Love Inspired Suspense December 2013 Bundle: Christmas Cover-Up\Force of Nature\Yuletide Jeopardy\Wilderness Peril (15 page)

The three of them sat at the kitchen table. Jordan snagged another chocolate, scrambling to find the words he'd practiced on the way over. They'd deserted him.

He took a deep breath and for one frantic moment wondered if he was being selfish. Were his words necessary? Would they do more harm than good? Would his parents even believe him?

Maybe not at first. But eventually they would. And that was when it would hurt the most. When the truth of Neil's actions finally sank in.

“What is it, son?” His dad clapped him on the back.

Jordan rubbed his forehead. “I need to tell you guys something and I'll just tell you straight up, it's not going to be easy for you to hear.”

Matching frowns immediately appeared on their faces. His mother covered his hand with hers and her eyes narrowed, searching his expression. “What is it you don't want to tell us?”

She could always read him. Jordan shook his head. “I've been thinking—and praying—long and hard about telling you this, but the fact of the matter is, I don't think you—” he looked at his father “—most especially you, Dad, are healing from Neil's death.”

“Healing?” His father's eyebrows came to a V at the bridge of his nose. “Healing? How are we supposed to heal when the cop who helped kill your brother is out there free to kill other kids?”

Jordan held on to his temper with effort. He hadn't come here to argue with his parents. He knew just mentioning Neil's name was enough to set his dad off on a tangent.

“They did an investigation, Dad, thanks to your insistence. There was nothing to prove she'd been negligent. Neil was drunk. He was arrested for driving under the influence and he was placed in a holding cell. End of story.” He clasped his hands between his knees and prayed for wisdom.

“It's not the end! She placed him in a cell with a killer!”

Jordan thought his head might explode with the effort of holding in his temper. “She didn't do anything wrong. Neil was drunk when he chose to drive. He ran a stop sign going fifty miles per hour right in front of Detective Randall. What else was she supposed to do? She did her job. It was Neil's stupid choices that killed him, not her.”

His father stood and jabbed a finger at Jordan. “I refuse to sit here and listen to you defend her. I can't believe you would come into my house—”

Jordan slammed his palm onto the table. His father jerked, and his mother gasped. Jordan took a deep breath. “Stop. Okay? Just stop.” He looked at his dad. “And sit down, please. I'm not done.” His father, still staring at Jordan's uncharacteristic outburst, slid back into his chair.

“Why do you say she didn't kill him?” his mother whispered, her stricken expression zinging straight to his heart.

“Because I know the truth about Neil. Truth I've kept from you, thinking to spare your feelings, your memories.” He looked at his dad. “Your heart. But I—”

“What truth?” His father's voice was low, the question, wary.

* * *

Katie sat in the car and felt her anger dissipate with each passing moment. She understood Jordan's reluctance to tell his parents over the phone that she was coming along. If Jordan had told his parents he was bringing her by, most likely they would have flipped out. His father would have stewed and stressed over it. She wasn't exactly sure how his mother would have reacted.

She understood Jordan's thinking. When he told his parents she was sitting in the car outside, they might be a little more likely to see her. If only out of good manners.

Although good manners hadn't stopped Jordan's father from heaping his grief and anger on her head in the morgue. Or at the restaurant.

Katie moved the rearview mirror to give her a good view of the area behind her. Max and Jordan seemed confident they hadn't been followed, but Katie wasn't going to relax her guard. She called Gregory, who'd followed up on the receipt they'd found in the shooter's wrecked and abandoned car.

“Are you in or out of the hospital?” he answered by way of a greeting.

Katie grimaced. “Out.”

“Try and keep it that way, will you?”

She heard the concern in his voice and appreciated it. “I'll do my best. It's been so crazy, I haven't had a chance to track down that receipt. Did you?”

“I did.”

“And?”

“And our shooter had on sunglasses and a ball cap along with a scarf wrapped around his neck.”

“Video footage?”

“Yes. But my guess is he was familiar with the camera placements, because he kept his back to them as much as possible.”

