An Honorable Man

by Darlene Gardner

  “But…but…” Laurie placed trembling hands over her mouth and burst into tears.

  Sierra hurried to her side, putting a hand on the other woman’s arm to comfort her. Laurie threw herself at Sierra, sobbing in earnest.

  “It’s okay, Laurie.” Sierra patted her on the back. “You haven’t even told Kenny yet. Once you talk it over with him, the news might not seem so overwhelming.”

  Laurie drew back, fat tears streaming down her face. “You think I don’t want to be pregnant?”

  “You are crying,” Sierra pointed out.

  “I’m crying because I’m so happy I can’t stand it.” Laurie gave her a watery smile. “The saddest day of my life was when I lost Kenny’s baby.”

  Sierra’s head felt like it was spinning. “Didn’t you just say you were determined not to get pregnant?”

  “When you know me better, you’ll realize you shouldn’t listen to everything I say. I talk a lot. Believe this, though. It feels like a miracle that I’m pregnant. With Kenny’s baby.” She threw her head back and laughed through the tears. “I’m pregnant with Kenny’s baby!”

  Sierra laughed with her, easily able to envision how wonderful it would be to carry the child of the man you loved.

  Because she loved Ben Nash.

  Her laughter stopped as abruptly as it had started, shocked into submission by the ludicrous thought. She hadn’t even known Ben a week. How could she possibly entertain the notion that she loved him?

  Because she did, a voice inside her head answered. She immediately shut it out.

  Love didn’t just sneak up on a person and blindside them. It needed to be nurtured and grown, further proof that what she felt wasn’t love.

  Passion, she thought. It must be passion.

  The label she put on the feeling didn’t matter. She’d never tell him. Speaking of loving Ben Nash aloud would be crazy.

  “I can’t wait to tell him!” Laurie announced.

  Sierra nearly shouted at her to keep quiet, then felt silly. Laurie wasn’t referring to Ben Nash. She was talking about informing her husband about the treasured baby. The other woman couldn’t possibly know about the crazy thoughts that had just run though Sierra’s head.

  “You go do that,” Sierra said.

  Laurie took her literally, practically sprinting out of the exam room. Sierra followed, calling, “Wait. I wasn’t finished. You need to call your ob-gyn ASAP to schedule an appointment.”

  Ryan glanced up from where he sat at the desk in the hall, pausing in the act of writing a prescription.

  “I’m pregnant!” Laurie announced.

  Ryan gave her a thumbs-up. “Way to go!”

  Laurie giggled, then told Sierra, “My ob-gyn is in Harrisburg. I never got around to getting one in town after I moved back here.”

  “Ask Missy to give you the address and phone number for Dr. Nekoba on your way out of the office,” Sierra said. “I can recommend him highly.”

  “I know his contact information by heart.” Ryan tore a sheet from his prescription pad and jotted down the doctor’s name and phone number. “Here you go.”

  Laurie took the sheet, thanked him and hurried away, a skip in her step.

  “Missy’s not at the reception desk,” Ryan said quietly when Laurie was out of earshot. “I saw her heading up the stairs about five minutes ago.”

  The office building boasted a rooftop terrace that had been a major selling point when their father relocated his headquarters. He used to say he spent so much time working, it was imperative he have a place to recharge and clear his head during office hours.

  Their employees often took breaks on the terrace when the weather allowed. Today, however, was blustery with the threat of rain.

  “It’s too early for her break,” Sierra said, thinking aloud. “Why would she go up there now?”

  “I thought you might know,” Ryan said, then added the kicker. “Because Ben Nash went with her.”

  WIND GUSTED OVER the irregularly shaped rooftops of the buildings in downtown Indigo Springs, carrying the heavy scent of rain. In the distance, the lush green peaks and valleys of the Poconos rippled against the darkening sky.

  On another morning, the terrace would be the perfect spot to take in the beauty of the surroundings. Today, the patio furniture would blow away if it weren’t made of stone. The potted plants bent over sideways.

