Page 42 of Deadly Target (Rocky Mountain Courage 2)

“I would appreciate it, but one more thing.”

“Yes?”

“Miss Edwards shared that you have a crime podcast.”

Erin closed her eyes. “Yes.”

“And no one could have targeted you for that?”

“The podcast is anonymous, in that I use pseudonyms.”

“Why keep it a secret?”

Nathan slowed as he drove through a neighborhood. Erin really wanted to focus on the moment, their joint investigation into this cold case. At the moment, they didn’t even know what cold case Newt had been looking into.

“Detective Munson, as I mentioned, I’m traveling and I’m just about to go into my meeting. As I told Carissa, I don’t want to cause any disruption or complications with my job with the state even though my Missing Children podcast has nothing to do with the cases I dive into there.”

“Right. You focus on cold cases.”

“So, you listened?”

“Yes. I’m listening to the current episode and can’t wait for the next one.”

Because she had a new fan? Or he was fishing?

“I’d like to chat some more. Can you call me tomorrow?” He was persistent, she’d give him that.

“I’m not sure because of the nature of my current business trip. Let’s try for ten a.m. I’ll confirm with you tomorrow.”

“You’re on the East Coast. That’ll be seven my time.”

“You’re not an early riser?”

“Tell you what, I’ll call you at ten my time, and that’ll be one for you. We can play phone tag for a bit, and then eventually, I’ll come see you in Montana if we don’t connect.”

Erin couldn’t help but smile. “I appreciate your hard work, Detective. We’ll connect one way or another. I hope and pray you find the murderer.” And that it has nothing at all to do with me or Carissa.

How could it?

Nathan parked the vehicle against the curb under a sprawling old oak tree and let the engine idle. “I’m afraid to ask what that was about, though I did get the gist of it. Let me get this right. Someone tried to kill you in Seattle and you didn’t tell me?”

“First, I don’t know that’s what happened. I was in a boating accident. In fact, you called me on the cusp of that. I was still standing on my rescuers’ boat with a blanket wrapped around me when you called to tell me about Mom. Carissa was the one to suffer the most. Her kayak was broken in half, and she got knocked out and drowned. They had to revive her. We thought ... The boat seemed to veer toward us. I thought it was just a freak accident.”

“I heard something about the boat owner being murdered, and now the detective wants to know about people who might want to harm you. Erin, what’s going on?”

She read the other question, the silent question, in his eyes. Why didn’t you tell me?

“I don’t know what’s going on, and Nathan, really, we both have so much on our plates. I wanted to push that incident to the far recesses of my mind.” She covered her face. Just hold it together a little longer. Erin dropped her hands. “Can we just focus on one thing at a time? We’re here, and we need to get this over with before something else happens, okay?”

“Sure. But we’re talking about this later.”

“Okay. Let’s go see if we can’t find those articles Dwayne gave your dad and figure out what cold case he was looking into.”

He stared at her. “I remember you always wanted to study criminal minds.”

While she considered his statement, she noted the house numbers. Newt’s home sat back from the road. A tree with purple blooms blocked the view, but she could still make out black shutters against white siding and the red brick along the basement. “I thought that’s what I wanted. But now I spend too many hours reading about, interviewing, and diving deep into those minds.”

A shudder crawled over her.

---