“I was expecting your father to return, and when he didn’t, I feared the worst.” Her voice cracked. “Especially when he never returned my calls. I’ve been watching the house from a safe distance to see what happened. And then you showed up.”
Did she know about the break-in too? Or had she missed the intruder?
Nathan shifted closer. “Can we back up? Who are you, and why are we meeting at a cemetery?”
She crouched next to the closest gravestone. Only then did Nathan realize it was a relatively fresh grave.
“My name is Holly Sandfield. I buried my brother, Ian, here two weeks ago.”
“Who are you to my father?”
She startled at his question.
Erin pressed her hand against his arm and whispered under her breath, “Be patient. Let her tell her story.”
He blew out a breath and nodded. “I’m just trying to find out what’s going on.”
Holly rose and brushed her hands down her slacks. “I’ll answer your question, if you’ll answer mine first. Where is Newt? What happened to him? Is he... ? Is he—”
“Alive. He’s alive, the last I spoke with my mother. He was shot and is still in the hospital. I came out to check on the house.” That’s all Nathan would say until he knew more. “Now it’s your turn.”
She stared at the grave. “Your father and my mother, Lena, were in love, though they never married. She died in an accident a few months back. Her grave is over there.” She pointed and chewed on her bottom lip. Measuring her words? “Recently he started to think that someone had intentionally killed her to distract him from a case he’d been working. He’d been trying to find out who was behind the hit-and-run that killed her. And now, I think my brother, also a detective, was killed because of something your father told him.”
Nathan absorbed the woman’s words. Was she telling the truth? If so, he felt blindsided by the news. If only Dad had been able to tell him more.
“He told me that lives are at stake.”
“Yes, and now I’m afraid for mine and yours. I asked you to meet me here so you could see and understand the gravity of the situation, and to tell you that you should be careful who you trust. I wasn’t sure if you would listen to me, and I had no time to waste convincing you. But here you see the grave”—she pressed her hand against her chest—“maybe you will feel it in your heart. Newt was instructed to back off, so he claimed that he had—at least to his friends and fellow officers and detectives. But, of course, he never stopped. My brother’s death, his murder, has not been solved. Someone else is now looking into it, but I can’t trust anyone to find the truth. Your father, I trusted. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if he’d told you anything, but I suspected he would since he’d gone to Montana.”
“And why would you trust me?”
She smiled. “Your dad talked about you all the time.” Her smile flattened. “But you haven’t told me much about his current condition. Is he going to be okay?”
“As far as I know, he’s still unconscious and has been since after the surgery to remove the bullet in his brain. I’m sorry that no one contacted you. His boss was told about the shooting, and I assumed he would deliver the news to whomever needed to know.”
Holly pressed her hand to her mouth, her eyes wide. “I’m so sorry.”
“I need to find out what he was investigating. He was adamant that no one know, not even the detective officially working on the case. My sheriff doesn’t know. Supposedly Dad’s boss will have his department examine Dad’s cases—anything that could have led to the shooting. But Dad also mentioned a cold case. What can you tell us?”
“The day Ian was killed, he’d met with Newt. Your father had asked him to look into something for him. I only know suspicions and rumors. That someone is digging deep—but for what, I don’t know.” She reached into her small handbag and tugged out an envelope, which she handed to Nathan. “And I have this. He gave this to my brother. I don’t know what it means, but maybe you’ll find it more useful than I did. After our meeting tonight, I’m going to disappear—at least until it’s safe.”
“How can I reach you?” Nathan asked.
“I’ll find you.”
That prickly feeling crawled over him again. He glanced around and caught a shadowy figure stepping from behind a tree.
A gunshot echoed through the cemetery. Shards of granite exploded from the headstone.