Page 91 of Deception

“I was already here, visiting a friend.” His reassuring smile disappeared as he shook his head. “I wish I could’ve put a man on your door, like Clayton Bradshaw suggested. But with budget cuts, I just don’t have the manpower. Rest assured, though, there will be someone out there now—the sheriff is loaning me a couple of his deputies.”

That made Dani feel somewhat better. “I doubt an officer at the door would have stopped the person. Whoever it was dressed like a nurse.” If only she’d gotten a look at the person. As it was, she couldn’t swear whether it was a man or woman.

“I just now discussed your case with Clayton, and we’re making a plan on how best to protect you while you’re here in the hospital. He brought me up to speed on your case. I understand until this happened, he assumed your shooter mistook you for Madison Thorn.”

“Yes.” That assumption was definitely wrong. Why was someone targeting her?

49

Clayton disconnected from Chief Nelson’s call and sighed. The case just reset to zero. Was Dani the target after all? Or were they both targets? He pocketed his phone and surveyed the disorder in Judge Anderson’s study one last time. Were the shootings tied to what was going on here?

Clayton hated to leave before Hugh arrived, but he needed to find out what happened at the hospital. Good thing he’d already taken photos with his phone and transferred them to Madison’s—once Hugh arrived, they wouldn’t have access to the room.

“It’s a mess, isn’t it,” Madison said, coming up behind him. She’d just come from the housekeeper’s apartment.

“Yeah. How’s Nadine?”

“Nadine is amazing. She’s not going to let a little thing like being locked in a closet stop her—her words, by the way.”

That sounded like the Nadine he went to church with. “You got the photos, right?”

She nodded. “I’ll look at them later. Are you ready to go to the hospital?”

“I am. Did Nadine have any idea what the intruder was looking for?”

“Adoption papers.”

He turned to her. “Why does she think that? Did the intruder mention adoption papers specifically?”

“Yes.” Madison took a deep breath. “Nadine seems to think some of the mothers who signed away their rights didn’t want to give up their babies.”

“I can’t believe your grandfather would have anything to do with something like that.”

“Me either, but something lay heavy on his mind that he said he wanted to discuss Wednesday night. I keep remembering how relieved he was when I left to meet you at the hospital.” She turned and walked toward the kitchen. “I’m going to let Nadine know we’re leaving and that an FBI team will be here soon.”

“I’ll be in my SUV.”

A few minutes later, Madison climbed into the passenger side and fastened her seat belt. When he queried her with his eyebrows, she laughed. “She’s fine.”

Clayton backed out of the drive. “I keep thinking about the sniper yesterday at the hospital and wonder if Hugh has totally ruled out Aaron Corbett.”

“The man whose brother died at Parchman?”

He nodded. “I’m not sure why Hugh ruled him out so quickly.”

“Hugh said he had an alibi, but maybe now he’ll look into it a little deeper.”

“Could he have been the nurse at the hospital today?” Clayton said.

“Anything is possible, but why? If he killed my grandfather, his vendetta would be over. Even if he thought Dani was me, he has no motive to kill me.”

“Unless he’s a sociopath, or his time in the war made him unbalanced. It happens.”

She took out her phone. “I’ll check and see if he’s posted anything lately.”

They were almost to the hospital when she whistled. “Wow! He’s posted a newspaper article about my grandfather’s death,and he’s not broken up about it at all.” She kept scrolling and caught her breath. “Here’s one where he says Judge Anderson’s family should experience what it’s like to lose someone they love.”

With both of the judge’s children deceased and his two grandsons living thousands of miles away, that could be nothing but a veiled threat against Madison. But how would he know she was his granddaughter? “Do you know Aaron Corbett?”

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