Hidden Legacy

Another throat cleared nearby. Michael Ellis nodded at her. “We’re done in the house, Caroline. Thought you might want to put Henry in his crib.”

“Thanks, Michael. I appreciate that.”

Michael turned to Jason. “When you get a minute, we need to talk.”

Something in his tone sent a shudder through Caroline’s system. “If it’s about me, my house, my child or the man who tried to kill me tonight, why don’t you go ahead and say what you need to say?”

Michael’s eyes darted from Caroline’s face to Jason’s. It wouldn’t take a body language expert to read his silent plea for help.

“Caroline, if I promise to tell you everything, will you give me fifteen minutes to wrap things up? It would be easier if I can send as many of these guys home as possible. Then we can talk without being interrupted.”

Oh, how she wanted to argue. She knew Jason had thrown in the part about letting the others go home because it would play on her sympathies. The worst part was, he was right.

“Fine. Talk. Send people home. Then I want to hear everything. Tonight.”

Michael didn’t try to hide his relief.

Jason held her gaze. “I promise.”

* * *

Jason couldn’t deny he enjoyed seeing the feisty side of Caroline Harrison. “Why don’t you go inside? Grab something to drink. Get away from the chaos. I’ll finish up and be with you soon.”

Her eyes still held a hint of challenge. “Soon doesn’t mean an hour from now, Jason Drake.”

“Yes, ma’am.” She glared at him before she turned and walked away. He was glad to see the show of spirit, all the more because he could tell she was shaken. She kept chewing on her lip. She probably didn’t realize that she was clenching and unclenching her hands as she talked. Or that she’d been rocking back and forth on her heels.

But she wasn’t falling apart. Not that he was surprised. Caroline Harrison was a rock. Always had been. Some things really didn’t change.

And some things did. Like him—back in town after he’d made it clear to her and everyone else that he would never return here. Could never live his life in this place. Not because it wasn’t beautiful or because he didn’t love his family.

Well, the family he claimed, anyway.

But the father he didn’t choose to claim—the biological parent who had made a misery of Jason’s childhood, and whom Jason had been thrilled to replace with a loving, honorable stepfather—lived here, too. He kept calling. Probably to express his disapproval of Jason’s career choices. Again.

He shoved the thoughts away. He had much bigger things to worry about right now. Like figuring out who would want to kill Caroline.

It took Jason thirty minutes to speak with Michael and wrap things up with the officers who’d converged on Caroline’s home. He wasn’t surprised to have multiple volunteers to provide a protective detail for the evening.

“Dalton and Michael, you guys take the watch tonight. We’ll decide if we need some sort of rotation for the rest of the week later.”

Dalton was inexperienced but energetic enough to stay awake after all the excitement died down. Michael was solid. If any trouble broke out, he’d be able to handle it.

Content that things were well in hand, he walked up the steps to Caroline’s front door. Should he knock? The place had been swarming with police officers and crime scene techs all evening, but now that things had quieted, he hated to be intrusive.

He tapped on the door and eased it open. “Caroline? You okay in there?”

“I’m good. Just getting Henry settled for the night. Come on in.”

Jason closed the door behind him. Caroline stood in the hallway with a drowsy Henry in her arms, his little head nestled on her shoulder, eyes half-shut. She shifted him gently, her cheek resting on the top of his head. “Give me a moment,” she said in a whisper.

Motherhood suited her. He refused to dwell on the regret trying to surface. She’d never been his. They’d never had a future. She was a natural as a mother, but he had no plans to find out what kind of father he would be. He couldn’t risk being as terrible at it as the men in his own genetic family tree.

Caroline disappeared down the hall, and Jason looked around the ravaged living room again. Who would do this? Break-ins happened, but this seemed like more. His fingers curled into fists. He’d find the person who did this one way or another.

Caroline returned a minute later. “So, what did Michael tell you that has you all riled up?”

“I’ll answer, but I need to ask a few questions first.”

She glared at him.

“I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t consider all the possibilities.”

“Fine. Can I start cleaning up this mess while we talk?”

