by J. S. Marlo
As she gazed at him, her lips parted, and the ocean sparkled in her eyes. Her soft curves pressed against his chest, she trailed her hands down his—
“What’s going on here?”
Startled out of his skin, Avery pulled the comforter over his beautiful disheveled lover. “Hello, Doc. That’s bad timing.”
Hugging the front of her bathrobe, Hannah looked toward the doorway and gasped.
“You’re injured, Stone. You’re supposed to rest, not—” Fred growled some unintelligible words under his breath as he flapped a large envelope through the air.
“Relax, Doc.” By showing up early, the doctor hadn’t given him time to break any recommendations. “I’m resting. Hannah is doing a great job keeping me in bed. But your timing still sucks.”
The lovely rosy tinge coloring Hannah’s cheeks and neck changed to a rich crimson. “Don’t go big brother on me, Freddy. I’ll strangle him myself.”
“I can’t believe I was worried about you.” Shaking his head, the doctor walked to the window and checked the blinds. “I’m here. You can turn the light on. I don’t want Hannah to miss anything.”
When Avery reached out for the lamp, Hannah sat bolt upright in bed. “What did you find?”
“Plenty.” The word exploded in a mixture of enthusiasm and disbelief. “A few techs owed me favors, and I lucked out. First, you seemed eager to meet Matthew Russell, so here he is.” He handed her a calendar. “October Bad Boy.”
As she flipped through the months of the charity calendar, Avery leaned toward her.
“Freddy, couldn’t you have taken a picture of him while you stitched him up?” The guy was on the ice with nothing more than his skates, his helmet, his stick, his jockstrap, and a goatee. “Now I’ll see him naked in my nightmares.”
A different kind of picture loomed on Russell’s future. A nice, clean mug shot. “Do you recognize him?”
“He looks familiar…the arena…” A flicker of recognition blinked in her eyes. “It was on the same day you hacked into my computer. I went to the arena with Rory that morning and I bumped into Russell. At the time, I was thinking about going back into the forest to revisit the place where Gramp was killed. He stared at me with such a strange expression that…I was thinking out loud. I’m the one who told him I’d be in the forest that afternoon.” The calendar fell onto Hannah’s lap as indignation rose into her voice. “Greta was right. The attack had been premeditated. I didn’t see their faces, but Greta had spotted them earlier digging a hole in the ice without their ski masks. She’d recognized Vic or Matt as one of the men who’d attacked her and killed Gramp. We’re just missing the third one—the one I glimpsed.”
Had he not stopped by that ill-fated afternoon, Hannah would have taken Rory with her, and Avery would have lost them both. Rory’s reluctance to eat his peas had given her the excuse of going alone. They’d ambushed her but Greta had foiled their plan and saved Hannah. As much as Avery regretted the death of the old woman, he inwardly cursed her decision of not reporting her assault. “Are you absolutely sure you didn’t glimpse Russell or Young?”
She offered a dejected nod.
“Gramp was killed by Russell and Young?” The shock of the details had bleached Freddy’s face.
“Snap out of there, Freddy, and put your doctor mask on.” Aside from Hannah, Fred was the only person on which Avery could rely in this town. Losing him to a sudden breakdown wasn’t an option. “We’ll fill you in later. What else do you have for us?”
“The girl…” Fred took a deep breath, briefly closing his eyes. “After you told me about Russell, I went back to the clinic. I took one of the gauzes with Russell’s blood on it and sent it to the lab. To avoid raising suspicion, I also sent the sample of blood I found on the sleeve of the dumpster girl from yesterday. The guy rushed the results. I figured you might want to know if Russell’s DNA was in the system.”
“Those results may not stand in court, Doc, but I’ll take them anyway.” If push comes to shove, Avery would find another way to obtain them.
“Russell’s DNA is not in the system, but the two samples were a perfect match.” A glint of satisfaction fleeted across Freddy’s face. “The girl had Russell’s blood on her sleeve.”
“Good job, Doc.” The interesting piece of information didn’t fit the puzzle yet, but Avery was confident he’d find a connection. “When Jane Doe has a name, let me know. Do you have anything else for us?”
