the man’s back, Simon began reading the man his rights.
“You have the right to remain silent...” he began. “You have the right to an attorney. If you do not have an attorney...”
Simon heard a sound coming from the front of the driveway. Some distance away, patrol officers were running up to help him. Nina was there, too, her horrified gaze pinned on the man beneath Simon.
Davenport looked up and saw her, as well. All of a sudden, he began thrashing and fighting Simon’s hold.
“You!” he screamed. “It’s all your fault. Your fault that Beth died. And now you think you can get away with it again? Fool people into thinking you can help them? You didn’t save that little girl. You put her in danger, just like her father says. Just like my Beth!”
“Shut up,” Simon ordered, but no matter what he said, he couldn’t get Davenport to shut up. He kept shouting his hatred at Nina until patrol officers took him away.
And from the look on her face, Nina heard every word.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
THE BLUE AND WHITE LIGHTS on the last patrol car faded into the distance. Standing in her front yard, Simon turned to face Nina. She was pale and trembling. All he wanted was to bring her inside and take her into his arms, but she couldn’t stay in the house. In minutes, the forensic team would arrive to process the place. In the meantime, they needed to get her stuff.
When he reminded her of that, however, she looked confused.
“Why do I still have to leave? Davenport’s in custody.”
Gently, he explained about the forensics team. Then said, “Besides, aside from the forensic team needing to do their job, we can’t make any assumptions. Davenport’s obviously guilty of breaking into your house. I think he’s the man who killed two men because of his daughter’s mental illness, but I don’t want to make any assumptions that could put you in danger. I need to go in and interview him. Get him to confess he killed Cann and that second man. In order to do that, I can’t afford to be distracted. Worried. I need to know you’re safe. I can still take you to a hotel. Or better yet, to a friend’s house. Is there a friend you can stay with?”
It took her a few seconds to process what he was saying, to accept that this wasn’t over quite yet.
“Nina,” he prompted.
She glanced up at him with shadowed eyes, then nodded. “I can stay with Karen. My boss. She’s a friend, too.”
“Okay. Let’s go in and call her. If it doesn’t look like he’s messed with your things, you can grab some essentials and then I can drive you to her house.”
They both went inside.
“Mud,” Nina grumbled under her breath as she walked past her living room and headed for the stairwell.
“Excuse me?” Simon asked, on her heels.
She pointed to the faint impression of muddy footprints near the back patio door and automatically took a few steps toward them. “Davenport must’ve tracked it in.”
Simon grabbed her elbow and pulled her to a halt before she could get too close to them. “Don’t touch anything yet. We don’t want to contaminate the scene. As soon as the techs come in to process the place, they’ll photograph the prints and match them up to Davenport.” Simon frowned. “But I thought he gained entry through your front door. It was unlocked. Is it possible you left it unlocked when we left this morning?”
“It’s possible. More likely probable. He definitely came in through the back. See, the footprints are red, made with the mud from my backyard,” Nina said slowly, drawing her words out. “I’m having a new patio put in. Right now part of the backyard is covered with this red-colored earth—fill the contractor put down as a base before laying the brick. Davenport had to have been in my backyard to get this red dirt on his feet.”
Simon stroked her arm, knowing she had to be rattled by the fact Davenport had broken into her home. Hell, even he was still rattled, overcome with thoughts of what Davenport had been planning to do to Nina. None of them were pretty and even now he envisioned Nina’s torso bared, her back marred with bloody initials. Fighting back nausea, he took his hand off her arm and patted her back, hoping she wouldn’t notice that he was shaking. “Let’s see if he touched your stuff.”
She led him to her room. The last time