“I’ve just told you, we’ve never had any—”
“Dr. Gale,” Chelsea interrupted.
Lynne sent her receptionist a sharp glance. She hadn’t realized the younger woman had followed them to the storage room. “Not now, Chelsea,” she said, in no mood to deal with whatever was bothering the younger woman.
“It’s important,” Chelsea insisted.
Lynne turned, belatedly noticing her receptionist’s pale face. “What’s wrong?”
“We did have a few vials of Telazol missing.”
Lynne stared at her employee, certain she must have misunderstood. “What are you talking about?”
Chelsea cleared her throat, shifting from one foot to another. Lynne had never seen her act so nervous. Not even when she had spilled a bottle of soda and they’d had to replace the computer system. “Well, th-they weren’t exactly m-missing,” she stammered. “They were broken.”
Lynne forgot about the sheriff as she stepped toward Chelsea. “When?”
“A couple months ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
The younger woman’s pallor was replaced by a deep flush. “It was just an accident. I swear.”
Lynne frowned. Chelsea had a lot of accidents. She was never this upset about them. “Okay, but it should have been noted in the inventory,” she pointed out.
Chelsea continued to shift from foot to foot, looking as if she wanted to turn and flee. “I changed the log.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t want you to know.”
Lynne’s confusion was threaded with a hint of anger. An accident was one thing. To deliberately cover it up was another. Still, she hid her annoyance. If Chelsea thought she was being chastised, she would sulk like a petulant child and refuse to answer.
“Did you think you would be in trouble?”
The receptionist hunched her shoulders, as if she was expecting a blow. “Not because of the broken vials.”
“Then why?”
There was a long, awkward silence. “Because I wasn’t in the storage room alone,” Chelsea at last whispered.
“You . . .” Lynne’s breath caught in her throat as she realized what her employee was saying. She’d been having sex in the storage room. “Oh.”
There was the sound of heavy boots squeaking against the tile floor as the sheriff intruded into their conversation. “Who was with you?”
Chelsea seemed to shrink an inch as she twisted her fingers together. “It doesn’t matter. I just wanted to explain any inconsistency in the records.”
The sheriff wasn’t impressed. “I’ll decide what information is important, Ms. . . .”
“Chelsea Gallen.”
Kathy leaned forward, her hands on her hips. “Answer the question.”
Chelsea shrank another inch. “What does it matter? We were in the storage room and a few vials fell off the shelf.”
“You witnessed them break?” Kathy pressed.
“Well . . .”
“Be careful, Ms. Gallen.” The sheriff ’s expression was as icy cold as the weather outside. “It’s a crime to lie to law enforcement. Did you see the vials break?”
Chelsea shook her head. “No. I had to answer the phone. When I came back there was glass on the floor and . . .” Her words trailed away as she glanced nervously toward Lynne before returning her attention to the sheriff. “My friend was mopping up the mess. He said he’d bumped into the cabinet and a case of Telazol had fallen out and busted.”
Lynne struggled to contain her anger. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”
“I couldn’t.”
“Why not? I thought we were family here.”
Kathy sent Lynne a chiding frown. “You can discuss your trust issues later.” She pointed a finger in the younger woman’s face. “I want a name.”
The younger woman shook her head in mute misery.
Lynne ground her teeth. Why was Chelsea hesitating? Surely the worst part of the confession was the fact that she’d been having sex in the storage room? Unless she’d been in there with a married man.
“You can tell us here or we can go down to the station and talk there,” Kathy threatened.
Chelsea sucked in a terrified breath. No doubt she was thinking of her young daughter. It was a small town. Even if the sheriff didn’t press charges there would be nasty rumors swirling around her visit to the station.
She abruptly spit out the name. “It was Nash.”
Chapter 6
When Kir arrived at the clinic, he was immediately on edge at the sight of the sheriff ’s SUV parked out front. It didn’t help his nerves to enter the reception area and find it empty.
Where was everyone? Had something happened to Lynne? His heart clenched with a startling, painful sensation, but before he could allow himself to overreact, he heard the sound of voices echoing from the back of the clinic.
Cautiously he made his way down the hallway, halting just outside the open