“I got a copy of the paternity test.” Freddy handed a folded sheet directly to Hannah. “I glanced at the results when the fax came in. I’m not sure what to say.”
“Thanks.” If her brother’s indiscretion bothered her, she didn’t show it.
The amount of information the doctor had gathered in twenty-four hours exceeded Avery’s expectations. As he retreated to his side of the bed to give her some privacy, Hannah gripped his forearm. “You’re entitled to see this.”
With shaky hands, she presented him the letter.
Based on the DNA Analysis, the alleged father BRENT ABBOTT is excluded as the biological father of the child RP because they do not share sufficient genetic markers. The probability of the stated relationship is indicated below.
Probability Percentage: 0%
***
Below the probability percentage, a chart contained the list of markers used for comparison. D3S1358, D21S11, D18S51, D7S820…
Hannah skimmed over the list searching for one specific marker. Two-thirds of the way down, she found it. The awful confirmation of her fears. Assailed by emotions from all over the spectrum, she closed her eyes. Brent…
There were never any other possibilities, but being correct didn’t make her feel right.
Someone caressed her thigh. She owed him—both of them—the truth. One for sticking with her through the past, and one for wanting to share her future. When she opened her eyes, two sets of eyes gazed at her with loving concern. How much they figured out, she couldn’t tell.
“Taking care of Gramp wasn’t the only reason why I moved back to Mooseland. Working at Child Welfare Services had taken its emotional toll. I couldn’t stay in Halifax anymore. When I found Gramp dead in the woods, I was still reeling from the atrocities I’d witnessed in my former job. My world collapsed, and I lost my bearings.” A void had engulfed her. She’d grasped onto Brent, her only link to sanity. “I just needed to be held, to be reassured everything would be all right…Brent stayed with me in the cabin that night. For weeks afterwards, I wondered if I’d dreamed the surreal encounter. Then in the middle of the investigation he showed up sporting a solemn look. I braced myself for another tragedy. Terri’s father had invited him to his house the week Gramp died to discuss the recent increase in criminal activities. After her father retired, he accepted a drink from Terri. She was sweet on him…very sweet. He wanted to tell me she was pregnant…that he was sorry.” At the time, Hannah had been too numb to be hurt. “He married her a few days later. Their daughter was born two weeks before Rory.”
“Are you saying Brent is Rory’s father?” Avery exchanged a confused glance with Freddy. “Could the results be wrong, Doc? Could they have been altered?”
Her brother cringed. “Unlikely, but it’s possible someone posing as Abbott requested the test and provided unrelated samples.”
Yeah, they had both missed it.
“The results aren’t what they appear to be. That’s why Terri stole them. I didn’t realize I was pregnant until after Brent married her. I never told him he was Rory’s father. When he visited me last fall, he asked a lot of questions about the day I found Gramp, but then he made one comment that didn’t belong. Rosalyn Paige has brown eyes, Hannah, not blue like Rory. He’d never used his daughter’s full name in front of me before. I thought maybe it was his way to tell me he knew about Rory…to acknowledge his son.” She placed the results on the bed, facing them. “Look at the AMEL marker; the fifth from the bottom. Father XY, child XX. The DNA sample came from a female child. RP i
s Rosalyn Paige. Brent had found out his daughter wasn’t his, and he told me, but I didn’t clue in. Then he disappeared, and I started receiving threats. What if Young and Russell wanted me gone not because I saw Gramp’s killers, but because Rory is Brent’s child—a threat to Terri and her daughter?”
Avery sank back on his pillow, his eyes darting back and forth, as if they were spinning a wheel inside his brain.
“Two things seem to have happened around the same time last fall. Brent revisited your grandfather’s death, and he questioned his paternity. While it could be a weird coincidence, it’s also possible Brent stumbled on one truth while searching for the other.” A muscle twitched at the base of Avery’s neck. “Doc, we have to get into town. I have phone calls to make. Is there a place where we could hide? The morgue maybe?”
Freddy waved his hand, his way of catching her attention. “You can stay in my house.”
“What about Justine?” Of all the girls her brother had ever dated, he had to pick the one incapable of showing discretion or empathy. Too bad he didn’t ask my advice before she moved in. “Isn’t she home?”
