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Hayley looked at Brett as if she didn’t know if she could trust him, then she nodded at Dania. “I don’t want to cause trouble. I’ve come before, but no one was here. I sat in the dark at her dining room table and told her my worries. Her spirit is strong in the house.”
She seemed sincere, but Brett wasn’t buying it. He pulled Dania aside so Hayley couldn’t hear. “What a load of—You’re not believing her, are you?”
Dania stepped away. “Why not?”
“Oh, I don’t know, maybe because her reason has a big enough hole in it that a herd of buffalo could stampede through.” Frustrated that he had to explain this to Dania, he stopped talking. He needed to give her the benefit of a doubt. She wasn’t an officer. She hadn’t dealt with people who could look as innocent as a child and then stab you with a shiv. But he at least believed that because of Dania’s years of incarceration and everything she’d been through, she’d be a bit more suspicious of people. She needed to be suspicious.
He spoke as sternly as he could. “There’s something else going on here.”
“What makes you think so?” She leaned her head to one side.
As much as he didn’t want to, he was going to have to spell this out. “Maybe because earlier today, I stirred a hornet’s nest by talking with Val. Or it could be that my boss is having doubts about me. Or the fact that she was wearing a ski mask when I found her. She wouldn’t need that to commune with a spirit. Or—and this is a very big one—it’s because I’m hiding a fugitive in the same house this woman wanted to break into. It’s not a coincidence. Her trying to break into Gran’s is a major red flag. I’ve got all sorts of alarms going off in my head. I don’t believe her for one second.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw another figure dodging behind the house on the west side. “What is this, a rodeo where all the crazies show up?”
Dania spun around. “What are you talking about?”
“I don’t have time to explain. Get in the car, and you two stay down.” Brett didn’t wait to see if she did what he’d told her to do. Whoever was out there now, Brett was pretty certain, wasn’t coming to visit Gran’s spirit.
He took off at a dead run.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Dania watched Brett disappear intothe night again. He’d been so upset with her. And she really couldn’t blame him. She needed to find out the real reason Hayley was here. Dania crawled into the rear passenger seat to talk with her. “Brett will be right back.”
“What is his damage?”
“Any number of things, really. With good cause, I might add.” Not wanting to dwell on Brett and what he was doing, she decided to change the subject.
Dania knew Hayley was the oldest in her family of six. Her father worked at Wheeler’s cattle auction, and her mother suffered from rheumatoid arthritis so badly that she rarely left the house and had been confined to a wheelchair.
Years ago, Hayley had brought her mother into the ER when she’d caught the flu. With her mother immunocompromised, she’d become deathly ill. She’d been admitted to the hospital. That had been the last time Dania had seen Hayley. Perhaps her mother’s arthritis had improved and Hayley had started a family of her own. “Did you get married?”
“No.” She turned away and stared out the window.
That was the wrong question to ask. And it could be the reason she wanted to talk with Brett’s grandmother’s spirit.
Still, Dania couldn’t get over the fact that Hayley happened to come for the visit while Dania was there. Brett was right. It couldn’t be a coincidence.
Dania needed to see what else Hayley would tell her. “Who is the father of your child?”
“None of your business.” Not looking at Dania, Hayley sat taller in her seat.
“I’m sorry if I offended you. I should have been more sensitive.” It had been a few years since she’d worked in the ER, and she’d lost her touch of how to get delicate information from a patient.
Hayley said nothing, just continued to stare outside.
Maybe Dania needed to take a different approach. “How is your mother doing?”
“Don’t know. Don’t care.” Hayley gave an ambivalent shrug.
Another jolt. But this subject, Dania knew a little more about. “I don’t understand. You and your mother were so close. You watched over her. What happened?”
“This.” Hayley’s hand went to her huge stomach.
“What do you mean?” Dania could hardly believe Hayley’s kind and gentle mother wouldn’t want to help her eldest daughter.
“I wouldn’t tell my parents who the father was, so they kicked me out. Told me I was on my own.” Hayley turned toward her. “No good would have come from telling them. My father would have gotten himself killed, and that would have left Mom alone with the kids. It’s better this way.”
