Page 89 of Every Deadly Suspicion

“How is he?”

“My dad died yesterday.”

“Hanna, I’m sorry.” He reached out to grip her hand, but no touching was allowed.

“Hey, it was a forgone conclusion, right?” She surprised herself by how steady her voice was. “I only hope I can clear his name. Enough about me. What is next for you?”

“More surgery after they are sure I’ve beat the infection. And then a long period of physical therapy. My partner is one floor up. We might rehab part of the time together. My only regret is I didn’t catch the Lonely Heart Killer.”

“You left a lot for the new team to follow up on. They’ll get him.”

“Thank you for sending Jared down to help me. He did a good job.”

“He’s a good guy.”

“I know he is. And I know you still have feelings for him.”

“Nathan—”

“Let me finish. Don’t worry about me. I’ll always care for you, but I don’t think you’re being honest with yourself about him. Work that out. I’m not going anywhere. I want you with the right guy.”

The nurse poked her head in the room. “Chief, couple more minutes.”

“Nathan, I’ll always care about you as well.”

“But not in the way you care about Jared.”

“It’s complicated... We have a history.” Hanna swallowed a lump. It was time to be honest not only with herself, but Nathanas well. She wished she could hold his hand, let him know that she had felt something for him—until Jared returned.

“I’ve been lying to myself. I, uh, I do still love Jared. I tried not to, because he did break my heart when he left. It was a pain I never thought I’d get over. But I truly thought I was over it when I met you.”

“But you weren’t.” His tone was calm, resigned.

She shook her head. “I’m sorry if I hurt you. I didn’t mean to.”

“I only want the best for you, Hanna.”

“Likewise. Now, get better.”

He saluted and she left.

CHAPTER 47

HANNA LEFT THE HOSPITAL WITHNathan’s words ringing in her thoughts.“I know you still have feelings for him.”It’s funny how he knew. He’d made it easy for her to stop lying to herself. She waded through so many emotions right now—about Joe, about Jared, about Nathan. Added to everything was the bunch of letters Joe had written and left for her. He’d written them over the span of twenty-five years. Each one was dated and addressed to her. After the state had cleared all the hospice equipment from her house, they’d left Joe’s valise, saying that he’d wanted her to have it.

Hanna didn’t have the emotional energy to look in it or read the letters right away.

She wanted to talk to Jared but he was at work.

The rest of Sunday involved resting and decompressing. She heard from one of the FBI agents in charge that Gilly had been officially identified by dental records.

“His neck was broken and his skull fractured,” he said. “Coroner thinks Gilly was dead before he was dropped into the shaft.”

Hanna shivered at that thought. “What about the other two corpses?”

“Both of the other bodies showed evidence of gunshot wounds. They were probably killed sometime after Gilly. Hard to be exact right now. Neither of them had any identifying documents on them. We found a purse and a wallet during the search of Buckley’s residence. The purse belonged to Ellen Fargo. The wallet to Alister Driscoll. I read somewhere that Ellen was Chase’s girlfriend years ago, but I can’t place Driscoll.”

Hanna’s jaw dropped. “He was Joe’s public defender.” She’d forgotten that she had called the court asking about Driscoll but had not received a response yet.

---