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“What did you say?” She stared at him.
“I said I know you didn’t kill Matthew.” He’d caused her to pause. Good. “When I returned to the country and found you’d been convicted, I investigated the case as much as I could.”
“What did you find?”
“Dead ends.” He hated saying that. “But I kept trying to find Matt’s killer until my boss got after me for spending time on a closed case that wasn’t even in our jurisdiction. That still didn’t stop me. I did what I could on my own time, but then... I couldn’t do it anymore.”
She gave an indifferent shrug, like she didn’t believe him, then turned to the dog. “Jasper, get in the car.”
The dog looked at Brett. He nodded for the animal to do what she’d said. The golden retriever jumped onto the back seat. Brett threw the leash in with the dog.
She looked at the SUV, then back to him as though saying, “Now it’s your turn.”
Brett climbed in. “I know you’ve never cared for me, but I owe it to Matt to help you.”
“How would you help now?” She stared at him.
“If I took you in, I could do more research into the case because you would be in my custody.” He hoped she would go for it.
“I’m not going back to prison.” She shook her head and tossed the cuffs onto his lap. Keeping the gun on him, she said, “Put it on one wrist and then attach the other cuff to the grab handle above you.”
“Come on, Dania.”
No emotion crossed her face. She gestured with the gun to hurry up.
With great reluctance, he did what she said.
She shut the door and raced around the vehicle. She placed the grocery sack on the console and set his coffee in the mug tray before getting behind the wheel.
“Did you look at the newspaper in the bag?” Brett hoped that would get her attention. He wasn’t having much luck trying to convince her that he was on her side.
“Why should I?” She started the engine.
“Your son is on the front page.”
She froze a second, then flipped on the dome light.
Dania pulled the newspaper from the bag and stared at the picture. Her finger lightly stroked the image of her child.
“He looks like you.” Brett wasn’t just saying that. He meant it.
“No, he doesn’t.” Her voice broke. “He looks like Matthew.” She tore the picture out of the paper and undid the top button of her shirt to place the picture inside, over her heart, then she wiped tears from her cheeks.
He couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. The pain it gave her to see her child with the man who had pretty much made certain she went to prison must cut deep.
She stuffed the rest of the paper back inside the bag and peered into the sack. Sticking her hand in, she pulled out the fruit pie. “I’m starving. Don’t mind if I have this, do you?”
Though he’d eaten only a candy bar before the stakeout, he knew she had to be hungrier than he was. “Go ahead.”
She tore off the wrapper and pushed up the small turnover-shaped pie. Taking a bite, she shifted into gear and pulled out.
“Where are we going?” Brett doubted she would tell him, but he wanted to keep her talking.
“Away from here.” She took another bite and licked cherry goo from her lips.
“Look, Dania, I can help you now. Really, I can.”
“I heard you were out of the country during my trial. Where were you?” She kept her eyes on the road as she ate.
