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Janelle didn’t want to belabor the point, but it was hard for her to get anybody else to understand, and that bothered her too. Still, she’d made her decision a long time ago, and she would finish her job as her mother’s caretaker. As she sat at her mother’s side, she knew that Guilliam had gone to check something with hospital security. Probably the cameras to see where that fake doctor guy was. She couldn’t be as sure this time, having not seen him as clearly as she had before. Yet was he hiding away in this section of the hospital or at least staying away from her. So why was he taking so many chances?

Surely if he was going after Mason, it would be a quick in-and-out thing. The fact that he may be waiting for an opening was also concerning. The last thing she wanted was for Mason to get hit again. Tesla didn’t deserve that, and neither did Mason. He was a good guy. And to think that these assholes were ruining everybody’s lives just pissed her off again. As she sat here and waited, her mother murmured something.

She got up and walked over to her bed. “I didn’t hear you, Mom. Did you need something?”

Her mother’s eyes opened wide, and Janelle stared for a moment, then saw a familiar beaming smile. It had been such a long time since she had seen one. She looked down at her mother, both awestruck and emotional at the serene beauty in her mother’s face.

“He came back for you,” Mom whispered. “I can leave in peace now.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you talking about?”

Janelle felt a squeeze of her fingers, as she watched in shock, while her mother’s eyes closed, and she stopped breathing. She stared down at her mother, stunned, waiting for that gasping breath that would say her mother was still here, that she had lived through whatever this nightmare was. It didn’t come, and it didn’t come, and it didn’t come. When it finally hit her that it wouldn’t ever come again, she burst into tears and bent down to hug her mother’s frail body, knowing that she was gone, yet unable to let go. When she felt strong warm arms pick her up, she knew Guilliam was back again. He sat her down in his lap off to the side, while she cried.

She lifted her head and stared up at him, and he whispered, “It’s okay. Let it go. Let it out. You’re fine. You need to do this.”

And, without warning, she once again burst into tears and bawled, thankful for the security of his embrace. When she finally lay quiet against his chest, her body still trembling, he just held her. She could see her mother lying there, her face peaceful in death.

Janelle shook her head. “She smiled up at me and said something very odd.”

He looked down at her, his gaze warm and caring.

“She said, He came back for you. Now I can go in peace .” He stiffened for a moment and then relaxed. She looked up at him. “She didn’t contact you, did she?”

He lowered his gaze, then nodded. “She told me that her time was coming,” he murmured.

She pushed back off his lap somewhat, but he held her firm. “And you came?” she asked in astonishment.

He shrugged. “I was asked to come for another reason as well.”

“Mason?”

He nodded.

“So, it was a timing thing, more than anything. Or are you telling me that you wouldn’t have come if Mom hadn’t called?”

His lips twitched. “I don’t know how to answer that because I didn’t have the opportunity to experience that,” he admitted. “I came. That’s what’s important.”

She nodded, and, unable to do anything else, she sagged against him. “You don’t have to feel obligated.”

He squeezed her and replied, “That’s not my style.”

“No, but, in a case like this, I can see you feeling that way.”

He didn’t say anything, just continued to rub her back.

She leaned into his familiar touch. “How long has it been?” she murmured.

“Three years,” he replied. “Three years, three months, and twelve days.”

She stiffened, then pulled back and stared at him.

He nodded. “I knew that I had to step back to let you do what you needed to do,” he explained, “but that didn’t make it easy on me.”

“And you kept track?” she asked in a daze.

He nodded. “I kept track because I knew, at one point in time, you would need me, or you would at least be open to seeing me again.”

“I never stopped wanting to see you. I never stopped wanting to have you in my life, but I just needed to focus on Mom.”

“And I understand that,” he said.

“Good, because now obviously isn’t the time to even talk about it, but—”

The nurse walked in, interrupting them. She sighed, walked over to her mom, and stated, “She looks so peaceful.”

And for that Janelle was grateful.

