Sarah’s eyes widened.
“Seriously?”
Allison nodded. “But you’ll never prove anything.”
Sarah tilted her head. “A fire with two accidental deaths is not the same as first-degree murder.”
“Who says the deaths were accidental?”
Lanford wasn’t sure he could handle much more of this. He was flashing cold and then hot, as Allison spilled information.
“Why would Billy have wanted to harm Riordan or Mr. Davies?”
Allison blinked her eyes. “I’d called Dan. Confessed everything. He knew Billy... I was really confused.
“I told Billy everything before—before I knew what he could do. He hated that I’d confided in Dan. Billy couldn’t have carried out his plan if Dan had been alive.”
Lanford had the same out-of-body experience again. Billy had wanted to kill Dan? He’d known Dan was home when he lit that fire?
It still left Lanford as the cause of this mess, but it meant there was some evil here that wasn’t part of Lanford.
It didn’t make him feel less guilty; it just reshaped the guilt.
“Do you want me to take you somewhere safe?” Sarah asked Allison, and Lanford suddenly recognized how this might affect Sarah. It was very similar to the case she’d told him about, the one that sent her to Balsam Grove. The one that had caused problems for her previously.
Allison rose to her feet.
“I don’t know. I don’t know anything. I need some time.”
Sarah rose to her feet, as well, and Lanford followed.
Sarah took a card from her purse and passed it to Allison.
“We’ll give you some time. I think Lanford wants that, as well. But we’ll be in touch. If you need anything, give me a call. But I can’t let this go, you understand that?”
Allison stared at the card before sliding it into her pocket.
“I don’t know anything,” she repeated.
Chapter Eighteen
Sarah was sure that Lanford had received more than enough shocks for the day. Sarah was reeling, and she was just an observer.
Wasn’t she?
When they came out the front door, Festus was tied under a tree in the yard. Ri was nowhere to be seen.
Allison stood, staring at the place where the dog was lying. She moved her head, looking up and down the street. There was no sign of her son.
Lanford’s son.
Sarah shot a glance at Lanford, tracing his features and wondering if Ri had uncovered the secret of his parentage, as well. The two looked so much alike. She felt for the boy, but she couldn’t help him right now, and his mother was here. If he needed someone to talk to, Allison was undoubtedly the best choice. For now.
“Call me about anything, Allison. I’ll be happy to talk.”
Allison nodded, but quickly retreated inside the house, reaching into her pocket, probably for her phone to call her son.
Lanford went over to Festus and untied his leash. She checked how he was doing.
“Back to Balsam Grove?”
Lanford glanced at her and then the car. He nodded.
He didn’t have a lot of options. He’d lost those when Billy set the fire and framed Lanford for it.
Sarah shivered. It was one thing to know a fire had taken lives. Another to suspect it was set to take those lives.
Billy was a dangerous man.
She glanced at the house again but there was no sign of Allison.
Sarah walked to the car. She’d offered help to the woman. It was all she could do. This wasn’t like last time, where she had been asked by the woman at risk to step in.
She prayed that things would work out, for everyone involved. She didn’t know how it could, but she wasn’t God.
She unlocked the car and slid in, switching on the AC. Lanford boosted Festus into the rear seat. He closed the door and paused. Would he rather not be with her, not after all that had happened?
She was about to offer to call a cab or drop him somewhere when he opened the passenger door and got in.
He was staring straight ahead, mind obviously elsewhere.
“How about a couple of iced coffees? Then we can head to Balsam Grove and you can take some time to process.”
He turned to her and nodded. “Thank you. I don’t know where to even start.”
“If you want to talk, I’m here. If you want to think, I can be quiet. You have some decisions coming up, but there’s a lot to consider.”
Lanford nodded and then stared out the passenger’s window. Sarah put the car in gear and headed for the highway.
* * *
Lanford didn’t speak again, beyond thanking her for the coffee. Sarah did a lot of thinking herself.
She was glad Lanford finally knew what had happened that night. Allison was right; they might never be able to prove it. But the search was over. They’d discovered the truth.
Hadn’t they?
Sarah sorted through the threads she had for this case, the motivations that Allison had revealed, the information that had been carefully suppressed. In a twisted way, it all made sense.
Would Lanford be able to rest, now that he knew the truth, even if the crime remained unsolved and a blot on his reputation? Could she prove the truth of what had happened that night?
At this date, would anyone other than Allison remember Billy’s movements? Billy hadn’t been interviewed because no one had mentioned seeing him at the party. Even if Allison was willing to testify, Sarah feared a good lawyer could shred her story. Plus, it would obviously be the end of her marriage, and that could be twisted to be her motive.
Most of the evidence was circumstantial. It could fit Billy or Lanford. Billy was a well-respected businessman. Lanford was the troublemaker turned prisoner.