  “We should go back inside,” Ben said.

  “No!” The word erupted from Missy, even as she held her shoulder-length hair back from her face with one hand. “If Dr. Sierra or Dr. Ryan find out what we’re talking about, I might lose my job. And I really, really need this job.”

  “Then you know why I’m here?” Ben hadn’t had a chance to tell her yet. When she’d found out he was at the office to talk to her, she’d quickly led him to the terrace.

  “It’s about the e-mails, isn’t it?” she asked in a loud whisper. “You know I sent them.”

  Until that moment, Ben had some doubts that the young lady he’d met at Jimmy’s Diner was right about who she’d seen using the library computer. He’d assumed mountaindweller was a contemporary of Dr. Whitmore’s. Missy Cromartie was barely out of high school.

  “Yes,” Ben said. “I just don’t know why.”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” She had a overly dramatic way about her, with an expressive face and a voice that dipped and peaked. “I wanted you to investigate whether Dr. Whitmore had anything to do with your mom’s death.”

  “How do you know Allison Blaine was my mother?”

  “It’s super easy to find out stuff like that on the Internet. You’d know all about that. I mean, you work for a newspaper, right?”

  He wasn’t doing the greatest job of getting to the bottom of things at the moment. He still hadn’t figured out her motivation.

  “I didn’t even know old Dr. Whitmore,” Missy said. “I was only hired about a year ago after I dropped out of community college. School just wasn’t for me. I was lucky to get a job at all. I probably wouldn’t have if my grandma hadn’t been a nurse here for so many years.”

  Her grandmother. Now they were getting somewhere. The grandmother must be the connection.

  “Did your grandmother tell you to e-mail me?” Ben asked.

  “Grandma died last month.” Missy blinked a few times, sniffled and continued talking. “But I guess you could say that.”

  She let go of her hair to rub at her nose. Wind gusted over the rooftop, bringing with it some plump raindrops and rattling the leaves in the planters. The strands of Missy’s dark hair completely obscured her face.

  “Let’s go inside.” This time Ben didn’t give her a choice, crossing to the door and holding it open for her. The wind practically blew them inside onto a small landing at the top of a staircase that descended into the office. He pulled the door shut behind them to find Missy staying put. She was so tiny, she had to crane her neck to look up at him.

  “Before Grandma died, she asked if I’d get in contact with your family,” she told him in a hushed voice that was still fairly loud. “It really must have bothered her that she didn’t tell someone what she suspected.” She paused, as if for dramatic effect.

  “What exactly did she suspect?”

  “That’s just it,” Missy said. “Grandma wasn’t sure. She just knew something wasn’t right.”

  Ben tried not to let on how frustrated he was with her roundabout way of telling a story. “How did she know that?”

  “Because of what Dr. Whitmore did with your mom’s blood sample,” she said in the same loud whisper.

  Ben stopped breathing. Alex Rawlings had mentioned having tests run after his mother died, but hadn’t revealed who’d extracted the sample. He should have guessed it had been Dr. Whitmore. It was routine for the physicians in small towns to take on the duties of medical examiners.

  “What happened with her blood sample?” he prompted.

  “Dr. Whitmore told the police chief the sample was normal, but that m
ight not have been true.” Missy’s eyes got so big they seemed to take up a third of her face. “Grandma knew she should have said something, but Dr. Whitmore was so good to her. And such a good man, too.”

  Ben waited for the punch line, but she’d paused again. He’d have to ask. “Why didn’t she believe the sample was normal?”

  “Because she saw Dr. Whitmore switching the label on the blood sample he sent to the lab. Whoever’s blood came back clean, it wasn’t your mother’s.”

  A gasp sounded, but it didn’t come from Ben. He descended the stairs and found Sierra between the second and third floors with her back plastered against a wall. Her pallor was as white as her lab coat.