The nurse turned to look at the pair of them and asked, “You want a few minutes with her?”

Immediately Janelle nodded. “If you wouldn’t mind.”

The nurse smiled. “That’s fine. We can give you a little bit of time. There’s also a chapel down the hallway, if you want to go spend some time there.”

Janelle, almost numb, nodded. As soon as the nurse was gone, she looked up at Guilliam. “I would like to stay with her for a bit to say goodbye somehow.”

He nodded. “I will give you some privacy. I’ll be back in half an hour.”

She nodded, already moving toward the hospital bed. Looking up at him, she whispered, “Thank you.”

He nodded. “You don’t need to thank me. Thank your mom.” And, with that, he was gone.

*

Guilliam headed straight to the security office. As soon as he knocked, the door opened, and he was let in. Obviously phone calls had been made back and forth to give him access now.

As he walked in, one of the men pointed to a workstation set up on the side. “We’ve loaded the cameras for you.”

He sat down and quickly sorted through the ones he wanted, and it didn’t take long to pick out the man Janelle had mentioned. Guilliam studied it for a moment, then nodded. “That’s him again.”

“The same man you saw earlier?”

“Yes. This time he’s not wearing a doctor’s white lab coat but a janitor’s outfit.”

The security men looked at it and nodded. One guy said, “I’ll send out an alert, but he’s probably long gone.”

Guilliam frowned. “Maybe not. You do what you need to do. I’m heading up to the room that we have guarded.”

“You’ve got Mason in there, don’t you?”

He looked over at him and nodded. “Do you know him?”

“Sure do. I’ve been volunteering to be security as well.”

“We’ll figure out who’s behind it, hopefully soon. Apparently several years back Mason’s home was the scene of a home invasion, and Mason ended up shooting the guy.”

The security guard nodded. “I remember that. It was that punk-ass kid and good riddance. Besides, it was a clean kill.”

“Absolutely clean,” Guilliam confirmed, “but we’re wondering if somebody in that family is holding a grudge.”

“I wouldn’t be at all surprised,” the guard noted, staring off in the distance. “That family is very patriarchal. Just so you know, I wouldn’t even put it past the grandfather.”

“Is the grandfather still living?” Guilliam asked.

“He is, but he’s in an old folks home. The man is still a power unto himself though. The shit these people get away with because they’ve got money just drives me nuts.”

“Enough to do something like hiring a sniper to kill Mason and then a follow-up killer to finish him off in a hospital?”

The guard raised his eyebrow. He looked back at the cameras and muttered, “I wouldn’t be at all surprised. They don’t think the rules apply to them. That’s why Gabe was never caught. I sincerely believe that he just bullied people into keeping quiet and giving terrible descriptions of who he was and what he was doing. This may be Greg, the other grandson, but I haven’t seen him in a long time. Maybe he’s now the bully, the muscle, behind the old coot.”

“That would imply he had some form of leverage, if he could apply that pressure.”

“His family is one of the biggest employers in town, and the grandfather was the guy who initially would threaten them with layoffs, threaten them with broken legs and all kinds of shit. Then as he got older, I guess Gabe took over as head bully. I don’t even know what got him started with the B&Es, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a dare for him.”

“Somebody mentioned a lack of challenges in Gabe’s life.”

“Yeah, you’re not kidding. He got everything handed to him, talk about advertising for better parenting,” he muttered. “I’ve got kids, and no way in hell I would ever let my kids get away with crap like that.”

“Too often it seems to be the parents’ fault, but sometimes it can be other influences too.”

“That’s what I meant about patriarchal. The mother didn’t have a whole lot of say in anything going on. She was one of those very pretty arm-candy types. Nice-enough lady, always involved in the schools, charity work, and things like that, but you didn’t get any idea of who she was because she wasn’t around much. The men were the main presence in the family. Strong-arm all-male types who had power and weren’t above using it.”

“Right. Now I need to figure out where the family is these days.”

