scanned the property as he walked back to his car. Everything seemed quiet.
Still, his gut told him Peyton needed a friend as he climbed into his car. His phone buzzed with a text. It was from Jacob.
Inman gave up the name of the woman he had affair with. Sondra Evans. Claims it was over, that he broke it off.
Liam responded with, Her contact info?
Jacob texted back an address.
Liam: I’m not too far from there now. Will swing by and talk to her.
Jacob: Thanks. Inman insists she had nothing to do with his wife’s death. Let me know your take.
Liam: Copy that.
Liam pressed the accelerator and headed toward Sondra Evans’s house. All along they’d assumed Inman’s wife’s death was connected to the fire. But if Gloria Inman had been killed by her husband’s lover or ex, it was possible they were unrelated.
Which put them back to square one. Then who had set the fire and why?
If Inman or Evans had killed Gloria, why would Inman have brought attention to her death with a lawsuit? That didn’t make sense. Unless Evans had killed the wife and Inman had no idea...
He’d drill Sondra Evans for the answers.
* * *
PARANOIA BUILT INSIDE PEYTON. She’d had no idea her sister had been at the hospital the night of the fire.
Had Val come to visit her mother? Or had she been there for another reason? Was she seeking drugs?
Tears blurred her eyes as she pressed a hand to her aching cheek. How had things gone so wrong with her sister? Many addicts turned to drugs or alcohol because of a trauma in their past. But as far as she knew, Val hadn’t been involved in an accident, or been the victim of a violent attack or abuse.
Dark thoughts entered her mind about Val’s motive, thoughts she didn’t want to entertain. The fire had started in a storage closet next to the records room. One of the pharmacy rooms storing drugs was located across the hall.
She closed her eyes and willed away the terror gripping her. Her sister was an addict, and she had stolen from her and her mother, but she wouldn’t set a fire as a diversion in order to break into the drugs cabinet.
Would she?
God, please no...
Peyton walked to the sliders, opened the curtain and peered outside. Regret for not listening to Val haunted her.
Tears blurred her eyes, and she searched the darkness. Was her sister lurking in the shadows waiting to show herself again? Would she try to break in during the night?
She phoned Fred, the head of security. “Please check around my mother’s cottage during the night. I thought I saw someone lurking out there earlier.”
“I’ll go right now and have Bobby swing by every hour.”
“Thanks. And Fred, tomorrow I’d like to look at the security footage near my mom’s place and for the gardens. I don’t like the fact that Mom said she saw a stranger in her room.”
“Are you sure she really saw someone? I hate to mention it, but she’s starting to see things. I tried talking to her a few times, and she forgot who I was.”
Pain tightened Peyton’s chest. “I know, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.”
He said softly that he would, and they agreed to meet in the morning, then they ended the call. The envelope in Peyton’s apartment proved her mother hadn’t imagined this man. He’d visited her mother as a warning to her. A reminder to keep her silence.
A movement near the bushes to the right caught her eye. She gripped the edge of the slider, her heart hammering as she watched. There it was again, just a flicker of something moving behind the bushes. Then it darted through the trees and disappeared.
She watched and waited, fear tightening her shoulder blades. Was Val out there? Had she seen Agent Maverick at her door?
She claimed someone was after her. Peyton assumed it was her drug dealer or someone she owed money.
A screeching noise echoed from outside. Peyton went still, searching the yard and woods beyond. The screech grew louder. Was it the wind whistling off the mountain? Or...someone who was hurt? One of the patients? Leon again?
Suddenly another movement, a shadow traveling toward her deck. She grabbed the fire poker by the fireplace and braced it to use as a weapon. The screech again.
Her breath caught, then puffed out as the resident cat lumbered into sight on her back patio. Just as she’d thought, he was limping. Her heart ached for him, and