  Ben rushed to her side and placed a hand on her arm. “Are you okay?”

  She said nothing.

  Footsteps thundered behind them. It was Missy, traipsing down the stairs. “Oh, no! Dr. Sierra, I didn’t know you were there! Please believe me, I didn’t mean to cause trouble. I can explain everything. Just please don’t fire me.”

  “You can explain later,” Ben told the receptionist. He took an unresisting Sierra by the hand, navigated the last bank of stairs and emerged in the office. He headed for the long hallway lined with the examination rooms. A nurse walked toward them, her white shoes making squishing sounds on the carpet, her lips parted as she started to say something.

  “Give us a minute, okay?” Ben spoke before the nurse could. He ushered Sierra inside a vacant exam room and shut the door on the woman’s surprised face.

  “You look like you need time to compose yourself.” He led Sierra to a stationary chair in the corner of the room. She sank into it. He wheeled another chair in front of her and sat down, his legs spread, his forearms balanced on his thighs. “What Missy said must have come as a shock.”

  The receptionist’s revelation had surprised him, too, even though on some level he’d known from the start that Sierra’s father—her beloved father—wasn’t innocent. Although he couldn’t fathom why Dr. Whitmore hadn’t wanted his patient’s blood analyzed, the reason had to be the key to everything.

  “I don’t believe it.” When Sierra finally spoke, it seemed as though she was talking to herself.

  “I know it was hard to hear,” he said gently, “but Missy has no reason to lie.”

  “I didn’t mean I don’t believe Missy.” Her voice gained steam. “I don’t believe her grandmother.”

  He ran a hand through his short hair, trying to put himself in her shocked place while he thought about how to respond. “It was a deathbed confession, Sierra. Missy’s grandmother couldn’t take that information with her to the grave. How can you believe she was lying?”

  “I didn’t say she was lying.” She focused on him, her eyes intense. “She probably even thought she saw my father switching that sample, but she didn’t.”

  “How could you know that?” he asked incredulously.

  “My father wouldn’t do something like that.”

  “Wow.” Ben kept his gaze steady on her, feeling as though he was seeing her clearly for the first time. “I knew you liked to create your own fiction, but I didn’t know how bad it was.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Come on, Sierra. Ever since I got to town, you haven’t been interested in the truth. The only thing important to you is preserving your father’s reputation.”

  “No.” The color in her face deepened. She stood up and glared at him. “It’s not allowing you to damage his reputation. There’s a difference.”

  Ben got out of his chair, too. They faced off, like combatants.

  “I couldn’t do any damage if there was nothing to find out,” he said. “You need to accept that your father had flaws. Serious flaws.”

  “You don’t know the first thing about my father!”

  “I know he’s the reason you aren’t leading the kind of life that would make you happy.”

  “That’s ridiculous!”

  “Is it? Not long ago, you told me how lucky I was to live in a big city. You never would have come back here after your residency if not for your father.”

  “I came back to go into practice with him.”

  “That’s what you wanted to happen,” Ben said, then repeated what Ryan had told him when they’d had lunch together in the park. “Your father wanted your brother to take over his practice.”

  She looked as if he’d thrown a baseball at her and hit her in the stomach. “That’s a low blow.”

  He couldn’t let her pain sway him. She needed to hear what he had to say. “It’s the truth and deep down you know it, just like you know this life you’ve built isn’t what you want.”

  Her eyes glittered. “So now you’re an expert on me even though we haven’t known each other a week.”

  “I’ve seen more of your real self in that week than you showed Armstrong in all the years you dated.”

  She threw up a hand. “I can’t believe you’re bringing Chad into it.”

  “Why not?” he said. “You built up a fiction around him, too. You convinced yourself you loved him.”

  “I did love him.”

  “You loved the idea of a man your father approved of. If you were honest with yourself, you would have been the one to break things off.” He looked around the room for something to illustrate his point and made a sweeping gesture with his right hand. “Armstrong is as wrong for you as that doorknob.”