“I thought Greg and his mom moved out of state. I’m not sure where. Although that sure looks like him in that janitor’s uniform. They were the black sheep of the family. The family in general didn’t believe the killing of Gabe was justified and held Mason to blame for it. But, as you mentioned, that was a lot of years ago to hold a grudge before acting on it.”

“So, the question is, what would stir that all up again?”

“I don’t know if anything would, unless they were just waiting for everybody to let down their guard, thinking it was long over and done, then seizing their chance to drop Mason where he stood.”

At the phrase, Guilliam turned to face the guard. “Interesting phrase.”

“Gabe and the granddad are those kind of guys. They were that kind of family. The kind to fire people publicly and to humiliate them at the same time. There’s no love lost for that family in this town, yet Greg or his granddad could still coerce some needy local to finish off Mason. The problem is, they need somebody with skills and somebody who can navigate around all the security we’ve got on Mason. Regardless, the grandfather would have had a scapegoat to make sure they wouldn’t get blamed—or at least the old coot wouldn’t get blamed.”

“An awful lot of people are involved in this deal, mostly dead now, and it seems the mastermind behind it all had some blackmail material to get people motivated to do whatever he wanted.”

“My guess would be the grandfather. He’s a mafia wannabe, using threats to keep his employees in line. He’s the kind of guy who would put cameras everywhere to collect information, pay kids to sit in the pool halls to get the dirt on people. I can also tell you that they’ve also had long arms into the military.”

Guilliam stiffened. Just another reminder of the secret investigation taking place into the high-level brass within the navy, who already seem to be bought and paid for. Guilliam sighed loudly.

The guard asked Guilliam, “You do know all the shit that goes on there, right? Please tell me that you’re not thinking it’s all innocent.”

“No, I’m not. I’m perfectly aware that shit goes on at the base that shouldn’t.”

“The kid was always blabbing about how he had lots of contacts and that he could make things happen.”

“Of course.” Guilliam swore. “And people would believe the spoiled rich kid.”

“They didn’t have a whole lot of choice because, well, he’s just a power-mad bully, and his grandfather hired a lot of townspeople in his business.”

“Nice.”

“No, definitely not,” the guard said, with a laugh. “But things calmed down after Gabe died. The grandfather was angry, very angry, for a long time. He fired a lot of people, seemingly for no reason. That was the thing that got to people because it was just like he was pissed off and wanted to make everyone else pay. He hated the world.”

“ Nice ,” Guilliam muttered, realizing just what a shit this guy was.

“And the thing is, everybody did pay. They paid in a big way.”

“What about Gabe’s father?”

The guard frowned. “He’s not like his father-in-law or Gabe, not even before Gabe died. He was the professional face of the company, in suits, taking meetings. However, once Gabe died, I think his father died inside too. Plus, then suddenly Gabe’s mother was in cancer treatment. She travels into the city all the time to see her oncologist but then comes back home to recuperate. Everybody treats her gently, and I don’t believe there’s any hostility toward her. Again she’s not been near the problem that her father and then her son were.”

“Of course, though that doesn’t mean that she couldn’t be dangerous in her own way.”

“Agreed, but I just don’t think that’s near the top of her list of things to be worried about right now.”

“Is she likely to make it?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t heard the latest. In fact I can’t say I’ve heard very much in the way of gossip about her lately.”

“ Huh . That makes sense. Whatever’s going on in her world, I’m sure it’s completely dominated by her cancer treatments.”

“You would think so,” the guard replied. “I can’t imagine what she’s going through, honestly. I’ve been blessed with good health and so has the bulk of my family. But, if you were employed at the family’s grocery stores, and you needed a few days off so you could get a family member some care that they needed or something else, the grandfather was that asshole who would charge you for your time off, make you acutely aware that he was doing it as a gift, and in some cases make you work double just to get your job back.”

Shaking his head, Guilliam snorted. “The fact that nobody has killed him is what’s surprising to me,” Guilliam noted. “An asshole like that, you would think somebody would have taken him out long ago.”