“And he paid in cash.”

“At the pump. He never entered the store.”

“Of course.” She sighed and watched the door leading into the house. No sign of Jordan. “So that's another dead end.”

“Maybe. I mean, we're looking for a guy who's about five feet eleven or six feet tall. He's a little overweight and is Caucasian. Couldn't get hair or eye color, of course, but this information might help.”

“What about his hands? Could you do any close-ups?”

“He was wearing black gloves.”

Of course he was.
“All right. Thanks. Let me know if you come up with anything else.”

“Will do.”

She hung up then dialed her mother's number. Voice mail. She left a message about stopping by soon and hoped she was well. Katie avoided mentioning her stay in the hospital and her mother's noticeable absence.

And the hurt that it caused.

She winced and glanced in the mirror. Nothing. Another look at the door to the house. Another nothing. Jordan sure was taking a long time.

Even though it was Saturday, Katie knew Mariah was working. She called her roommate for an update on the diner evidence. Mariah said, “Bullet casings came from a semiautomatic .308 Winchester rifle. It's not a hard weapon to get your hands on, and there's nothing really special about it. Lots of hunters use it.”

“Lovely. Anything else?”

“Trace evidence such as hair and other fibers that don't add up to anything right now, but will be available for comparison if you come up with a suspect.”

“Okay.”

“So what are you doing on your medical leave?”

Katie glanced at the house and caught Jordan's eye, staring at her from behind the window of the kitchen door. “Getting ready to walk into the lion's den, I think.”

* * *

Jordan met Katie's eyes through the glass and shook his head. He paced back to the table and sat again, wishing he could take out his agitation on the patterned linoleum floor. Instead, he shifted and cleared his throat. “Neil was into drugs. Not just using them, he was a mule.” He paused at his parents' blank expressions. “Someone who transports drugs over the border for a lot of money by swallowing packets of drugs.”

His mother blinked at him, her audible gasp making Jordan grasp her hand. She pulled away and stared at him as the color in her cheeks drained away.

“How dare you?” His father jumped up, face red, eyes blazing. “She's brainwashed you! How dare you come into this house and malign your brother's memory? How dare you!” He strode from the kitchen.

“Dad—” Jordan moved to follow. His mother's hand on his arm stopped him. Her white, pinched face sent sorrow racing through him. “I'm sorry. I shouldn't have...” He shook his head.

“No. It was time.”

Her quiet response had him looking into her eyes. “What do you mean?”

She wiped her hand on her apron and clasped them in front of her. “About six months before Neil died, I heard him being sick in the bathroom. I knocked on the door and he told me to go away, that he was fine. He was in there a really long time. I thought he might have the flu or something. I took a phone call and then came back to check on him later. He was unconscious in his room. I called nine-one-one and got him to the emergency room, where they said he'd overdosed.”

“One of the packets had leaked. Or ruptured.”

She nodded. “He almost died.”

“Why didn't you ever tell me?”

“You were working like crazy, your father was on a business trip and—” she held her hands up as though beseeching him to understand “—Neil swore me to secrecy. Said he'd never do it again. Begged me to think about Dad's heart. Said if your dad died because I told him about the drugs, it would be on my head.”

She gave a sad smile. “I didn't let that last part sway me, but it did make me think.” She swallowed hard. “I was very worried what this information might do to Paul.” His mother twisted a napkin between her fingers, shredding it, piece by piece. “And Neil promised. Took my hands, looked me in the eye and promised.”

“And you believed him?”

She nodded. “He was scared. Truly terrified when he found out how close he came to dying. He said he was done with that and he'd stay away from the people he was involved with.”

“People like that don't just let you walk away.”

She swiped a few stray tears. “I made him go to counseling. Told him I'd tell your dad if he didn't. Neil didn't like it, but he did it. I thought he was doing better.” She flicked a glance at him and shoved the napkin pieces away. “I searched his room every day and never found anything else. He had that good job at the construction company. He was going all over the city working and he seemed happy enough. Every once in a while he'd get an out-of-town job. He was doing well. I thought.”

