Falling for the Brother

“We’re on a no-visitation lockdown.” She repeated what she’d already told him.

“Right.”

“It’ll be lifted as soon as the arrest is made,” she said, hoping, for a whole lot of reasons, that the police were correct in their assessment of a quick capture. “I can run the clearance for you so that as soon as we let in visitors, Grace can see Miriam.” She had to contact Grace, which she told him, and to which he agreed. She asked if any of Grace’s contact information had changed. She still had her cell number listed on her phone.

And then they were done with business, but no one was hanging up. She wondered what he’d been doing all morning. He already knew what she’d been up to.

“You think Grace will be able to get the truth out of Miriam?” she asked.

“I don’t know what I think at the moment, except there’s something going on that’s split apart two women who’ve been best friends their whole lives. I’m hoping that being together, looking each other in the eye, might break down some barriers.”

“You sound…” Sad, she’d almost said. “What did Miriam have to say this morning?”

She’d been wondering on and off all day. Had hoped he’d call. But she hadn’t allowed herself to acknowledge any of that. She didn’t have to know in order to do her job. Either at the Stand or to help him.

She listened as he told her about Miriam feeling pressured to go skydiving. And shook her head. The woman would climb out a window at night for the freedom to take a walk alone, but claimed to have broken off a seventy-year friendship due to skydiving pressure?

There had to be more. But Mason wasn’t telling her about it. Not that she blamed him. She didn’t need to know, she told herself again.

She just wanted to know.

And where Mason was concerned, her wanting was off-limits.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

HE HADN’T ASKED if Bruce had said anything to her about Miriam. About his investigation. He hadn’t told her about Elmer, either. As soon as Mason hung up, he wanted to call again. But he didn’t. Harper wasn’t his friend. Or his helpmate. She was a witness.

And the head of security in the facility keeping his grandmother safe.

His task was to keep the designations straight, the boundaries clearly drawn. Living within his boundaries had never presented much of a problem. Even on the night he’d failed, he’d done relatively well. He’d taken a drunk and very alluring Harper back to his place, put her to bed in his room and walked out the door to sleep on the couch. He’d been down for the night when she’d suddenly been there on the couch with him. Giving him everything he’d ever wanted…

Mason could have his pick of beautiful women, and had on multiple occasions. None of those connections, liaisons—whatever you wanted to call them—had ever lasted long. What cruel twist of fate, then, had decided that the one woman he couldn’t have would be the only woman he ever truly wanted?

And then…to know she’d had a child who could be his…

He made it through the day, tracing Miriam’s steps through credit card receipts—mostly taken from a file he’d gotten from her computer. Talking to anyone with whom she might have been in contact. Repeating the same actions for his brother, as much as he could do so covertly. He made it through a solo dinner of takeout back at his computer.

And he was no closer to seeing the complete picture.

He’d talked to O’Brien about a warrant to speak with Elmer. He didn’t want him brought in, though. He needed the old man to be compelled to speak with him at his home. Or some other place that wouldn’t draw attention. He’d been told the request might take a day or two.

As much as he wanted the mystery solved, and the man who’d hurt his grandmother charged and away from any access to her, he had to be patient enough to get it done right. Any evidence he collected had to stand up in court.

Gram was safe for a number of days. He could wait a couple.

Funny, though, there was something else eating at him that wasn’t going to wait. You’d think, after five years, another week, another year, wouldn’t matter. Not so.