hannah’s mind whirled. “She was going to turn him in.”
“I believe so.” His gaze darkened. “Julie discovered her husband was having an affair, but she was pregnant and told multiple friends that she wanted to make the marriage work. But then she must’ve figured out Thomas was responsible for the fake prescriptions written in her name.”
“Thomas could’ve told Dusty that Julie was on to them? She was digging around in the files for a while. He might’ve figured out she was suspicious. That could explain the confrontation between Thomas and Dusty in the parking lot a few weeks before the murder. Maybe Dusty threatened to hurt them both if Thomas didn’t take care of the situation.” Hannah inhaled. “Or he and Thomas planned her murder together. Could Dusty have stabbed her?”
“It’s unlikely. Julie’s killer, based on the angle and positioning of her wounds, was left-handed. Kristin’s was right-handed. It’s possible the same killer committed both crimes—a certain percentage of the population is ambidextrous—but it’s more probable that we’re looking at two different perpetrators.”
“Thomas is left-handed,” Ryker said. “That’s another reason I suspected he’d killed Julie. Is Dusty right-handed?”
“His friends say he is.”
Hannah rose and started pacing the length of the living room. “Okay, let’s run through it from the beginning. Thomas uses his wife’s name to write fake narcotic prescriptions. Dusty, a known drug dealer, pays him for every transaction and Thomas hides the money in a bookcase at his office. At some point, Julie realizes someone is writing fake prescriptions under her name. She becomes paranoid because she can’t figure out which staff member it is. Then she discovers her husband is having an affair with his nurse, Lorrie. Suspicious, Julie digs in further and uncovers Thomas is also responsible for the fake prescriptions. That’s the final straw. She confronts Thomas—or he figures out she’s turning him into the police—and he kills her.”
Eli nodded. “After Julie’s murder, our investigation leads to Thomas. We arrest him. At first, he believes a talented lawyer will get him out of it. But as the trial gets closer, he becomes more desperate and enlists his old friend Dusty for help. They come up with a scheme to make it look like Julie’s killer is still out there. The break-in at your house, the attack at the courthouse, and Kristin’s murder are all connected. Each time Dusty screws up, he falls back and comes at it with a different approach.”
Ryker leaned forward. “Can we prove Thomas and Dusty are communicating?”
“Unfortunately not.” Claire rested her hands on her duty belt. “Thomas is under house arrest and wearing an electronic ankle monitor, so there’s only so many places he can go. Court, his lawyer’s office, and church. We got a search warrant for Thomas’s house and tore it apart. We didn’t find a burner phone. There haven’t been any strange withdraws from his bank accounts. Nothing to indicate he’s paying Dusty or coordinating with him.”
“My paralegal, Pam, suggested Thomas is too smart to risk communicating with Dusty directly,” Hannah said. “I agree with her. I think he’d use a go-between. Initially, I suspected it was his girlfriend, Lorrie, but they broke up and she seemed genuinely remorseful about the affair.”
“We looked into her.” Gavin rolled his shoulders as if his back was bothering him. “She’s telling the truth about the breakup. Both Lorrie and Thomas spoke to friends about it and haven’t been seen together in public since. We also confirmed Lorrie was out of town working in San Diego when these recent attacks started. That doesn’t mark her off the suspect list, but it lends credence to her statement.”