“After Snowflake peed on the kitchen floor at breakfast, Justine gave me a choice. Her or the dog.” A bittersweet smile enlivened his grave expression. “Care to guess which one packed her suitcase?”
Chapter Forty-Five
On his first visit, Avery had rung the doorbell. This time, he banged on the door until a grumpy Cooper answered.
“Stone? What the—”
Avery caught him by the front of his undershirt and slammed his back against the wall. The soon-to-be demoted constable crumpled on the floor. A dent appeared on the wall where his head had hit.
Dazed from the attack, Cooper struggled to sit. “You’re going to jail for this, Stone.”
“Sure.” Unfazed by the threat, Avery cuffed him once more with his hands behind his back, then drew his gun. The muscles in his upper back burned from the effort to incapacitate Cooper, and a warm liquid trickled down his shoulder blade. Bloody injury. The doctor wouldn’t be impressed. “Get up. Now.”
To his dismay, the threat didn’t seem to instill any fear in Cooper’s eyes. “You don’t have the guts to shoot me.”
“Your fingerprints are all over the cuffs that chafed Hannah Parker’s wrists. I came to arrest you, you resisted. We fought…” In full sight of his prisoner, Avery flipped the safety pin off. “See where I’m going with this?”
“You’re crazy.”
“Trust me, Cooper, you haven’t tasted crazy yet.” With his gun, he indicated the hallway. “Move. We’re going into the basement.”
Two-thirds of the way down the staircase, Avery kicked him in the butt. Cooper shrieked as he missed the last few steps. He fell into a heap on the concrete floor.
“That’s police brutality,” he groaned.
“Wasn’t aware you knew the definition.” Not caring much about the rules he was breaking, Avery pulled him by the scuff of his neck and tossed him against the water heater. Before the bloody idiot had time to regain his wits, Avery slipped a second pair of handcuffs from his pocket. He secured one end to the cuff already bejeweling Cooper’s wrist and the other to the water pipe. “If I were you, I’d be careful around those pipes. I wouldn’t want you to scald yourself.”
“Thanks for caring.”
“You’re welcome.” As much as he’d enjoyed shoving the sarcasm back where it came from and wound Cooper’s pride, Avery had never fired at a defenseless man. Before confronting his colleague, he’d unloaded his weapon—just in case Cooper surprised him and became a worthy opponent. After his near miss in the forest, Avery hadn’t wanted anyone else to turn his own gun against him. Being shot was as overrated as shooting someone. He cared for neither. “Now we’ll play twenty questions again. If I like the answers, I’ll leave you alone.”
“Don’t go all righteous on me, Stone. You’re the one who reported her dead and locked her in your trailer for your own personal pleasure.” Cooper’s contempt seemed to rise with every word he spoke. “For the record, I didn’t touch her. You can have her back. She’s too wild for me.”
“Forget about Hannah.” When the time came, Avery would insure Cooper was charged with kidnapping, unlawful confinement, assault, blackmail—and anything else that might crop up. “I want to know about Terri Abbott. What’s your relationship with her?”
“Who I’m sleeping with isn’t any of your business?”
That answers one question. “Did you get involved with her before or after her husband disappeared?”
“I resent the accusations, Stone. I’m not going to let you soil her reputation. Terri is a decent woman and a wonderful mother.” Her name rolled off his tongue. “We didn’t hook up until long after the funeral.”
Bloody hell. The man was blindfolded by infatuation.
“Let me show you something, bloody idiot.” Avery pulled the copy of the paternity test from his pocket and held it to his face. “Look at the AMEL marker, fifth row from the bottom. That’s the gender test, Cooper. XX means a girl. RP is Rosalyn Page, not Rory Parker. The pretty widow was screwing other guys, and Brent found out.”
“No…she wouldn’t lie to me.” Despite his objections, the defiance that had steadily burned in his eyes faded. “This is a trick.”