“Of course. I’ll help.” Caroline had always been a neat freak. Another thing that hadn’t changed. He pulled a throw pillow from the floor and tossed it onto the sofa. Caroline grabbed a blanket he recognized. Her grandmother had crocheted it for her years ago. She hugged it to her chest for a brief moment before she folded it and draped it over the corner of the sofa.

“Is there anyone in your life who would want to hurt you?”

“No.”

“What about at work? A disgruntled employee?” Caroline had an important upper-management position in her family’s company. If someone was unhappy at the plant, she’d be a visible target for their frustrations.

“No.”

“I’m going to need more than one-word answers.”

She huffed and righted an orchid that had been dumped on the floor. “Fine. No issues at work. I handle the finances, and I’m taking on more of the personnel responsibilities as Dad is turning over more control to Blake and me. But we haven’t fired anyone in years. Everyone is getting paid on time. No one is complaining. I can’t fathom anyone from HPI doing something like this.”

Harrison Plastics International had always been the place everyone in town wanted to work. Didn’t sound like anything had changed there.

“What about suppliers? Clients? Anyone unhappy?”

Caroline rolled her head from one side to the other. Was there someone unhappy? “What are you thinking?”

She placed the plant on the end table. “We’ve made a few changes recently. A new paper product vendor. A new printer lease. Blake changed a major raw material supplier. But nothing that would cause anyone to try to shoot me.”

He’d talk to Blake. Caroline’s brother had always been protective of his little sister. Which was probably why he hadn’t been particularly fond of Jason. But he might have a different perspective than Caroline on this subject.

“Where is Blake? For that matter, where is everybody?”

“What do you mean?”

“Your parents? Blake, Heidi and Maggie? I’m surprised we don’t have an entire contingent of the FBI here.”

Caroline scooped a handful of books from the floor. “Mom and Dad are on a mission trip to a refugee camp in Greece.”

“Didn’t your dad have a stroke a couple of years ago?”

“He did, but he’s made a full recovery.”

“That’s great.” He heard the wistfulness in his words. There would be no happy ending for his own dad. ALS would take his life, one agonizing piece at a time. “That explains where your parents are. What about Blake, Heidi and Maggie?”

“Blake and Maggie are on a father/daughter mission trip. They support a family in Haiti and went down over spring break with a group from the church. They’ll be back next week.”

“And Heidi is off doing something mysterious?”

“Exactly.”

He studied a family photo on her mantel. “Tell me about your new sister-in-law.”

“Heidi does a lot of undercover work. That’s what brought her here last year. That’s how she and Blake met. So sometimes she’s gone. Not as much as she used to be, and usually not for more than a day or two. I don’t know if Blake even knows what she does or where she goes.”

She brushed some fingerprint dust off the upright piano. “I’m going to need to try to find her, though. She’s the only one who understands the security system.”

“Why her?”

“When we had that trouble at the plant—I’m assuming your mom told you about that?”

“Oh, yeah.” His mom had bent his ear for three hours that night. After he’d joined the sheriff’s department, he’d learned the whole story. The one that had somehow never fully been told in the press. Heidi’s team, with Blake’s assistance, had prevented a nationwide anthrax outbreak.

“Heidi revamped all the security systems here and at the plant. We have motion detectors, cameras, safe rooms and probably a bunch of other stuff I don’t even know about. It’s not an out-of-the-box system. It doesn’t have a local monitoring station, although it is monitored somewhere. Maybe in DC? It has Department of Defense–level encryption. Very hard to hack.”

“Is it possible you forgot to turn it on before you left this morning?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“How can you know? I forget stuff all the time.”

She smirked at him. “I remember because Henry was screaming his head off and I was singing to him as I punched in the code.”

That sounded like a solid memory, unfortunately. The idea that this highly advanced system had been on when the intruder arrived worried him because it meant the intruder knew how to turn it off. So either they were dealing with a tech expert way beyond the typical, garden-variety thief, or the intruder was someone she knew and trusted. He wasn’t sure which possibility was worse.

But either way, she deserved to know what they were dealing with.

