she had no solid alibi.
She and Barry both had access to narcotics and other drugs through their work. He wanted to see that toxicology report. Perhaps the hospital hadn’t made a mistake.
Barry or Sondra might have murdered Gloria Inman.
* * *
PEYTON’S HEAD POUNDED as if someone was beating her skull with a hammer. She slowly opened her eyes, wincing as she realized she was lying on her back patio. The memory of being assaulted returned, and nausea rose to her throat.
Had Val come back and attacked her?
Or was it the man who’d threatened her?
Drawing in a breath to stem the nausea, she pushed herself to a sitting position. The land swayed, trees dipping and moving. The wind swirled dead leaves around her, blowing them inside through her sliders which were still open.
Choking back a sob, she glanced across the backyard, but didn’t see her sister or anyone else. Pushing up on shaky legs, she clawed at the door edge to steady herself and then stumbled inside. Wind howled through the open door and she pulled it shut, then turned to see if someone was in the apartment.
Pausing to listen, she held her breath and strained her ears for sounds of an intruder. A voice? Footsteps?
Nothing except for the ticking of the wall clock above the fireplace. Midnight. She’d been unconscious for over an hour.
She lifted her hand to the back of her head and felt sticky blood matted in her hair. She jammed the pole back into the doorframe and locked the sliders, then heard a sound. A low cry.
Val? Or...no, the cat.
Was he hurt? Was the intruder still inside?
Grabbing the fire poker again, she inched through the apartment, bracing for another attack. But she didn’t see anyone inside.
Her breath whooshed out, and she forgot about her throbbing head and went in search of the cat. Still dizzy, she gripped the wall edge until she felt steadier on her feet. In the kitchen, she found him hiding beneath the table.
Stooping down, she called his name. “Come here, Kitty. Come on, I won’t hurt you.”
Typically he came to her, but tonight his back was curled up, his hair standing on end.
“Looks like we’ve both had a rough day,” she muttered. She stood and retrieved the small bag of cat food she kept on hand from her pantry. He’d never ventured inside before, but she’d left food on the back deck. She poured a small handful into the bowl, then shook it and set it at the edge of the table on the floor.
Slowly he inched his way toward the bowl. She dropped down beside him and stroked his fur gently as he nibbled at the food. When he’d eaten a little, she picked him up and cradled him to her, then examined his paw. He was limping earlier, and he winced when she touched it. He had put some weight on it, so she didn’t think it was broken. And she didn’t find blood or see any cuts. If he wasn’t better in a day or two, she’d take him to the vet.
For now, she’d let him sleep and see if he felt better in the morning.
She settled him on a blanket at the foot of her bed and went to examine her own injuries. God, she looked battered and bruised.
Two attacks in one day.
She itched to call the police and report this one.
But what if it had been Val? Could she turn her sister in to the police?
* * *
LIAM’S PHONE WOKE him up at six in the morning. He rolled over and rubbed his bleary eyes. He’d barely slept for thinking about the case.
Peyton’s battered face haunted him. What had happened to her and why had she lied?
His phone dinged again. He snatched it and saw it was his partner, Bennett. “Maverick.”
“I’ve been running various programs to compare employees who worked at the Whistler Hospital with employees from other hospitals close by, looking for any instances of misconduct, wrongful death or suspicious deaths and fires.”
“Go on.”
“Anyway, I didn’t find any instances of arson, but I did some cases where patients died suddenly, and the families questioned the deaths. Two at Pine Ridge Hospital, Edna Fouts and Lydia Corgin. The third, Hilda Rogers, died at a nursing home called Serenity Now. I’ll send what I dug up so far on them.”
“People are lawsuit happy these days,” Liam said. “What happened in the cases?”
“They were dropped. I did some digging and it turned out they shared one thing in common. The