  “I guess now you’re going to say you’re right for me?” She took a few steps forward and glared up at him.

  “I wasn’t. But now that you bring it up, yeah, it makes a hell of a lot more sense for you to be with me.”

  “The man trying to ruin my father’s good name,” she bit out.

  “The man determined to get at the truth,” he retorted.

  “So you’re going to pursue this, even after what your father told you?”

  “Damn right I am,” he said. “Your father switching the blood sample proves there’s more to the story. I’m going to find out what it is.”

  “You haven’t been able to establish my father even met your mother.”

  “I’ve been thinking about that.” The seeds of his theory had been planted when Connor told the story about hitting his head. Alex Rawlings had mentioned that his brother was a hellion. What if the incident happened in Indigo Springs? “I know your father didn’t treat patients under eighteen. But what if the pediatrician was closed? Wouldn’t your father have been available in an emergency?”

  She peered at him with blatant suspicion. “What are you getting at?”

  “We only looked under the name Blaine when we checked your files,” he said. “If my mother brought one of my brothers here, the record would be under Nash.”

  “I’m not going back into the records,” she said. “I won’t help you grab at straws. Besides, it wouldn’t prove a thing even if she had been in the office.”

  “It would prove they’d met.”

  “So what? It’s a dead end, Ben.”

  He shoved aside his frustration, dropping that angle to come at the investigation another way. “I still need to find out why your mother claimed your father was out of town.”

  “I already told you why. She remembered wrong.”

  “Then maybe I can jog her memory. When do you expect her back from Atlantic City?”

  Sierra grew silent. He could almost see the gears in her brain turning. Finally, she said, “They’re both gone, Ben. Does it really matter what happened nineteen years ago?”

  “Of course it does,” he said. “The truth always matters.”

  “And you’ll stop at nothing to get to it?”

  Nobody had ever posed that question to Ben before. He’d built his entire adult life on ferreting out secrets. He’d gone into journalism to accomplish that goal.

  “That’s right,” he said.

  “At what cost?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “What if I asked you to leave my mother alone?” Sierra asked,
her voice catching. “If you really are the man for me, you’d do that for me.”

  Her request sliced into him, coming perilously close to his heart.

  “If you were the woman for me,” he finally responded, “you wouldn’t ask me to.”

  He took one last long look at her, then turned and went, because there was nothing left to say.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  SIERRA REMAINED BEHIND the closed doors of the examination room, her adrenaline running so rampant she was literally shaking.

  How dare Ben say those things to her! He hadn’t known her father. If he had, he’d realize how off base his accusations were. As for his assertion that he was the right man for her, she wouldn’t even think about it.

  What was important right now was protecting her father’s reputation. She simply couldn’t give credence to the accusation that he’d falsified evidence. The reason she hadn’t agreed to check the old files was simple. Why help Ben drum up suspicion where there should be none?

  Three quick knocks sounded on the door before it swung open, admitting her brother. He cocked his head, regarding her closely.

  “Everything okay?” Ryan asked. “Ben just stormed out of here, and Missy looks like she’s about to hyper-ventilate.”

  Sierra got her shakes under control before she spoke. “Missy thinks we’re going to fire her,” she said, then told her brother everything.

  He listened without interrupting, then said, “It doesn’t make sense that Dad would falsify evidence.”

  “Exactly!” Sierra retorted. “He didn’t even know the woman.”

  “If you’re so sure of that, I don’t understand why you wouldn’t check to see if Dad treated one of Ben’s brothers.”

  “Because I didn’t want to give him ammunition!”

  “If you’re putting it in those terms, you could have taken the gun away from him. He couldn’t fire at Dad if the file isn’t there.”

  “Dr. Ryan! Where are you?” Their nurse practitioner’s voice traveled down the hall.

  “Duty calls,” Ryan said. “Since Janine’s here today, we can both cover for you if you need time to deal with all of this.”