“From what you described to me,” he said, “it doesn’t sound like the security system was on when you got home. Who else knows the code? A housekeeper, maybe?” He took a deep breath. “Boyfriend?”

She shot him a withering look. “I have a full-time job and a baby. Romance isn’t a high priority these days.”

Jason didn’t bother to process why her words sent a wave of relief crashing through his soul.

“What about Julia? Does she still clean for you?”

The Harrisons’ housekeeper had always been gracious to him as a kid.

“Yes, but I change the code every week. She calls me when she gets here, and I give her the new code.”

“You change the code every week?”

“Heidi is a stickler about it. I change it every Sunday night.”

The weight of her words hit him hard. “Caroline, whoever this guy is, he was able to come inside and disable your security system. We have to consider the possibility that he is highly skilled and he’s been watching you and your family and knew you were up here alone tonight.”

Caroline’s hand shook as she reached for her glass and took a sip. “So this wasn’t a random attack. You think he was targeting me on purpose.”

“Right. And he may not be done.”

THREE

The knock at the door startled Caroline. The way Jason’s hand flew to the gun at his waist told her it had caught him off guard, as well.

“Open up.” Hearing Michael’s voice put Caroline at ease, but Jason didn’t remove his hand from his weapon.

“You didn’t answer your phone, man,” Michael called. “We had the guys grab sub sandwiches, and if you don’t like what’s on yours, you have no one to blame but yourself. Open up.”

It was almost ten o’clock. He hadn’t eaten? Her cheeks burned with the realization that coming to her rescue had interrupted his evening plans. “I’m so sorry. You should have told me.”

He waved her off. “I had a candy bar. I’m fine.”

He opened the door, and Michael held out a cellophane bag. “Got you a club. There’s a bag of chips in there, too.” He smiled at Caroline. “Don’t worry about anything tonight. Dalton and I will keep a close eye on things.”

“Wha—”

“Thanks, man. I’ll talk to you in a little while.” Jason closed the door on the still-smiling Michael before he could say another word.

“What was he talking about?”

“Just a precaution. You’re up here alone with Henry and—”

“And someone knows how to get into my house.”

Jason studied the contents of his bag instead of replying.

“Fine,” she said. “Let’s sit down in the kitchen. You eat, and we’ll catch up on the last thirteen years.”

“Mind if I wash up first?”

Caroline pointed out the bathroom door and walked into her kitchen. When the click of the door reached her ears, she slid onto a bar stool.

What was happening? Why was it happening? And why did Jason Drake have to be the one responsible for her case?

Jason.

Part of her longed to have him sitting beside her. Shoulders touching, feet propped up on the coffee table—the way they’d watched hours of Duke basketball games in their teens.

Part of her wanted to kick him out and tell him to stay away forever.

It wouldn’t be easy, but it could be done. She’d been doing it quite successfully for the past few months. She’d avoided him, and any mention of him.

Why should she hide from him, though? She hadn’t done anything wrong, and she had nothing to apologize for. The way things had ended between them was embarrassing, but surely he couldn’t think she still had feelings for him. What happened was ancient history. And if the sheriff thought he was the best person to close this case, then she had to trust in that. She couldn’t take any risks when it came to her safety or Henry’s.

“Caroline, are you okay?”

Her stomach somersaulted at his voice. Ancient history or current event?

No. She’d learned her lesson. Jason Drake had been a fabulous friend, but he’d made it clear he wanted nothing more. “I’m fine.” She pointed him to a seat at the table. “Let me get you some tea.” History shouldn’t be repeated. For tonight, she’d be thankful she had a friend looking out for her. For the future, she’d remember to look out for herself.

Jason sat, and she didn’t miss the weariness on his face as he bowed his head in thanks.

When he lifted his head, he didn’t hesitate. “I still have a lot of questions,” he admitted.

“What do you want to know?”

Jason swallowed. “Let’s start with Henry.”

Or course he would want to know about Henry. “I’m surprised your mom hasn’t given you all the details.”

He took a drink of his tea. “She’s given me some of them. What she couldn’t explain to me was how you wound up with Stephanie’s baby boy.”

