“We had coffee this morning. Just catching up. He was a detective here when I was, you know.”
“Yeah.” Nathan had heard plenty of stories.
“He had good things to say.”
“That’s great.” About what? The department? Nathan’s work? “I’m sure he was glad to catch up with an old friend.”
“Speaking of old friends, how is Celia doing? Have you heard anything?”
“She was released from the hospital and is home. Erin came to town to stay with her, but I don’t know for how long.”
And Nathan doubted Erin would be sharing her plans with him. He’d only stopped by as a courtesy to check on them. After all, he’d been the one to inform Erin that her mother had tried to commit suicide. He could still hear the shock and pain in Erin’s voice when she heard the news, and that rolled through him now. His insides shook a little at the raw memory.
“I called her last week.” Dad tossed out his line again.
Now that was interesting. Why would Dad call Celia? Sure, her husband, Dwayne, and Dad had been best friends until Dwayne died on that SAR mission. But Dwayne hadn’t been married to Celia long before Dad moved to the Boston area, so it wasn’t like he’d known her that well. Or was Nathan missing something? Had Dad had an affair with the woman, and that’s why he left? Why was he calling his deceased best friend’s widow when he hadn’t even called his own son?
“Listen, son.” Dad cleared his throat. “I should have come back to see you before now. I’m ... I’m sorry about that.”
“It’s okay. I understand.” Not really. What was he saying? He’d seen Dad a few times on the holidays when he was a kid. Twice in his twenties, and that was it.
“I debated telling you this.”
Oh no. Nathan braced himself. Dad was sick—cancer. Something terminal. That had to be it.
“Keep this to yourself. No one can know.”
“What’s going on? Why can’t anyone know?”
“Lives are at stake.”
“What is it?”
“I’m looking into a cold case. On my own.”
“A cold case brought you back to Montana?” Disappointment lodged in Nathan’s gut. Of the possible reasons, that had never entered his mind. And yeah, he was that kid again, that little boy on the inside who wanted his dad’s attention. Pathetic.
Dad’s features twisted, and the frown lines deepened as if he considered how much to share.
Nathan’s breaths came quicker, his patience reaching its limit. “What cold case, Dad? What’s this about?”
“Remember. No one.”
Nathan reeled in his line all the way and set his fishing pole aside. “Yeah, sure. Whose lives are in danger?”
“Years ago, Dwayne asked me to look into something. He’d found some old newspaper articles, copied them, and gave them to me. Only I was in the middle of the divorce and moving, and I forgot all about them.”
“Until now?”
“I’ve been investigating a murder back in Boston, and it reminded me of the articles. I felt so bad that I never looked into them. Even though he’s gone now, I decided to follow through on his last request. As it turns out, I think there might be a connection between the case I was investigating in Boston and the cold case Dwayne wanted me to look into. But my boss, Lieutenant Sullivan, shut me down on digging into it. He didn’t buy the connection. I took some time off, and I’m following up on my own.”
Interesting.
“I feel bad that I didn’t help Dwayne resolve this before he died, and in that way, I let him down.” Dad leveled his gaze at Nathan. “When I started looking into it, I got strange vibes from my boss, if you catch my meaning.”
“Are you saying your boss doesn’t want you digging into this for a different reason than he shared? As in, you think this is a cover-up?”
“Something feels off. All these years, I’ve learned to trust my gut, and now I’ve pulled on dangerous threads.”