Page 166 of Nash Falls

“But it shouldn’t have been hard,” she replied as tears started trickling down her cheeks. “I’d been married to him for twenty years. I knew Walter, the sort of person he was. He would never… do… that.” She looked up at him. “I wish I could tell him so.”

“He may know, ma’am.”

“How?” she said fiercely. “How?”

“You say you knew him?”

“Yes.”

“Well, it sounds to me like he also knew you.”

She held his gaze for a few seconds before saying, “Thank you for helping me… when I was… sick.”

“No problem, ma’am. All you’ve been through, well, it’s understandable.” He looked in the direction of the door, then knelt down in front of her and gripped both her hands.

“I don’t know what happened to your daughter, but I do know that she would not want you to do anything… to hurt yourself. So, please, just be okay, all right? I know things seem really dark right now. But sometimes the light is just a few feet away.”

She squeezed his hands and nodded. “What’s your name?”

Despite everything, Nash almost saidWalter. “Dillon, Dillon Hope.”

“Thank you, Dillon.”

Rhett called out to him from the main floor. “Let’s go, Hope!”

Nash rose, gave Judith one more meaningful glance, and then hustled out.

As the Porsche drove away, Judith stood at the window, watching.

CHAPTER

80

NASH WAS BEHIND AND TOthe left of Rhett as he knocked on the door of Nash’s childhood home. He heard footsteps coming and tensed. He had formulated a plan, an absurdly tricky one timing-wise, and he just hoped to hell it worked, or else it was all over.

The door opened and there she was. She looked at Rhett first and then when her gaze caught on Nash, he immediately shook his head and mouthed the words,You’ve never seen me.

She froze but only for a moment.

“Yes?” she said, looking back at Rhett. And then Parker flinched, and Nash knew it was because she had just recognized a man whom Nash now knew the woman loathed.

“Are you Rosie Parker?”

“Yes. What is this about?”

“Walter Nash worked for me, and we were trying to see if we could find him.”

“Well, if the police can’t, I’m not sure how you can.”

“Might we come in?”

Her eyes drifted to Nash, who once more shook his head.

“No, I’m getting ready to go out. I don’t have time.”

“Okay,” said Rhett as he took the letter out. “Walt’s father wrote him this letter before he died. He said that if Walt ever needed help he should get in touch with a guy named Shock, who was apparently his father’s friend. He’s a big Black guy. Do you know him?”

Parker again looked at Nash, and he shook his head.