Would it be possible to get Billy on tape, admitting to what he’d done?
A long shot.
Then, the other surprise. Riordan, the seventeen-year-old son no one knew Lanford had.
Lanford might not be able to prove he was innocent of the arson and resulting deaths. But he could definitely prove that Ri was his son. Aside from the physical resemblance, there was DNA evidence he could request.
What would Billy do when that came out? Would he be embarrassed and want nothing to do with the boy, or would he fight to keep Lanford away from him?
Would Lanford want to claim his son? She had assumed he would, but she hadn’t known him that long. It might be that this attraction she felt was making her attribute virtues to him that he didn’t possess.
She sighed. They were less than an hour from Balsam Grove.
“I’d wondered.” Lanford broke the silence. “After, when I had nothing but time to think, I wondered if maybe she’d been pregnant. But we’d always been careful. And I figured, if she was, she’d have let me know somehow. He looks just like me.”
Lanford wasn’t worried about proving his innocence, it seemed. His thoughts were wrapped up in the son he’d just discovered.
“I don’t know what to do. I mean, do I tell him? Does Allison? Would it be better if he never found out?”
Sarah glanced over and saw that Lanford was watching her as if she had the answers.
She didn’t.
“Hey, do you want to stop and grab a bite before we get back?”
Lanford glanced behind her, where Festus was quietly snoring.
“We can find something with a patio, or a take-out place with picnic tables, then we don’t have to worry about Festus. If you want to talk, maybe Balsam Grove isn’t the right place to do it.”
Lanford nodded. “If you don’t mind. I don’t know what to think, or what to do. This was nothing like I imagined.”
It was nothing like what Sarah had imagined, either.
She noticed a food sign at the next exit and
drove off. She’d only been in the area for six months, and she hadn’t done a lot of exploring. The weather had turned into summer just recently, providing little motivation to see the sights until now.
It was more than that, though. She’d thought of her stay in Balsam Grove as marking time while she rearranged her priorities so she could resume her previous life in the city.
She wasn’t sure that was going to happen anymore.
Lanford had upended things for her, in ways she’d never have predicted.
She had lost her objectivity about this case because she’d lost her objectivity about this man. That wouldn’t necessarily apply to other cases. But she realized she did better work when she was invested in what she was doing.
But if Lanford’s name was never cleared, any connection with him would bring up her grandfather’s history in the minds of the cops she worked for. She could get her job back, but without the support of her fellow officers, would it be worth it?
Lanford had made her aware of her aloneness. Something about his stoic strength reached out to her.
He’d been dealt a more difficult hand than she had. And she admired the person he’d become. Even now, when he’d discovered that he’d been framed and his family taken from him, he wasn’t focused on revenge or proving his case.
She shook her head at where her thoughts were taking her. Instead, she looked for a place they could eat.
On the outskirts of the town, off the exit, was a burger and fry truck. There were picnic tables scattered under a couple of big oaks. Perfect for Festus.
She signaled her turn and pulled into the lot.
There were a couple of other vehicles, and two of the picnic tables were occupied, but there was no one she recognized. No one gave them more than a passing glance. She opened the door and Festus was eager to get out.
Lanford stood on the other side of the car.
“What would you like?”
She shook her head. “I can get—”
He gave her a small smile, and she answered with one of her own.
“My treat this time, Sarah. What would you like?”
“Burger and fries, and a Coke, thank you.”
“You take care of your police dog there and find a seat. I’ll join you with the food.”
Sarah nodded, and let Festus pull her over to a nearby bush.
* * *
Lanford ordered the same as Sarah and waited patiently beside the window while the food was prepared. He watched Sarah as she chose a table at a distance from the other diners.
He tried to make some order of his tangled thoughts. He’d spent a lot of the ride back praying. Not a sensible, organized prayer. The Bible verse said the Spirit would pray for him when he didn’t have words, and this was one of those times.
He was relieved to finally learn what had happened to his family. He’d hoped that the tragedy might not have been a result of things he’d done, but he knew that had been stretching the possibilities.
But now what? Sarah could tell him if he had any chance of proving it. That had been his main goal when he got out, but now it took the back seat.
He had a son.
“Davies.”
The voice came from the window of the food truck, and he moved over to get the order. There were two cans of Coke, moisture dripping down the sides, and two bags for the food, grease starting to stain the paper.
He thanked the woman and headed over to the picnic table where Festus and Sarah waited.
* * *
“You should give Allison a couple of days to figure things out.”
He’d asked Sarah for her advice. Somehow, despite the fact that he was the ex-con and she was the sheriff, she’d become the person he was closest to in Balsam Grove. Asking her felt right.
“What do you think she’ll do?”
Sarah looked away, and he knew the answer wasn’t going to be what she wanted.
“It’s not in her best interest to expose her husband. You can file for a paternity test, prove that Ri is your son, but you may never prove that Billy set the fire.”