School had never been Neil's strong point, and their parents hadn't pushed the issue when he'd dropped out to work full-time. As long as he was working, they were happy to let him live with them until he saved enough to go out on his own.

“Then one afternoon, he'd just come home from an out-of-town job. I checked the bathroom and found a little pouch of white powder. When I asked him about it, he took it and said it wasn't what I thought. He was just holding it for a friend.” Tears clouded her blue eyes and she swallowed hard. “I'm not stupid, Jordan. I figured he was using again. He denied it, of course, but I knew.”

“Oh, Mom, why didn't you say something?”

“I hadn't said anything to your father the first time. This time I was going to say something, and Neil knew it. He stormed out and I never saw him again.” Her voice cracked on the last word. Jordan squeezed her fingers and she took a steadying breath. “He left to go on that trip to Mexico. I was trying to figure out how to tell your father before Neil came home. The next call we got was from Neil saying he was in jail, that he was being wrongly held. And then later, from the police saying he was dead.”

“You kept that from me?”

Jordan and his mother swiveled as one to see his father standing in the doorway, face pale. The sick look in his eyes shouted his betrayal. Jordan's stomach sank.

His mother sighed and nodded. “I did. And before you say anything, I thought long and hard about it before I did it. I was scared your heart couldn't take it.”

“Then we have a lot to talk about.”

“I guess we do.”

Jordan rose. “I'm sorry.”

“Why did you decide to tell us this now?” his mother asked.

Before Jordan could answer, his father asked, “It's because of Katie Randall, isn't it?”

Jordan considered acting like he didn't know what he was talking about, but couldn't do it. “Part of it's about her. I won't lie, I'm interested in dating her and getting to know her better.” He paused and rubbed his eyes. “I've been debating whether to say anything to you since I read the autopsy report.”

“Wish you'd said something before now,” his dad said.

Jordan looked him in the eye. “No, you don't.”

Tears filled his father's eyes, and he blinked them back. “I'm not sure I believe it.”

“I know. It's hard to swallow.” He glanced at his mother, who stared at her hands. “Talk to Mom. Work it out. Don't let Neil's death destroy you two. He may have been into some bad stuff, but he loved you guys.” A sob broke from his mother's throat, but she nodded her agreement.

Jordan hugged each parent, letting them cling a little longer than usual. “I'm sorry.” He couldn't seem to stop apologizing. Because he really was sorry. Sorry Neil had gotten into drugs. Sorry his mother had carried such a burden. Sorry his dad was feeling betrayed by his new knowledge. And sorry Neil was dead.

“Could we pray together?”

His mother's shaky question rattled him. Of course they needed to pray. He nodded and pulled his father to his feet. The man stood silent, refusing to say anything, but Jordan's mother gripped his hand and he didn't pull away. Jordan prayed from his heart, asking God's divine intervention in this painful way. And forgiveness for all involved.

“Amen.”

“Amen,” his mother whispered.

Jordan looked at his parents. “I was wondering if Katie could come in.”

His mother looked startled. “What?”

“She's in the car.”

“All this time, you've left her there?”

Jordan felt heat rise from his neck. “I needed to talk to you first.”

“No.” Jordan's father took a deep breath. “I'm not ready to see her.”

“But Dad, I told you what happened. It's not Katie's fault.”

“She still arrested him and put him in that cage with those animals.” Stubborn pain glinted in the man's eyes and Jordan knew it might be hopeless to argue, but he had to try.

“Because Neil was driving drunk. He even took a swing at her. You're still in denial, Dad. You've got to realize that continuing to blame Katie for Neil's decisions isn't going let you heal. It's just going to keep your bitterness boiling until one day it's out of control and you have nothing left except that bitterness.” Jordan knew he sounded harsh, but coddling his parents and handling them with kid gloves hadn't helped them move on. Still, he took a deep breath and softened his tone. “Think about it, Dad. You're going to grow into a bitter old man if you don't let this go.”