Page 121 of Kept in the Dark

Instead of looking at Trey, David looked at Hailey. “Ryan hated you and your mother.”

“No shit,” Sara snapped. “An idea you perpetuated. He tried to kill Hailey, and you did nothing.”

Hailey never forgave her father for what he’d done the night her mother died, or rather what he hadn’t done. He had seen the stitches, had watched her cover the bruises. He had handed her towels as she had washed the blood from her body, praying her baby would make it. He had heard her screams as nightmares plagued her sleep.

David had known what Ryan did and he still protected him.

“Could he have killed Morgan?” Trey demanded. It was clear that everyone in the room was losing control of their emotions. The tension was mounting, and time was running out. This killer had an end game that was likely already in play, and he was still a ghost.

David snapped, “I don’t know! Ryan’s the one that's been killing people.” He finally looked at Trey. “I told him if he helped me, I would give him a million dollars so he could disappear. He was only supposed to scare people so they wouldn’t talk, unless I told him otherwise. Murder complicates things.”

“Wow, aren’t you just a fucking saint?” Sara said dryly.

“What about Hannah?” Trey asked.

David looked away.

“Answer me.”

He shook his head, furious with Trey. “She was definitely crazy enough. But how would she have done it without me knowing?”

Hailey’s wheels were spinning. If Hannah was stalking Morgan or David, she would have known about David pushing Morgan down the stairs. She could have come in after David left and finished the job, wanting to make sure Morgan was dead. No one saw any other cars around the estate but there were plenty of places to park on the main road and walk onto the property and never be detected. Not to mention all of the places on the property that offered cover in the nighttime.

And since David thought he was guilty, he would still ask Eli to cover it up and make it look like Sara was guilty, never knowing he didn’t actually kill his wife.

“Would Nicole kill her?” Trey asked.

David vehemently shook his head. “Nicole may have hated her, but she wouldn’t actually hurt Morgan. She loved me too much to do that.”

Hailey wasn’t completely convinced. Love was blinding. And it was clear that David Gallagher loved his mistress far more than he did his late wife.

David sighed and shook his head. “Talk to Hannah first. But you need to find Ryan. He went AWOL and won’t return my calls. He’s spiraling and I no longer have control over that situation so there’s no telling what he’ll do.”

Trey nodded, then put his hand on Hailey’s back. “Let’s talk outside for a minute.”

David narrowed his eyes at them, suspicious.

Good. Maybe it will keep him unnerved.

Trey closed the door behind them, leaving Sara in the room with David. “I was already going to talk to Hannah tomorrow, but now I’m even more concerned that she may be, at the very least, a witness, if not the killer. I'm going to talk to her, and I’ll push for more manpower to find Ryan.”

“Okay, what do you want me to do?” she asked.

“I want you to stay here for now. I’m going to post a security guard outside the door. No one except for ID’d staff will be allowed in and only if it's necessary.”

“But I-”

He gently grabbed her arms. “I know you want to come with me, but if Hannah killed your mother, I don't want you near her.”

He kissed her on the forehead and took off down the hall.

“I love you,” she shouted.

“I love you, too!”

Hailey went back into her father's room and closed the door, hoping the killer didn’t come barging in.

Sara awkwardly stood by the door, her eyes burning a hole into David’s soul. But all he did was stare at the white walls, ignoring her. She felt like a child again, yearning for his attention and affection only to be met with silence or beatings.

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