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I had no sooner returned to my apartment from the diner when my purse rang its annoying ringtone. I dug through it until I found the burner phone and flipped it open.
“Cliff. Any news?”
“On Felding?” he asked, and I rolled my eyes.
“No, on Frosty the Snowman.”
His chuckle was light. “I guess that was a stupid question. We don’t have Felding yet, but we have a couple of leads. Fair warning, once he’s back in custody, everything changes.”
“How so?” I asked, lowering myself to the chair. I was fighting the anxiety that I always got when talking to Cliff. It was hard not to feel like I was the one who’d done something wrong.
“While not an admission of guilt, jumping bail and going on the run means he’s now facing a myriad of new charges. If we can prove he has money stashed overseas, that adds to the case too.”
“You’re saying the trial won’t be in January?”
“I’m saying in my years of experience, this will change the landscape. It will depend on the judge he draws when we get him back and if any deals end up on the table.”
“Deals? Please tell me Felding isn’t going to walk for this.”
“I can’t tell you that, Hazel, and you know it. This little stunt he pulled makes it far less likely, though.”
“So, there’s that,” I said with a sigh. “All is quiet here, and no new people are hanging around town.”
“There would be no way for you to know that.”
When I laughed, it released the pressure in my chest and reminded me how much this town had changed me. “Trust me, Cliff. No one gets past Ivy Lund and Audrey Violet. If someone is watching me, they’re doing it from afar.”
“Which is also a real possibility. It’s not as if you’re following the rules and staying out of the public eye.”
My gaze dropped to the flyers on my table about the sleep-out. Did he know about it? It didn’t matter, in truth. It broke the rules, but my choices were slim.
“I have to do what the job requires, Cliff. I’m not in witness protection.”
“Maybe not, but you also can’t make our job harder.”
“You guys put me here!” I exclaimed in frustration. “What did you think was going to happen?”
“Nothing when Felding was in our custody. Now, every ball is in play.”
“That sounds like a you problem,” I spat.
“That may well be, but now it’s also a you problem if you aren’t willing to come in.”
“I won’t live in a safe house for months while the FBI screws up this case. Forget it.”
“Fine, but you need to keep your eyes open and stop putting yourself in situations that could potentially make you discoverable. We’ll talk in a few days.”
Rather than say goodbye, I slammed the phone shut and threw it on the table. Guilt filled me. I desperately wanted to tell Irving the truth about why I was in Bells Pass. Even if the FBI would let me, I wouldn’t do it. If Irving knew, I could be putting him at risk too. I couldn’t be the reason he got hurt. They had to find Felding soon. If they didn’t, and he somehow tracked me down, there was no telling what he might do.
That said, I doubted he’d go to the bother to find me. Dr. Felding was great at embezzling and defrauding insurance and Medicare, but he’d never been violent. Then again, when people are cornered, they tend to lash out in an attempt to save their hide. I had to remember that going forward.
If my Christmas wish comes true, Cliff will have Dr. Felding back in custody within a few days, and I can stop worrying about the boogeyman waiting for me around every corner. I grabbed a candy cane from the bowl on the table and pulled the wrapping off. When stressed, they were the only thing to make me feel a little better. How could you not feel happy when eating a candy cane? The peppermint soaked into my tongue, and I sighed with contentment. I was an easy woman to please as long as you had a steady supply of candy canes, or suckers, as Irving called them.
I ran Dr. Felding’s case back through my head and sighed. I may have been the one to turn him in, but the documents they found in his office did the real damage. His legal team had much bigger problems to deal with. At this point, getting rid of me does nothing to help their case and everything to pound more nails in the coffin of a man who doesn’t deserve the title of human being, much less doctor. When this was over, I’d make it my mission to let the entire world know that Dr. Travis Felding is a lying sack of humanity.
Chapter Eight
After a shower to shake off my talk with Cliff, I lowered myself to the couch with a notebook and a cup of tea. While we’d gotten a lot done on the event at the diner, there was still plenty to do. In order to keep track, I planned to write it all out in a timeline pattern.
