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Lieutenant Heather Coleson knew it with one look at the evidence spread out on the conference table that this was going to be one of the biggest cases of her career. If she managed to solve it—attention-getting.
Damn it. She didn’t want it.
Where should she even start?
Paperwork. Stack after stack of paperwork. She bit back a sigh—so much of what she did now involved digging through paperwork. Old paperwork. Witness statements, forensic reports, journals kept by cops long retired—all of it could add up. To the answers.
But not exactly what she had signed on to do, that was for sure.
Sometimes it did lead to the answers. Far too often, it didn’t.
She’d always enjoyed history. There was that. And cold cases kept her off the streets as much as possible—with two little girls needing her, that mattered.
“This…” She turned to the woman standing next to her. Haldyn looked better. She’d covered the bruises with light makeup. Heather hadn’t missed it.
She’d done that before herself. Every time Steve would break in to her apartment and… Heather pushed the memories away. Now. She wouldn’t remember here.
Finley Creek was supposed to be better for her now. She had to remember that.
Dr. Haldyn Harris was back now, as of that morning. Four days after she’d been abducted. Which meant Foster was somewhere in the building.
New problem.
He wasn’t going to be happy when heard about this.
Haldyn shot her a knowing look. “I know. It’s one of the few cases we have with such a little amount of physical evidence. Just reports.”
“And I’m the one who gets to go over all of it now. I am starting to seriously suspect Cold Case was the governor’s way of keeping me off the streets. Or from causing him trouble.” She wouldn’t have said it, but something about Haldyn had made her trust the other woman faster than she normally would have. She wouldn’t call Haldyn a friend yet—but Hope did. Hope had worked forensics for almost a full month now.
Hope said she trusted Haldyn—as much as they trusted anyone here in Finley Creek.
Heather thought Hope’s trust had more to do with Haldyn being close friends with their niece Zoey than anything else.
Heather wasn’t ever going to trust anyone in the TSP fully ever again. She’d learned her lesson well. She had gone to people she thought she trusted before, to protect her sister.
She had been betrayed.
That wasn’t a lesson she was ever going to forget. Hope was in Finley Creek now. But nowhere was truly safe. Heather would never forget that. “What are your real impressions of this Handley Barratt guy?”
She’d heard of him. Not just as part of her TSP investigations or what had happened during the search for the ones who had killed Chief Marshall’s parents more than a decade ago. Until he had become a fugitive from the law, Handley Barratt had been one of the richest men in the United States and Mexico.
Heather’s so-called nephew was married to Houghton Barratt’s sister-in-law. She probably technically shouldn’t be working this case at all. She’d have to watch her step. Then again, someone could just be waiting for her to trip up. Give them an excuse to fire her and leave her out there floundering, without any protection at all.
Her badge was the only real protection Heather had from the monsters out there—and even that badge was barely worth more than the paper it was printed on for that, too. That was a lesson she’d learned the hard way.
She was starting to think this Cold Case division was a means to keep her out of the way or something. Just hide the problem Heather away. Exactly like had happened to her at Wichita Falls in IA.
Have a problem Heather you don’t want getting out? Well, just threaten that problem Heather to behave…
Only this time, the governor was calling the shots.
Of course, Governor Marcus Deane was—he didn’t want his little wifey’s newly discovered auntie causing him any problems. There were rumors Marcus Deane might make a run for Washington someday, after all.
Heather was a bit cynical. Especially where men in power were concerned.
“Truthfully? I think Handley Barratt is a good man who got caught up in the quest for vengeance, searching for answers about who murdered his wife thirty-six years ago. And…it colored his judgment. I know he did try to help Brynna Marshall, when she was abducted. I know he was there when Ariella Deane was shot.”
Ariella. The governor’s wife. The niece Zoey had only met once.
