Page 147 of Paranoid

“So we’re back to that again—trying to connect what happened twenty years ago to the murders now?” she asked, even though she, too, had experienced similar thoughts, that the tragedy of the past couldn’t be separated from the horror that was happening now.

“Yeah, I know, it seems a little far-fetched.”

“Try a lot far-fetched.” Then she said, “But, I get it. There’s something. . .”

“I just can’t get away from it. I think it’s all starting to link up. Ned Gaston was the first cop on the scene. Got there pronto, said he’d already been called.”

“Rachel’s dad, yeah, I remember.”

“And Luke’s stepfather.” She heard the edge of excitement in Cade’s voice, remembered it from previous crimes they’d solved together. “So it turns out he and Dr. Moretti, our missing person’s father, decided not to do everything possible to save the kid.”

“Are you kidding me?” She was shocked and eased off the gas, slowing for another red light.

“The rationale, at least Moretti’s, was that the kid was too far gone, would have been a vegetable, and Ned Gaston didn’t want his wife to have to deal with a bed-ridden, basically brain-dead son.”

“You think there’s more to it?” she asked, interested.

“I’m sure of it.”

“Then let’s find out what it is,” she said as the light turned green and she hit the gas. Finally, it seemed, they were getting somewhere.

* * *

With difficulty Rachel had tamped down her panic attack upon recognizing Bruce Hollander as the man who had been lurking around the house. But her hard-fought rationality collapsed as she heard the approach of Cade’s pickup just as the dog began whining to be let out. “Just a sec,” she said to the dog, and when her ex appeared at the back door, she flung it wide and let him fold her into his arms as Reno whined and did a happy dance at his feet.

“Apparently he’s accepted you,” she said, as she extracted herself from his embrace and made a mental note that they were divorced, with a capital D. She couldn’t let herself fall into the trap of depending upon him. Not now. Not ever. Besides, she was handling things, had put a lid on her freak-out show on her own. She could handle this. She had to.

As the door was still partially open Reno took advantage of the situation to catapult himself outside and off the porch, did tornado spins, then several laps around the yard.

“How’re the kids?” he asked, pulling the door shut, just as Harper came out of her room.

She looked like she’d been crying, her cheeks puffy, her eyes red. Spying her father, she stormed into the kitchen. “How could you?” she said, sniffing.

“How could I what?” Cade asked. “And by the way, ‘hello,’ too.”

“Don’t, Dad. Just don’t. And don’t act like you don’t know what’s happening. You know! You do. How could you get Grandpa to send Xander away?”

“Whoa, what?” Cade held up his hands, palms out, as if in surrender. “You’re blaming me?” “It’s not Xander’s fault, you know,” Harper cut in, “that I snuck out. That’s on me. And what happened to the woman. Wow, that was crazy weird! But you”—she was leveling her furious gaze at Cade— “you were the reason he had to leave! And now he’s gone and I don’t know when I’ll see him again!” She was winding up now, but Cade kept his cool.

“I didn’t know Grandpa had let him go—”

“What?” Rachel asked. This was the first she’d heard of it.

Harper focused on her father. “You’re Grandpa’s son! ” she said hopefully.

“It has nothing to do with me. Grandpa didn’t like his behavior—”

“It’s not his business!”

Cade’s eyebrows raised. “It definitely is. Exactly that. Xander worked for him, and stayed in Grandpa’s apartment rent free.”

“But you’re a cop!”

“That’s not a part of this.”

“Oooh!” She let out a hard, angry breath, but seeing she was getting nowhere with her father, Harper looked at her mother and started to plead her case. “Mom, please. It’s like I’ll never see him again!” She was working herself up to a fresh spate of tears.

“Of course you will. If you want to and he wants to,” Rachel said, weakening a bit; Harper had been through so much. “You’ll make it happen. Eugene isn’t that far away.”