Lanford gazed up into the leaves of the oak tree above them.
Maybe it wasn’t necessary to prove his innocence. He’d done his time, and nothing would get those years back.
What mattered to him was that he now knew the truth, and that Sarah did, as well. He could tell Anton. But if he spread the truth to too many other people, he could easily imagine Billy suing him.
He didn’t need that.
“Should I do that? Get the paternity test?”
“What do you want to do?”
Lanford brought his gaze down to the woman sitting across from him.
“I want to know my son. But more than that, I want to do what’s best for him. I’m not sure that’s me.”
Sarah reached a hand across the table and covered his. The warmth of her palm spread up his arm, warming and relaxing his whole body.
“You’re a good guy, Lanford.”
Almost of its own volition, his hand turned over and gripped hers.
“You are, too, Sarah.”
His cheeks warmed as he realized what he’d said.
“I mean—”
She smiled at him, letting their hands stay entwined.
“I know what you mean, and thank you. But about Riordan. You can’t very well say that you’re his biological father and that you never met him because his adopted father framed you for arson and two deaths. But, as an adopted kid, he may want to know why his parents didn’t raise him.”
“His mother did.”
Sarah frowned. “But it sounds like she never told him she was his biological mother. That could bring up some issues, as well.”
“So, I should just let it go?”
Sarah shook her head. “I just wonder...what has it been like with Billy as his father?”
His stomach clenched.
“Do you think Billy...hurt him?”
“Allison says not. But Billy may have affected Ri’s attitude toward life and other people.
“If Allison decides to tell the boy, then the decision is no longer yours to make. What will you do if that happens?”
“I want him to know about his grandfather and uncle. I want him to know I only just learned about him, or maybe I would have done something differently. I want him to know that loving God was what helped me straighten up.
“I want him to know I’m there if he ever needs me.”
“That might make it worth talking to him.” Sarah’s smile was tremulous.
“Thank you.” He owed Sarah so much. He never would have found out all this on his own.
Her cheeks flushed.
“So, ready to go?”
He nodded, reluctantly releasing her hand so they could gather up their garbage.
Festus decided he needed to find a bush again, but he wasn’t happy with the ones nearby. He pulled Sarah down a short path at the side of the parking lot, searching for the exact right spot. Lanford followed, unwilling to let them wander off alone.
Festus was finally satisfied. It was anticlimactic, after the big revelations of the day, to be standing, watching the dog lift his leg, an expression of happiness on his canine face. Lanford heard a cardinal’s call above them, and, nostalgic, glanced up to find the flash of red.
Festus, having relieved himself, headed for the car. Sarah twisted to follow, but Lanford, distracted, missed seeing them turn and was still standing there as Sarah pivoted into his chest.
He reflexively tightened his grasp around her, to keep her upright. Festus gave another tug, pulling Sarah tightly against his chest.
He was no longer looking for the cardinal. He gazed down at Sarah, whose startled face was looking up at him.
He wasn’t sure he could have resisted. He kissed her.
/> He had no right, but he wanted to. And for once, what he wanted was right there.
She kissed him back.
That surprised him, but even though it had been years, he still remembered kissing. He raised a hand to her face, the feel of her soft skin so good.
Another tug from Festus, and Lanford had to step away to avoid falling over. Sarah raised a hand to her mouth.
Lanford thought he should apologize. But he wasn’t sorry, not for kissing her. He was sorry if she was upset by it, but that kiss was the best thing he’d experienced in a long, long time.
“But I’m a cop.” Was what Sarah finally said.
She didn’t say he shouldn’t have done it. Kissed her. But this, her job, affected if there would be another kiss.
“That means we can’t...” He trailed off, wanting desperately to know what she was thinking.
“It means, why would you be interested in a cop?”
Lanford felt the smile breaking out on his face.
“I think it depends on the cop. Why would you be interested in an ex-con?”
She bit her lip.
“I guess it depends on the ex-con.”
And this one, she’d heard today, hadn’t committed the crime he’d served time for.
“Are you okay? I should have asked.”
This time she was the one smiling, shyly. “If I wasn’t okay, I’d have kneed you in the groin instead of kissing you back.”
Lanford couldn’t believe this was happening.
“Does this... Are we...?” He had no idea what label to put on them. What they were, what he hoped they would be, what she wanted.
“I guess it’s something we need to figure out. It’s been quite a day for you, Lanford Davies.”
Seeing the warm look in her eyes, he leaned down, and brushed her lips one more time.
“This part? This doesn’t have any downside as far as I’m concerned. This is nothing but good.”
A worried expression crossed her face.
“I don’t know what I’m doing, Lanford. After the next six months in Balsam Grove, I have no idea.”
He shrugged. “I have no idea what I’m doing after the next six minutes.”
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