The Truth Seeker by Dee Henderson Read Free Book Online Page B

adorable.”
    “If you say so.” He held out the second glass he carried. “One milkshake.”
    “Thanks.” She took it, sampled it, and nodded her appreciation.
    “Good.”
    Sidney was awake and ringing the small bell attached to the top of his cage. Lisa knelt down, picked up one of the empty paper towel tubes stacked on the supply shelf, and offered it to him. The ferret stood on his back legs to grasp it and haul it back into his cage. He proceeded to push his head inside and wiggle his body through it, chattering in a high pitch as he rolled. He reappeared, grabbed it with his feet, and tumbled it around.
    “He loves those things.”
    “Almost as much as he does things he can chase.” She got to her feet. “I appreciate the time you and Kate took.”
    “We didn’t mind. Although I’m pretty sure Kate drowned your plants.”
     
    She laughed, then groaned at the pain it caused. “It wouldn’t be the first time. I need to sit down.” She waved him back toward the living room. “You never did tell me what they discovered at the house.”
    He shortened his stride to match her slow walk, glad to see her balance was improving. “The major beam under the bedroom had cracked. When it gave way, the flooring and hallway folded and collapsed into the den. Unfortunately, you were in the hallway at the time.”
    “It wasn’t somewhere I stepped?”
    “No.”
    “Well at least that’s nice to know.” She gestured with her glass to the briefcase by the door. “Is the Hampton file Jack brought over in there?”
    “Lisa.”
    “I want to see it, just for a minute.”
    He opened her briefcase and got the case file. They had autopsied the burned cat Walter Hampton had gone to retrieve. He waited until she had eased herself down on the couch. “You don’t need to do this now.”
    “Quinn.”
    He reluctantly handed her the folder. She flipped through to read the lab results. He already knew them. He was prepared for the disquiet in her eyes when she finally looked over at him.
    “The cat showed no signs of a sleeping pill.”
    “No.”
    “I got hurt for nothing,” she said softly.
    “The toxicology was run several days after the fact. It was a stretch to consider something would be found.”
    She shook her head. “The pill wouldn’t have had time to entirely dissolve, and even crushed it would have been so concentrated it would have still been there in measurable doses, fire or not.” She dropped the folder and rubbed her eyes. “I went out in the field on another of my hunches, determined to check the scene, and got myself
    “I think it helped.”
    She seemed bothered by that more than pleased, and his eyes
    hurt. It wouldn’t be funny if this weren’t what
    the fifth time?”
    He perched on the arm of the couch. “You wouldn’t have been doing your job if you didn’t pursue what was a logical question. And there’s still an open question of why the cat didn’t escape the room.”
    “As Jack says—pets die in fires. There’s not enough to say it was a suicide. In a way I’m glad I was wrong; it’s awful to put a family through that.”
    She rested her head back against the sofa, studying him. “I haven’t told you thanks for what you did. I knew when I saw your face that it was pretty bad. I’m sorry; I should have told you thanks ages ago.”
    His hand tightened on the glass he held so he wouldn’t reach out and rub her slight frown away. “You’re welcome.”
    “I would wake up sometimes late at night and see you there beside the hospital bed praying.”
    He stilled. “Did you?” He’d been praying all right, scared to death the infection would spread, that the antibiotics wouldn’t work, that he’d lose someone more precious to him than any lady he could remember.
    “That was
    nice of you.”
    “It’s okay, Lisa. I know you don’t believe.” He’d watched her for years, putting together pieces and glimpses of her past, trying to understand why she appeared so indifferent when the topic of faith was mentioned.
    She was normally so curious about every subject under