Page 158 of Nash Falls

“Yes it would.”

“And this supposedly happened with his team of bodyguards nearby, my stepmother two floors below, and the butler nearby in his room?”

“You suggested that Walter Nash might have had reasons to kill your father.”

It was fortunate that neither man was looking at Nash. It took all his willpower not to pull his weapon and shoot Rhett in the head. He did his four-and-four breathing and became a statue once more.

Yet as he looked at Rhett, he saw something he had seen before in the man when he had been involved in business negotiations.He sees an opportunity and he’s about to go for it.

Rhett said smoothly, “As I told you before, I gave Nash a big raise and other perks right before the disgusting truth came out about his daughter. I did so because my father ordered me to. It had nothing to do with Nash’s business performance. Between you and me, he was actually pretty mediocre at his job. I had to step in quite often to rectify some of his poor decisions. He wasprobably consumed with all the heinous stuff he was doing to his daughter.”

“I’m sure,” commented a clearly interested Ramos.

During this exchange Nash had fixed his gaze on a spot across the room. It was a painting of a dog running across a field with a little girl trailing behind. He imagined the girl was Maggie, and the dog was his beloved labradoodle, Charly.

That was when Nash realized he had found his Sunshine, like his father had when he’d been a POW. He calmed dramatically.

Ramos continued, “You said before that you suspected that Nash was blackmailing your father.”

“Yes. With him being terminally ill he might have been about to expose Nash.”

“Right, but did Nash know that your father was dying?”

Nash glanced at Rhett to see the man’s reaction to this query. Once more, he was observing a man who had been caught in a lie and was now searching for some plausible answer that would legitimize his false narrative. He had seen Rhett do this many times when confronted by his father over some mistake or bad business decision. Rhett normally tried to shift any blame to other parties, sometimes including Nash.

“I… I’m not sure. But Nash was very resourceful and could have found out. Or, hell, my dad could have confronted him and told him what he was going to do. That was the way he was. My father got in your face. And with what happened with Maggie, we know what Nash was capable of.”

“You really think he killed her, too?” said Ramos.

“Who else? And you told me you had evidence against him, right? Hair and stuff?”

“Yes, his hair and clothing fibers were found in her bed. They matched hair from his hairbrush, and the fibers were from clothes we found in the bottom of one of his drawers. And to your point about him being involved in Maggie’s death we found a hair fiber with her remains. It matched samples we had taken from Nash’s hairbrush.”

“And there was evidence he was involved in that other murder, right?” said Rhett. “You told me and Mrs. Nash about it.”

“That’s right, his shoe prints were found at the scene of the crash where the security guard was run off the road and killed.”

“Okay, I truly believe you have your man. Now you just need to find the scum.”

Nash thought about his hairbrush and the missing clothes and shoes. The frame had been well done, he had to admit.

Ramos said, “FYI, we checked your alibi with Laurel Burke a while back and she confirmed you were with her the whole time.”

“That’s right. And I had no reason to kill him.”

Nash drew his gaze from the painting to his new boss.Except for billions of reasons.

Ramos said, “Now, this is delicate, but do you think anyone here at this house could have been working with Nash to kill your father? Because, as you alluded to, it seems like more than a one-person job.”

Nash once more could tell that Rhett was thinking quickly to deliver falsehoods to the detective that would support his supposition of an “inside person.”

“Well, to be frank, that’s one reason I let my father’s old security team go. I… well, I just didn’t trust them.”

Ramos nodded in understanding. “I thought you might say that. And we will run those leads down. Now, this is even more delicate. Your stepmother?”

“Yes?”

“Any, um, concerns there vis-à-vis your father’s death? I’m assuming she inherited a great deal of money.”