“I’m still trying to figure that out, myself.” She straightened the fringe on her place mat. “Stephanie and I didn’t always agree, but we stayed close after high school. She was going to be my maid of honor.”

The memory of those days after Chad’s death tugged at the edges of Caroline’s mind. They would always be dark, but they no longer held the power to suck her into despair. Now they brought deep sadness and the ever-present question of what might have been.

Jason held her eyes. “I was sorry to hear about what happened to your fiancé, Caroline.”

“Thank you.” What else could she say? When Jason left, she’d moved on, and then the only man who could have possibly blotted out the memory of Jason had been taken too soon by a drunken driver. The idea that it was better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all came to mind. At this point, she wasn’t so sure about that.

And what happened when the one you lost came back?

She shook off the direction of her thoughts. “I finished school, came home and went to work for Dad. Stephanie went to work at the bank and got transferred out to the coast three years ago. We kept in touch, sporadically. A year later, she came home one weekend, and I knew things were different.”

Caroline remembered everything about that night. The garlic butter dripping onto the tablecloth, the exact shade of terra-cotta red that rimmed the pasta bowl, the opera music that filtered into the restaurant. And Stephanie. Fidgety. Eyes too bright. A smile that threatened to break into a goofy grin at any moment. “She’d gotten married. Said it was a civil ceremony and she was sorry she hadn’t told me earlier. A month later, she was pregnant and making plans to move to the Midwest with her Prince Charming.”

Jason pulled a few Doritos from the bag. “Mom told me she came home pregnant and no one ever talks about the baby’s father.”

“That’s an accurate statement,” she said. “My phone rang one day, and she told me she was home to stay. She wasn’t even showing yet, but it wasn’t long before tongues were wagging. She categorically refused to talk about the father. She never even wanted me to tell anyone she’d been married.”

Jason’s face registered confusion. “Why not?”

“I assumed she was so embarrassed by her choice of husband that she’d rather have people think she’d gotten pregnant out of wedlock.”

“Do you think she left her husband to protect the baby or herself?” Jason’s voice was cold and hard. “I could respect that.”

No doubt he could. He’d been the baby in that situation once. “She never had one negative thing to say about her husband. I asked her if he’d hurt her, but she was adamant that he hadn’t. Then she begged me not to ask any more questions.”

“I’m guessing you did what she asked.” Jason finished off the last bite of his sandwich and tossed the wrappings in the trash.

Had she done the right thing by agreeing to Stephanie’s request? Doubts clawed at her heart. “What else could I do?”

“Nothing,” Jason said.

She didn’t bother to process why that one word sent a shot of relief through her system.

Caroline took a sip of tea. “We almost never spoke of him. Then one night she asked me if I could come over. When I got there, she was a mess. Told me her husband had been killed. She wouldn’t share any details, but she was devastated.”

“You think she loved him?”

“Yes. At least I’ll be able to tell Henry that much.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know who his father was. Stephanie always referred to him as Lee, and she never changed her last name. His name isn’t on the birth certificate.”

“Caroline, I have to ask. Do you think Stephanie was ever married? It could have been a one-night stand, and she was embarrassed to admit she didn’t know the guy.”

“No, I believe there was a real relationship and she did love him. But the rest of the story—well, I don’t know what to believe anymore. Do you... Do you think he might be the reason someone came after me?”

Jason didn’t answer—which was answer enough. She could put together the logic herself. If someone was targeting her, it was probably connected to the only new element in her life—her son. And since she knew nothing about his father’s family or what trouble they might bring, she had no idea how to keep Henry safe.

* * *

Jason put one hand on hers. She didn’t pull away, and the softness of her skin threatened to distract him. He focused on her face. “This guy, Lee, sounds like a pretty shady character. He could have been married or some type of criminal...”

“I know.”

They sat in silence. He wished he could read her mind. Was she angry with him for asking these questions? “I’m surprised your sister-in-law hasn’t done some investigating.”

