r /> There was just one way to find out.
Acting on impulse, she turned her car onto the business loop and headed for the agency office. She arrived to find the parking lot empty and the windows dark except for a light above the front door.
After parking across the street, where her car was less apt to be noticed, she took Burke’s key ring and a small flashlight out of the glove box. Then, making sure she wasn’t being watched, she climbed out of the car and crossed the street.
One of the larger keys opened the front door of the office. There was no alarm system—nothing to steal except some outdated PC desktops. The real value here was in the contracts and other documents contained in the files.
She switched on her flashlight. Keeping the beam low, she made her way down the hall to the room with Garrett’s nameplate on the door. She turned the knob, expecting to find the door locked. To her surprise, it opened. Perhaps Garrett had been in a hurry to pick up Brianna at the hospital. Or maybe he’d meant to come back to the office, but changed his mind.
He could still come back, Allison reminded herself. The sooner she got out of here the better.
She tugged at the top drawer of Garrett’s file cabinet. It slid open—no surprise. If Garrett had switched keys he would’ve had no way to lock and unlock it. But now for the final test. If the key on Burke’s ring worked in this lock, she would know that the two keys had been switched.
Focusing the beam of her flashlight, she closed the drawer and thrust the small key into the lock. It fit—again no surprise. But would it turn? Her heart seemed to stop as she gave the key a gentle twist and felt it turn, moving the small tumblers that locked the drawer. This was Garrett’s key. And there was only one way it could’ve gotten onto Burke’s key ring.
With a shaking hand, she unlocked the drawer again and withdrew the key from the lock. After taking a moment to make sure everything was as she’d found it, she left the building and hurried across the street to her car.
Her thoughts raced as she drove home. The switched key was irrefutable evidence that Garrett was up to something. And if that was true, she had little reason to doubt Burke’s other suspicions.
The question now was what could she do to help her husband—especially since he’d insisted that she mustn’t be involved?
* * *
Burke was watching a mindless sitcom on TV when the door opened and a familiar voice boomed above the commercial.
“Hot damn, Burke, you look like you got run over by a cow stampede! What did those doctors do to you in this place?” The burly figure of his old friend Hoagie Atkinson lumbered into the room. “I wanted to bring you a beer, but my wife said they’d throw me out of the hospital if I tried.”
“Too bad, I could use one.” Burke switched off the TV. “Come over here and sit down, Hoagie. I’m glad to see you.”
And he was glad, Burke reflected. Hoagie was one friend who wouldn’t fuss over him and make him feel like a useless invalid.
“So when do we break you out of this place?” Hoagie, a bear of a man with a balding head and a thick mustache, lowered his bulk to the chair.
“I get transferred to rehab tomorrow. When they think I’m ready, I’ll go home. I’ve signed up for some home help until I get back to normal.” He shifted in the bed, wincing as the pain shot up his back.
“Hurts like hell, does it?”
“You’re damn right it does.”
“Have they got you on painkillers? Those things can get you hooked.”
“Don’t worry, I know better than to let that happen.”
Hoagie shifted on the chair. “How’s that little wife of yours handling all this?”
“Allison’s holding her own.”
“Hell, Kate would be runnin’ this place by now. She’d have those nurses hopping every time she said jump.”
“Maybe.” Burke didn’t want to talk about Kate. He didn’t want to compare her to Allison, who was doing her best to shoulder the load that had been so unfairly dumped on her. And he didn’t want to talk about the state of his marriage, not even with Hoagie.
“Allison isn’t Kate,” he said. “She didn’t sign on for any of this crap. But she’s tough in her own way. She’d be here now, but she’s worn herself out looking after me. I sent her home to rest.”
“Well, good for her,” Hoagie said. “I was thinking she’d probably packed her car and cleaned out your bank account by now.”
Burke didn’t reply. He was accustomed to his friend’s blunt way of speaking and he’d long since learned not to let it bother him. But this time Hoagie was pretty much on target. He was describing what Burke had told Allison to do—and coming from somebody else, it sounded damned cold.
“I never thought I’d see you with one of those high maintenance types,” Hoagie continued. “I always hoped that you’d find another woman like Kate. You know, a woman who liked things simple and never put on airs—a woman who could steer a boat and gut a fish like a pro—a woman who didn’t mind getting dirt under her fingernails. Allison’s a looker, and I’ll bet she’s dynamite in bed, but she’s about as useful as a wind-up doll—”