Page 60 of Colton Family Bodyguard (Coltons of Mustang Valley)

“That’s a good thing, right?”

“Yes. It would seem so. Although I don’t trust Selina. I never have.”

“What if she’s the one who sent that email?” Maybe she had learned Ace wasn’t a Colton by blood. But then why shoot Payne?

Hazel didn’t think Ace had a strong enough motive to shoot Payne. All his father had done was remove him as CEO. Having thought about it that way, though, Hazel changed her mind. Maybe Ace did have motive. In the throes of bitter emotions of loss and betrayal, he could have snapped.

“What kind of relationship did Ace have with Payne?” she asked.

“Not bad. Dad can be tough and isn’t one you’d want to cross, but Ace was his son in every way. Ace is his son.”

His cell chimed, indicating a text message had arrived. He read it and then got up to go to his laptop on the table. His boss must have come through with a way to track down the woman named Nan.

She followed, sitting beside him, seeing him navigate from his email to a browser. “What are you doing?”

“I couldn’t find her in a regular search. She doesn’t work as a nurse anymore, from what I can tell. Charles found a good way to search the web.”

“What is that? A search engine?”

“No, it

’s not a search engine like what you’re accustomed to using. It’s more like a repository of archived data. It accesses content that search sites can’t or that have removed the information because it is old. Hundreds of times more in volume.”

That sounded intriguing.

“How can it do that?”

“They’re databases, not websites. It’s content that is invisible to normal search engines.”

She watched as he typed in Nan’s name, which produced a daunting amount of results. Callum didn’t seem bothered. He worked intently.

In just a few minutes he brought up a file that looked like a photo of announcements. He scrolled to a twenty-year-old wedding announcement for Nancy and Herman Hersh. In the text, Nancy’s maiden name was listed: Gelman.

“You found her!” Hazel exclaimed, amazed and impressed.

“Maybe.” He went back to searching. “Nancy Gelman might not be our Nan Gelman.”

The Dark Web had brought forth information on a Nancy Gelman. Callum needed to find a link to Nan the nurse.

After a few more minutes he found the obituary of Samuel Gelman that listed the surviving family, with Nancy Hersh as one of them. He did additional searches and found that Nancy Hersh was the same person as Nan Gelman, a nurse who’d worked in the maternity ward at Mustang Valley General Hospital.

“She lives three towns over, in Mountain Valley,” Callum said. “She’s not related to the Gelmans from forty years ago that Kerry found in the census, though.”

“We should tell Kerry.”

While Callum called the detective, she called to check on Evie. She missed her daughter so terribly.

“Kerry is unavailable.” He looked at Hazel after he hung up and she could see him contemplating going to see Nan himself. What could it hurt? They would help the investigation if they did and also save time.

“Let’s go,” Hazel said.

* * *

Nancy Hersh lived in a neighborhood one would expect of an average, everyday working family. Neat and tidy, green grass and no rundown vehicles or junk lying around. Callum walked with Hazel up to the door and rang the bell.

No one answered, so he rang the bell again.

Still, no answer. No one was home. After 6 p.m., it was late enough in the day that someone should be there after work.

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