“She wanted to, but I begged her to leave it alone. I have a feeling she’s been doing some digging on the side, but my guess is she hasn’t found anything yet. Besides, she and her partner, Max, have been deep into something lately. That’s where she is now—undercover somewhere. When things slow down, I have a feeling she’ll start asking a lot more questions.”

She dropped her head into her hands. “Maybe I should have taken her up on the offer.”

“There’s no point in stressing about that now,” Jason said. “Let’s focus on what we know. How old was Henry when Steph died?” Jason asked.

“Eight months. Car crash. Stephanie died at the scene. Henry got out with barely a scratch. I was listed as her emergency contact. When I went to her place to try to find her insurance information for Henry, I found her will.”

“And that’s when you found out you’d been named Henry’s guardian.”

“Yep.”

“Must have been a shock.”

“You could say that. One minute I was single and unattached. The next I had an eight-month-old to rear.”

“Were there any legal challenges?”

He’d been the pawn in a legal battle for a good part of his childhood. It wouldn’t surprise him if someone caused trouble without really thinking of Henry’s best interests at all.

“No. She had a trust set up for Henry. No one disputed it. There’s no mention of the father, beyond the request that I never allow Henry to know that side of his family or for the family to know him.” She picked up one of the napkins Jason had left on the table and started folding it into small squares. “Once the chaos settled, I started all the legal proceedings to make sure Stephanie’s wishes would be carried out. Her dad has had two heart attacks, and her mom has her hands full taking care of him. They had no interest in contesting the guardianship. The adoption will be final in two weeks.”

“Two weeks?”

There was a tone in Jason’s voice that Caroline’s nerves reverberated to. “Why?”

“The timing of this makes me very suspicious.”

“You mean someone who knew the father—”

“Or maybe the father himself? We don’t even know if he’s dead. Do we?”

Caroline gulped. “No. I guess we don’t. But I know this. Henry is mine now, and I’m never letting him go.”

Jason heard the mama-bear growl in her voice. He pitied the fool who messed with her on a good day. Raw from the evening’s trauma and the past few months of upheaval, Caroline Harrison looked like a woman who wouldn’t tolerate any more nonsense.

“The adoption will be final in two weeks and he’ll be mine forever.” She raked her hands through her hair. “Assuming we’re still alive.” Caroline placed a bag of Oreos on the table. “Want some milk?”

“Of course I do.”

She grinned at him before returning to the fridge. “I knew it. Like I said, some things never change.”

She poured two glasses of milk and twisted her Oreo in half. He dunked his in his milk before popping it in his mouth whole.

He needed to ask her one more question. And it had nothing to do with the case. “There’s one more thing,” he said.

She looked at him over the edge of an Oreo. “Yes?”

“I need to apologize for what I said that night.”

Her face flushed. “Maybe we should just pretend that night never happened,” she said in a whisper.

Pretend it never happened? He relived it almost every day. “Is that what you’ve done?” He hated the huskiness in his voice and cleared his throat.

She bit her lip. “You made your feelings pretty clear, Jason. I’ve always regretted trying to change your mind. I lost so much that night. If I had a time machine, I’d stop myself from messing things up for both of us.”

He swallowed hard. It was now or never. “I’ve regretted that night for the past thirteen years, as well. But I think for different reasons. You spoke from your heart and told the truth.”

Spit it out, Drake. “But I didn’t. I was afraid. And stupid. I thought I was doing the best thing for both of us, and I’m not convinced that I was wrong about that. But I have regretted hurting you every day since.” He’d regretted it all the more because he’d been in love with her but had been too afraid to tell her, too certain that all the obstacles between them would ruin their chances, and that he’d be better off not risking his heart or her happiness.

His phone rang, and he ignored it. It rang again. “You’d better get that,” she said.

He checked the screen. The sheriff. “Excuse me,” he said and walked outside to fill his boss in on the investigation. When he returned, Caroline was starting the dishwasher.

“I’m going to join Michael and Dalton outside. If you need anything—”

“Oh, no, you will not,” she said. “I’ve already talked to Michael. He and Dalton have things under control. You need to go home. Tell your folks what’s going on. Set their minds at ease.”