Page 109 of The Secrets She Keeps

Zoey nodded again. Murdoch pulled her closer. He kissed Zoey’s temple and just held her. Heather loved the way he loved her niece. She wanted that kind of love for all of her nieces, her nephews, and her sisters too.

“Well, he was a vile, horrible man,” Powell said suddenly. Heather would never forget what that bastard had threatened to do to Powell either.

“I don’t regret killing him,” Heather said, just putting it out there. Especially seeing the hurt on Bonnie’s face, on Crispin’s and Zoey’s. That man had hurt her, had hurt Powell. No. She didn’t regret it. “Especially now that I know…Eastman. So, we have Timothy, probably Trey, a hired thug named Spencer, and the other man?”

“A truck driver out of Wyoming actually. Bryce Spires. No priors anywhere. Charlie is still running the investigation into him and is talking to the boys and girls in Wyoming about that now,” Gunnar told her. “Charlie was already headed up there to check on Charlotte. She is on her way down here now, and Charlie went to get her.”

“What about the fourth sample from Timothy’s line, so to speak? What was the trace?” Hope asked after a moment. Hoperan a lot of the trace samples with the lab. She was an expert in it. And Heather’s sister was very, very good.

Haldyn checked the file. “Oatmeal, wheat flour, coconut proteins, turmeric, flax seed, cinnamon, cloves, carrot and apple and cranberry residue?—”

“Cranberries, wheat flour, nondairy butter I make myself from coconut oil and a pinch of turmeric, flax seed, pureed carrots, applesauce, pumpkin pie spice mix I make myself, and leavening,” Summer said. “That’s my basic oatmeal cookie recipe around this place. I don’t do a lot of chocolate or dairy; too many of us are allergic to it here.”

“Summer had just made a batch of the cookies that morning,” Heather said. She was stumped by this one. How… “How did Summer’s cookies get mixed in with DNA from…Timothy? I mean, cranberry cookies aren’t that rare—but made with pureed carrots and homemade vegan butter? That’s kind of distinctive, considering.”

“Timothy’s daughter. It is conclusive. That sample came from the biological daughter of the man who spit on you—and fathered Samia,” Haldyn said. “The sample was on your left shoulder, smeared along the seam of the shirt. Mixed with saliva and a large quantity of cow’s milk.”

Heather closed her eyes, tried to think. Who had… “The cookies were still warm from the oven. Frankie had just had a couple of cookies, and Iagan, so did all of Joy’s kids. Raine and Jago too. The kids had all been excited, waiting for the cookies like they always do. There were little kids wanting cookies everywhere, sitting on every lap they could find. Barely waiting for them to cool. Even Meg and Crispin had been into the cookies, and it made me smile. I remembered whentheywere that little—and I was teaching Summer to bake those cookies in the first place.”

“There was cookie trace found in Frankie’s sample too. The same exact trace, only coconut milk instead of dairy. Frankie is allergic to dairy,” Hope said. “But this trace sample isn’t related to Heather. Just…Samia and Timothy, conclusively.”

Heather opened her eyes as it clicked. “The baby. Cranberry cookies. Anddairymilk.”

She looked at the man who could…confirm.

Miguel’s face hardened right in front of her. His eyes met hers. He knew exactly what Heather was thinking now. “Fresh baked cranberry-oatmeal cookies that the kids all loved. And you held her on your left hip. For just a moment. Long enough to kiss her and for her to…”

“Wipe her mouth on my shoulder. She was cutting a tooth too. Slobbering all over me. And I didn’t have time to do more than wipe the sweatshirt with a damp paper towel before I left, and what did it matter, anyway? I was used to being a human napkin for babies and kids since Frankie had just wiped her mouth on my sleeve a few seconds before.” It was too much. Too coincidental.

Too justwrong.

But she knew with one look into Miguel’s beautiful face. Heather couldn’t look away.

“An older doctor out of Wichita Falls. Connected to OPJ. She died from a heart attack after being addicted to that damned OPJ.” Miguel finished her thought. “Odd sort of coincidence, isn’t it?”

“Sudden, intense questions from IA about whatyouknew about it back then. WhatIknew. Questions we both agreed felt more than just a little off.Me, being put into third-shift IA right after. Almost immediately after. Pulled off my last drug case right in the middle of it and shoved into a night shift desk job. Just as things were heating up. A case eerily like our last with ARTT. Just a few days,” Heather’s mind was connecting the dotsfar too fast. “Steve showing back up again after not seeing him for…months. When I had almost believed I was finally safe from him. They weren’t looking for answers about OPJ back then, Mig.”

“They weren’t. Not legit anyway.” Miguel’s expression, his tone were flat. As he was putting it together too.

“And if someonewas—back then it would have beenGunnarcoming around, asking about OPJ. Not Wichita Falls IA. That’s what I saw on the case files in Wyoming going back that far.Gunnar’sname was listed as the sole investigating detective back then. Out of Finley Creek. It would have been Gun asking those questions. No one else would have had any information about that case back then. They were just looking for what you or I might have already learned about their operation, that was all. IncludingSteve.”

“But we didn’t know anything about their operation then,”Miguel said. “Hell, I think we may have been about to stumble right into it. I certainly would have pushed if I knew. If I hadn’t justinheriteda newborn out of nowhere?—”

“Steve attacked me—and Hope—within a week after. And they did what they had to do to ensure we didn’t learn a thing. Or at least, thatIdidn’t anyway. Not after that case where I first met that son-of-a-bitch to begin with. That drug case that we never solved...What if I never found the answers becausehewas there to hide them in the first place?” Heather’s mind kept making the connections. It had all been a massive…plot. That was what it was. But those bastards had been playing with people’s lives. “The oneIwas working on when he…attacked me and Hope. It was so much like that final one we worked together, and like the one Steve and his partner and I were working on when I first met him. The cases were connected. Why didn’t I see it before?”

“Because he kept hurting you,” Miguel said so slowly she could almost see the fury building. “To keep you out of the way.”

“Every time. Maybe because I was getting close to whatever it was he didn’t want me to find.” Connections were falling into place now. They’d been played back then. Four years and fifteen months ago. Used. He’d hurt her just to manipulate her. That was all.

Using violence and sex as the weapon of choice. Because he’d gotten off on that control—literally. Heather fought throwing up.

“Melvin Stillman’s involved then. Somehow. We’ll just need to prove it. Him and his pals,” Miguel said. “That bastard.”

She heard the anger in his tone. Because she knew him well enough, but Miguel was good at hiding it. Until she looked at his beautiful eyes. Knowledge was there.

“Heather, who did that sample come from?” Haldyn asked quietly. The room had gotten quiet while Heather and Miguel were talking it out. As they waited.

“That sample came from…” Miguel pulled in a breath. “Mydaughter.Not his.”

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