go, she couldn’t seem to stop herself from arguing. “Don’t you think that’s a job for the police? They have more resources than you do.”
“Not if they’re in on it,” he muttered. “Don’t you understand? I can’t trust the police, not after the way everything went down. The entire community thinks I’m guilty. And I can’t take the chance the shooter will use my daughter to get to me.”
“Who is the shooter? And why would anyone do something so terrible? I don’t understand what’s going on, Caleb.”
He stared at her in the darkness, and she wished she could see his eyes more clearly. Strange that her earlier distrust of Caleb seemed to have faded in the wake of Kaitlin’s nightmare.
“I don’t understand what’s going on, either,” he said. “Other than someone wants to kill me. Likely the same person who killed my wife. And why wouldn’t that person try to use Kaitlin? She’s my one and only weakness. Anyone who knows me, which includes all the guys on my former SWAT team, would know that I’d do anything to keep my daughter safe.”
She wasn’t sure what to say to that. “You really think someone on your team killed your wife?”
“Yes, I do. I’ve thought of nothing but Heather’s murder for the fourteen months and it’s the only theory that makes sense. I know you don’t believe me, but I promise you I didn’t kill her. I’d considered filing for divorce, when I discovered she was cheating on me, but I didn’t kill her. And I especially wouldn’t do that while Kaitlin was sleeping in her bedroom. I wasn’t there that night because I’d moved into a motel room. And no matter what that neighbor claimed he saw, I did not go back to the house to kill Heather.”
She’d known that Kaitlin being there the night of her mother’s murder had been the source of the child’s night terrors. The poor child had likely woken to the gunshots and had been found covered with blood in her mother’s room.
After seeing Caleb interact with his daughter, she found it hard to believe everything had happened the way the eyewitness had claimed. That Caleb had killed his wife and then had run away from the house, carrying a gun and leaving his daughter behind.
A gun that still hadn’t been found.
Not to mention an eyewitness who’d disappeared.
Had Caleb really been sleeping in a motel room while someone else killed his wife?
“You’d better try to get some sleep,” he finally said.
“All right.” She rose to her feet and crossed over to the bed she shared with Kaitlin.
But sleep was a long time coming, because for some odd reason, she found she was beginning to believe Caleb was in fact innocent of the crime he’d been accused of.
But knowing that didn’t reassure her the way she thought it would.
Because whoever had tried to kill Caleb outside her house was very likely still looking for him. And she was deeply afraid that the killer wouldn’t hesitate to take the life of a woman and child, too, if necessary.
THREE
Caleb woke up after five hours of sleep, feeling surprisingly refreshed. Maybe because it was his first night of sleep as a free man. He’d never slept well in jail, too much noise from the other inmates and guards constantly making rounds. Even a low-budget motel room was better than what he’d left behind.
The sun was up, but it was still early, barely seven-thirty in the morning. Noelle and Kaitlin were sleeping in, so he quietly made his way to the bathroom, gently closing the door behind him. He felt better after a hot shower, but wished he had a razor and toothpaste.
He planned to make good on his promise to do some shopping right after breakfast. Then maybe they could take Kaitlin swimming again, before they had to hit the road. As much as he wanted to stay here another day, he didn’t dare stick around in one spot for too long. He’d just have to find another motel with a pool for Kaitlin.
Remembering his daughter’s nightmare made him frown. It had been the first hint of what his daughter had gone through emotionally and psychologically after his arrest. He was sincerely glad to know that Noelle had been there for Kaitlin the past fourteen months. The way she’d soothed his daughter last night during her nightmare had touched his heart.
Noelle was a much better mother than Heather had been.
The instant the thought sank in, he thrust it away. He closed his eyes and dragged his hands over his rough cheeks. The demise of his marriage hadn’t been all Heather’s fault and he needed to stop thinking negative thoughts about his former wife. No matter how she’d betrayed him, and violated their marriage vows, she hadn’t deserved to be murdered.
He shoved the past away and finished cleaning up. When he emerged from the bathroom, Noelle was sitting at the side of the bed, finger-combing her hair. “Good morning,” she whispered.
“Morning.” The hint of fear that had shadowed her eyes since he arrived on her doorstep seemed to have vanished. He was afraid to hope that maybe, just maybe, she was starting to believe him. “I thought we’d get something to eat and then find a store. I’m sure you’d like some toothpaste as much as I would.”
A shy smile bloomed on her face. “Yes, that would be wonderful.”
Kaitlin opened her eyes and rolled onto her back, a tiny frown furrowing her brow as she looked around in confusion. “Noa?”
“I’m here, sweetheart,” Noelle said as she pulled the little girl close and gave her a hug.
He wanted to give his daughter a hug, too, but stayed where he was, hoping she’d remember the way he’d held her in the pool rather than the way they’d escaped the gunman at Noelle’s house. “Hey, Katydid, are you hungry?”
Kaitlin gazed at him solemnly before nodding her head. “Yes.”
“Me, too,” Noelle said. “Let’s wash up in the bathroom first, okay, Kaitlin? Then we’ll get some breakfast.”
Kaitlin let go of Noelle and scrambled off the bed. She went into the bathroom and Noelle grabbed the pink backpack before following his daughter.
While he waited, he took out his wallet to double-check the amount of cash he had left. Thankfully Jack had stopped at the bank on the way home so that Caleb could draw out a chunk of his savings, partially to pay his legal fees along with having some cash to live on. Good thing, since staying alive was obviously a priority at the moment.
Heather had made a good living as a model before they’d gotten married, and after Kaitlin’s birth she’d worked out like a maniac to get back in shape to resume her career. He’d tried to tell her she didn’t need to keep modeling, but she’d insisted. The amount of money she made was more than what he made as a member of the SWAT team, but he’d rather Heather would have been content to do something else. It wasn’t as if she was going to be able to model for the rest of her life. But she’d refused to consider a second career. He hadn’t wanted to leave Kaitlin in the preschool center full-time, but Heather had insisted.
As a result of their combined incomes, they’d had a substantial amount of money saved up. Enough that he’d been able to continue paying the mortgage while he was behind bars. With
