Page 47 of I’ll Be Watching You

Jack pulled out a chair and sat. “Do we know anything about Dad?”

Rita shook her head. “Ava and I are on a late-morning flight to Colorado and I have a meeting with the assistant warden in the afternoon.”

“Good,” he said. “And Quincy confirmed?”

“Yes,” his mom said, “but do you think that’s really necessary?”

“I’m not rehashing this, Mom.”

She didn’t argue.

“I talked to Margo,” he said. “Georgia gave them a few threads to pull. In a nutshell, she knew that Dr. Klein was looking into the trial because of missing data, but she remained silent.”

“Because if she started asking questions, she might have been dead too,” his mom said.

“She had a name. Neurovantix was the company running the trial, and Willa Blankenship was their on-site person.”

His mom shook her head. “I don’t recognize the names.”

“Would Dad?”

“Maybe. I don’t want to keep explaining why we made the decisions we did, Jack,” his mother said, weary. “Right or wrong, we did it to protect all of you.”

“They also ID’d Nadine Pierce. She’s a VA doctor in Austin. Ring any bells?”

Nothing.

“She went to U of A with Dad. They knew each other. She graduated before you got there.”

Recognition dawned slowly in her eyes.

“Naddy? I knew of a Nadine Wallentine, but . . . oh.”

“You knew her,” he said flatly. “It’s not like Nadine is a common name, and you didn’t think about this old ‘friend’ of Dad’s?” He was trying not to be angry with his mom, but these secrets were mounting up. Secrets he never believed his parents would keep from them.

“I never met her, but yes, of course I knew her. She and your father were involved before we met. He called her ‘Naddy.’ ” Her smile was faint and tired. “Get those looks off your faces. Yes, Cooper loved someone before me. It didn’t work out. And no—Cooper would never betray our marriage.”

“Never,” Uncle Rafe said quietly.

Coming from a priest, as well as his dad’s confessor, meant something a bit more. But Jack didn’t need the reassurance. Neither did his mother. Cooper loved his family, and had always treated his wife with the utmost love and respect. He’d put her on a pedestal and everyone saw it.

Cooper had been Jack’s hero. His compass. His role model in all things from relationships to ethics to community service.

Until he confessed to murder.

That moment had fractured something in Jack. His head—the trained, skeptical, rational cop brain—told him it might be true. That his dad might be a killer.

His heart refused to believe it.

Now, for the first time, both parts of him were in full agreement: His father was innocent. And in danger.

He glanced around the table again.

Rita still held his mom’s hand. His mother looked pale, fragile. Tom clutched his mug of coffee like a lifeline. Rafe’s fingers worked methodically along his rosary beads, silent, steady.

They were scared. So was Jack. Everyone was at risk. But Jack wasn’t going to let fear stop them from finding the truth.

“Are Pop and Abuela settled into Logan’s resort?” he asked.