AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Technically, considering Ariella and Jillian are a part of my family, should I be working this at all?” She didn’t feel like Ariella was a part of her family. Not really. Or Houghton Barratt’s sister-in-law Jillian, who was married to Ariella’s brother.
She wasn’t certain she ever would.
Heather was still trying to figure out how she felt about everything that had happened. Gregory Eastman had screwed with her family for decades. They probably wouldn’t ever fully know exactly what he had done to the Colesons. Or anyone else.
“Special consideration—from the governor. At this point, I am not certain they even want to find Handley. Well, Jarrod Foster definitely does. He has a bit of a vendetta going against Handley. I think mostly people want to learn what Handley Barratt knows about what is—was—going on in the TSP over the last four decades.”
“And you?” The man had rescued Haldyn. That had been bound to have left an impression. “How do you feel about Handley Barratt?”
“I see what he’s done, objectively, yes. But I also remember the man who was kind to the girl I was when I had no extended family, just two teenage sisters, show up at my college graduation. He had a card for me—with a thousand-dollar check inside. And he gave me a scholarship without me even knowing it. I know that he watched over his niece and all of his nephews and he loves them. I remember seeing the fear in his eyes when his nephews Mac and Alex were in a car accident one night and we didn’t know if they were okay. That wasn’t something he could fake, Heather. Regardless of the money or what he built, he is just a man who loved a woman—and lost her. Everything in his world changed after his wife was murdered.”
Heather nodded, then picked up the first file. She recognized Jarrod’s bold scrawl across the bottom. “What about Foster? Tell me about why this case burns him so much.”
“My opinion only: I think Jarrod Foster was in love with Melody Barratt before she fell for Handley Barratt’s son. And finding Handley has become Jarrod’s quest now. He’s not doing this for himself or the TSP. He’s doing it for her. Even if he’ll never admit it.”
That wasn’t something she’d expected to hear. Heather had seen Melody Barratt with Jarrod before. Heather had studied how Jarrod had watched the other woman. There had been nothing in Jarrod Foster’s eyes when he looked at Melody Barratt but friendship. She was almost ninety-nine percent certain of it.
The only woman Heather had ever seen Jarrod look at with any heat at all was the strawberry blond in front of her.
She’d seen that before. Multiple times since she’d transferred in after her maternity leave had ended. Jarrod’s eyes were drawn in Haldyn’s direction every time the other woman entered the room. He watched Haldyn—often. At times, it was as if he couldn’t look away.
Heather kept that fact to herself. Well, to herself and her younger sister. Hope had noticed the exact same thing. If Haldyn didn’t want to acknowledge that, it was Haldyn’s business. Not Heather’s. Heather would keep her mouth shut.
As for the senior Barratt—it was time Heather got started. If that billionaire was still out there, Heather was determined.
She was going to find him.
And while she was at it, she was going to take a look at his wife’s murder. See if there was something the clowns at the TSP had missed thirty-six years ago. During the height of the TSP corruption period. Corruption Heather knew for a fact had never ended.
Statute of limitations never ran out on murder, after all.
And if the killer was still out there, Heather was going to find him.
16
Jarrod was exhausted from keeping up with Dr. Haldyn Devil Harris. Queens were very busy ladies of the lab.
He hadn’t realized what all she did in just one day. By the time he got her back to the Barratts’ castle, his respect for her had grown exponentially. He’d followed her everywhere, except when she was safely locked behind the secure doors to the lab and he’d been in a meeting with Daniel. He hadn’t wanted to leave her then, but she’d reminded him of one thing. The thing she’d agreed to do before he’d let her return to work in the first place.
Haldyn had agreed to wear one of the tracking bracelets Houghton’s company was developing; in exchange, Jarrod had agreed to back off a little on the hovering. The bracelet would send an alert if Haldyn removed it. Or if she pressed the alert. It was similar to other trackers out there, but it was faster, and the battery lasted much longer. Those bracelets on two victims in the Eastman case had made the difference. Saved lives.
He could track his little rabbit on his phone in an instant. Jarrod did just that every thirty minutes for the first few hours she was out of his sight. After the Eastman case, Houghton’s tech wizards had added a new feature—the one tracking could send an alert request. The wearer was expected to press the bracelet in a short pattern to confirm they were safe and not under duress.
It was the best either Jarrod or Haldyn were going to get.
He’d immediately made his way back to her side by ten a.m. when his meetings ended. Then he had to practically run to keep up with that woman. In the two hours between ten and noon, she had dealt with reports on almost forty different pieces of evidence, answered dozens of questions, checked over fifty emails, fielded a dozen phone calls, placated three completely moronic detectives from Wichita Falls who had been waiting in her office, and met with Hope Coleson about a piece of evidence that gorgeous gremlin was to process on second shift.
Haldyn did it all without stopping. At noon, when she had a two-minute break, he rushed her into the small cafeteria on the bottom level, where he’d had lunch from Mamaw’s Place, the diner owned by her buddy Shelby MacNamara, waiting. He’d practically had to take the woman’s phone out of her hand long enough for her to actually eat something.
It made one thing very clear.
The woman needed a keeper. An honest-to-goodness keeper so she’d take care of herself better. Daniel should get on that. Daniel needed to watch the queen much better than he did. She was going to burn out eventually at the rate she was going.
The rest of the day had been just as hectic. And she’d had court at three. Jarrod had sat in the gallery and watched her testify for two hours straight. It was the first time he’d ever seen her on the stand.
The woman was unshakeable.
There was a reason she was the queen of the evidence. Jarrod wasn’t stupid. Haldyn was good at what she did. Phenomenal. Definitely deserving of respect.