“Terri has gorgeous green eyes, Cooper. Even I noticed. A woman with green eyes doesn’t end up with a brown-eyed daughter by sleeping with a man with blue eyes. That’s basic biology.” In the Hummer, Freddy had explained that the probability for such a combination indeed existed, though it would be the exception rather than the rule. In this case, Avery chose to stick with the rule. “What truth did she feed you, Cooper? Come on. If you say she didn’t lie, prove it.”
His colleague leaned his head against the tank. “After Abe abandoned her, Terri came to me. She was distraught over Parker’s accusations.”
When Cooper fell silent, Avery pushed. “What accusations?”
“That Abe was having an affair with Parker and that he fathered her son. Terri told me Abe took a paternity test and kept the results somewhere in the office to confront Parker with it.”
Abbott had either confronted his wife with the results or she’d become aware of her husband’s suspicion and tracked his activities. “Keep going.”
“Terri was ashamed. She didn’t want any more proof of his infidelities to be exposed. She begged me to help her.” As the lies sank in, Cooper’s voice lost its intensity. “I searched for weeks before I found the report taped under his drawer. I told Terri I burned it without looking at it.”
The scheming widow had either not trusted Cooper or she’d been tipped off that he’d lied, so she’d searched the office on her own. You’re never better served than by yourself.
“What happened to Noel Foley’s report? Did Terri also beg you to erase it to protect her cousin?”
His brows shot right up his forehead. “Who’s Noel Foley?”
The guy deserved an award for his performance. It was too bad Avery didn’t buy it.
“Foley was a witness, but the evidence he gave against Victor Young mysteriously disappeared from the database. Two officers work at the detachment, Cooper. One of them deleted the incriminating documents. Guess which one I’m suspecting?”
“Oh, no. You’re not pinning that one on me.” He thrashed against his bonds, thumping the tank in denial. “Whatever Terri’s sleazy cousin did, I have nothing to do with it.”
To hear that Cooper shared his opinion of the cousin sounded eerie. “What do you know about sleazy Victor Young? Do you owe him favors? Does he own you?”
“No, but money talks in this town. There are some people you don’t want to mess with.”
“What about justice, Cooper?” Integrity wasn’t a commodity up for sell to the highest bidder. “Have you forgotten what your uniform stands for?”
“You’re a drunken bastard, Stone. Don’t you dare talk to me about morals. I swear your days are numbered.”
Avery glanced around the unfinished basement. Someone had built a workbench under one of the three narrow windows obscured by snow. A toolbox lay open on top, surrounded by paint containers, rolls of tape, and rags.
“We’re done here. Someone should come to your rescue by morning. In the meantime, do you prefer I gag you with duct tape or a rag?”
***
Hannah paced Freddy’s living room in the dark. After a long phone call to a guy named Sir, Avery had left to pay a visit to Cooper. That was hours ago, and she was worried about him.
A shadow crept inside the room, wearing her brother’s scrubs. Overwhelmed by the tales of deceit and murder she’d recounted while Avery was on the phone, Fred had gone to bed. He should be basking in slumberland, chased by nightmares, not turning the light on and blinding her.
“You have patients to see in the morning. Shouldn’t you be in bed?”
“Mrs. Johnston just called about a razor injury and lots of blood.” He picked up his winter coat from the couch. “I didn’t catch the entire story, but it didn’t sound life-threatening, just messy.”
“In the middle of the night?” Don’t people sleep at night anymore?
A lenient smile brightened his tired face. “They’re night owls. Will you be okay alone?”
Hugging a green afghan to her chest, she nodded. Seemingly reassured, he slung his jacket over his back, creating a draft. The disturbance lifted a scrap of paper from the table. It twirled in the air before landing near Hannah’s bare feet. She picked it up.
The name and phone number written on it piqued her curiosity. “Why do you keep Terri Abbott’s phone number in your living room near computer books?”
“Who? Oh…” Two shades darker than his burgundy scrubs, Freddy’s coat matched the recliner by the television. “Justine was taking basic computer courses. Terri was her mentor.”
The woman had never struck Hannah as the techie type. “Terri knows about computers?”
“She just finished—or she’s about to finish—an advanced computer degree through distance learning. Justine boasted once that Terri could hack into any systems, that I better watch my medical files.” He slipped his gloves on. “I have to go. Try not to worry too much about Stone.”