“I think, if people weren’t so terrified, they would have. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. And while the old man is in a home, I highly doubt he’s any less dangerous at this stage of his life than he was before.” The guard gave a headshake. “He just orders it done from the old folks’ home. The whole family is vengeful like that.”

“Good to know. I think I’ll go pay him a visit.”

“You do that, because the more I look at this image, I’m more convinced that this is Greg, the other grandson.”

“He appears to be, yes.”

The guard nodded. “Yeah, it could be a cousin maybe, or who knows? Maybe there are more grandkids that I don’t know about. This is probably your closest connection to that family,” he murmured. “In which case I sure as hell hope you get the whole lot of them.”

“Do you really think they would be behind something like this?”

“Oh, absolutely. They would definitely do something like this,” he declared, with a hard nod. “And they would make sure whoever carried out the deed knew what they were doing and why, and they would make sure they knew they had absolutely no choice.”

“We have an awful lot of people who pissed him off,” Guilliam noted. “So, it’s a matter of whether all these pathways lead to this one guy and his family, or somewhere else.”

“My vote is this family,” the guard declared. “Until you’ve seen all the shit they do, you just don’t understand how evil these assholes are.”

“If the grandfather is old, maybe dying, could that be a push to exact revenge on Mason for Gabe’s death? After all, it’s been like four years since the kid died.”

“Oh, yeah. The grandfather would want to see with his own eyes that it was done.” And, with that, a buzzer went off. The security guard sighed. “Looks like I need to get back to work.” And, with that, he quickly got up and left.

Guilliam took copies of the images and several photographs of the guy in action, and, with his notes, he headed back to the hospital room where Janelle was. As he got closer, he phoned Jasper and brought him up to date.

“That’s exactly where my thoughts are too,” Jasper stated. “I talked to our chatty prisoner again and brought up the name. He just nodded and didn’t say a whole lot, but he reacted with almost a sense of relief.”

“Your prisoner’s probably being blackmailed. I don’t think this is about money because these minions aren’t getting paid. This rich guy seems to have something on just about every single person involved in Mason’s case. Apparently he’s the kind of guy who liked to keep track of everybody and every problem or indiscretion, so, if he ever needed to, he could apply a little pressure and make them do things.”

“Nice guy. You would think somebody would have popped him by now.”

At that, Gilliam laughed. “I just told the security guard the same damn thing. At least we have an angle to work. I want to get an address for the old folks’ home for the grandfather, so I can see if the old man is prepared to talk. I’m hoping that, since he’s closer to meeting his maker, maybe he’ll be a little more willing to have a discussion.”

“Chances are, he won’t be. My money is on his being 100 percent family all the way.”

“I wouldn’t be at all surprised. That doesn’t mean that he’s not got some sense of decency in him though. And, if that fails, there’s the sickly daughter.”

“I hear she’s recovering from or dealing with cancer treatments, so any visitation to her is likely to chew people up.”

“If I need to speak to her, I’m not too bothered about that either,” Guilliam stated, his voice firm. “We’ve got to get some answers, and we need them fast. If this cousin or whoever this relative is who’s walking the hospital hallways is looking for a way to get through to Mason, you can bet that the family won’t let this guy off the hook anytime soon.”

“Maybe not,” Jasper conceded, “but no way in hell we’re letting that asshole get close enough for another attempt.”

“You can say that, but we also know that these guys are slippery.”

“I don’t know if this hospital guy’s got any training, but, if he thinks that he’s got any way to make this happen, he will try it at some point.”

“That’s why we’ve got triple guards on Mason right now.”

“I hear you, and that may be enough, but I won’t believe it until we get that far.”

“I’m not taking any chances either,” Guilliam murmured. “But I do hear you, and I understand what we’re up against. I’m more concerned that they have more threads to pull and more blackmail for somebody else in the military who’s got the skills they need. I think this guy loitering in the hospital is into collecting blackmail info, just figuring out how they can make it happen, and then they’ll decide who to call on to do the job.”

