Page 81 of End Game

She molded her free hand over the top of his. “Things between them started falling apart not long after Linda’s father died.” Emotion thickened her voice. “At the time when they needed each other the most.”

“What happened to Mr. Stokes?”

“Carbon monoxide poisoning, of all things.”

“Vehicle or home?”

“A faulty fireplace in their home on Lake James. He’d gone out there to spend the weekend. When he didn’t return Sunday evening, as planned, and Vicky couldn’t get a hold of him, she asked the local PD to do a wellness check.”

“How long had he been dead?”

“The coroner believed he’d succumbed Friday night, so two-plus days.”

“Didn’t the carbon monoxide detector go off?”

“Near the master suite, the investigators found the detector disassembled on the hallway table along with a package of new batteries.”

“Let me guess,” he said, seeing the scenario play out in his head.

“The alarm was going off, and Mr. Stokes assumed the device needed new batteries. When that didn’t shut it up, he thought the detector was faulty and ripped it from the ceiling.”

“That’s what the investigators pieced together.”

“Why in the hell wouldn’t he have concluded the alarm was real?”

“About a month before, he’d had the HVAC system serviced.” She shook her head. “I guess the fireplace in their bedroom never crossed his mind.”

Ash raised both brows, wondering how someone could have missed such an obvious connection.

She gave him a pained smile. “Jonathan wasn’t what you’d call handy around the house. And . . . ”

When she didn’t continue, he coaxed, “And what?”

“Jonathan’s blood alcohol content was three times the legal limit.”

Ash bit back a groan. “Might he have confused the carbon monoxide alarm for a smoke detector?”

“The investigators suggested as much.”

“Linda took the news of her father’s death especially hard, I imagine.”

“At first, she acted as any daughter faced with such devastating news. She helped her mom with the arrangements, put together a slide show, and gave a heart-wrenching eulogy. But a few weeks after his death, Linda came to me in tears. She’d found out that her dad had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s a month earlier, but her parents had decided to delay telling her. She’d just started her dream job, and they wanted her to enjoy the moment and be able to focus on learning her new responsibilities.”

“Linda didn’t agree with their decision?”

She shook her head. “Linda thought they robbed her of time with her dad.”

“But his death and the disease had nothing to do with each other.”

“Which Linda eventually came to realize once the raw edge of her grief dulled.”

Ash frowned. “Then why was she so angry with the governor?”

“A few months later, she learned Vicky and Jonathan had been arguing before he left to go to the lake house. She reasoned he wouldn’t have been there at all if it weren’t for their fight.”

“One strike too many?”

“I suppose. The Stokes were a tight-knit family. Losing her dad would have been devastating, then to learn that her parents had been quarreling might have flipped a nuclear switch in her head.” She drew in a resigned breath. “I don’t know. I find it hard to believe those two events led her to contracting a killer. But there’s no denying the depth of her anger toward her mother.”

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