“That would suck,” Jasper replied, “because these guys feel as if they have absolutely no other choice, and you know how dangerous criminals can be when desperate.”

“So, what are you thinking?”

“I think that Drew deliberately missed the shot and was probably hoping the bad guys who hired him would think it was an accident or that he couldn’t get off a good-enough shot. He was planning to run anyway.”

“And yet there was supposed to be money.”

“But was there, or did he just tell his partner that, hoping he could get away with that too? We found one major deposit in one of Drew’s accounts, if memory serves. But who’s to say that the right guy didn’t blackmail a hacker to doctor up Drew’s account? Plus, we never found any money with Suzan. So that all lends credence to your no- money theory. It was all about blackmail instead. And maybe both Drew and Suzan were in on it,” Jasper suggested.

Guilliam muttered, “You would like to think some decent people are out there somewhere, especially on a goddamn military base. To even have gone as far as shooting Mason says a lot,” he murmured. “And none of it good. Drew obviously felt that he had zero choice in the matter and that this was the best option.”

“If that’s the case, I sure as hell am sorry that Drew is dead because I would have liked to have talked to him.”

“Yeah, you and me both,” Guilliam agreed. “I’m at Janelle’s room now. Her mom passed away about thirty minutes ago. I left her to say her last goodbyes, while I went to the security room. I’m just about there now and will take her home after this. She’s got a bunch of stuff to deal with and to arrange for her mom, but I’m hoping that, at some point in time, she will be ready to move on.”

“Give her enough time to work through it though,” he warned.

“Oh, I plan on it, don’t worry. It’s never been about pushing her. It was always about waiting for her,” he admitted. “I’m just kind of glad that the wait’s over. It was getting hard to wait.”

“You really did come back for her, didn’t you?”

“I came back for Mason, but it turned out to be perfect timing for both. I’m glad I didn’t have to make that decision and choose between Mason and her.”

“Nobody should ever have to make a decision between one or the other,” he pointed out. “Life’s hard enough without that.”

“I agree,” he murmured, “which is why I backed off and left her to look after her mother. It was something she clearly felt incredibly strongly about, so I wouldn’t fight her on it.”

“At the same time, I’m sure she felt that you deserted her.”

“It was the other way around. She pushed me away in no uncertain terms,” he shared, with a heavy sigh. “Anyway, her mom did call me a while back, and it wasn’t all that long ago. I’m not sure whose phone she used, but she was certainly lucid enough on the phone at that time. I didn’t realize that she was as close to the end as she was, but I did realize that she didn’t have too much time or she wouldn’t have called me.”

“Sounds like she was very stubborn.”

“Yeah, both of them are,” he stated, with a laugh. Up ahead, he saw the door to the room where Janelle was waiting. “Anyway, I’m here now. I’ll give you a shout as soon as I’ve got her home. And I sent you the camera stills of the guy, and I need to—Can you find me the old folks’ home where the grandfather stays and also wherever the daughter with cancer is? I’ll go make those visits too.”

“Good enough,” Jasper said and ended the call.

Guilliam walked into her room and stopped. No sign of her. He looked around. Her bag was there but no sign of her. Frowning, he walked down to the nurses’ station and asked if they had seen her. The nurse looked up and shook her head.

“I was giving her a few minutes before we came and removed her mother’s body,” she replied.

“And I gave her a few minutes, told her that I would be back in thirty.” He checked his watch. “And I’m right on time.”

“She may have gone to the washroom. She was pretty upset.”

“That’s a good point.” He turned and headed to the washroom and then back to the hospital room again but still found no sign of her. He pulled out his phone and called her, and when it started to ring from the floor, where they’d been sitting, his heart sank. He walked around, picked up the phone, and realized absolutely no way she would have just left it behind willingly. And now he knew they had a kidnapping on their hands as well.