Free Silent Protector by Barbara Phinney Page B

chain logo. In the bag were some basic toiletries and a few clothes, all dripping wet. Liz grimaced when she held it high.
    “We’ll take it to the rec center and let it dry in the ladies’ room. No one is going to be using it in the next few days.”
    They walked back to the center, where Liz took a few minutes to lay out her things.
    She reappeared a few minutes later and found him in the kitchen grabbing a cold glass of water. “Everything is soaking wet, but I think my ID and credit cards are fine. And I didn’t have too much money.”
    “Good.” Setting the glass down, Ian pivoted. “Liz, now that we confirmed what color of vehicle ran you off the road, it will help us in our search for William Smith.”
    “Do you think he’s here?”
    “There is no other reason for anyone to run you off the road, is there?”
    “Elsie said Monica had borrowed money from some people who were anxious to get it back. Maybe they mistook me for her.”
    “Unlikely.” He shook his head. “And I think it would be prudent not to get stuck on one hypothesis.”
    “So what are you saying?”
    “I need you to press Charlie for a statement. I have shown him a picture of William Smith, but that was before he was talking. We need to show it to him again and ask him if Smith was the—”
    “Forget it! I won’t pressure him before he’s ready. He is scared I’m going to leave him, like his father has. He’s still trying to come to grips with that loss, and I won’t add to his stress.”
    “He’ll have you there to comfort him. Liz, we need to know.”
    “Charlie is scared, and like any boy, he’s trying to push it away because he’s not ready to deal with it.”
    Suddenly, she pulled in a hiccupping breath and blinked rapidly. “There must be some other proof that William Smith was there. Charlie may not have even seen a thing!”
    “The police think otherwise.”
    “Well, they may be wrong. He just lost his father, and regardless of how I felt about that man, Charlie loved him. He needs someone he can trust. You don’t fit that bill, but I do.”
    “How do you know that? You’ve known me for less than a day.”
    “You have a work schedule that is so full that you have time for one meal, and you’ve pawned Charlie off on the Wilsons.”
    Pawned Charlie off. Years ago, some relative of his had made the same comment. She hadn’t wanted Ian and had asked why he was being pawned off on her. By that time, he was a troublesome teen with a heart hardened by all he’d had to endure after his parents’ deaths. His extended family hadn’t wanted what they considered the stigma of having a relative in foster care.
    That was why he’d gravitated to Charlie. The same kind of childhood. Ian’s mother and father hadn’t been good at parenting. They’d been inconsistent, and his mother had struggled with alcohol and depression. His father had wandered in and out of their lives, until a DUI accident took both their lives.
    Charlie’s father had come and gone but without leaving anyone to care for the boy. His addiction was to cocaine and the search for a fast buck.
    But even after all that, Liz’s cool words cut deep into him. She was right. He was too busy to be any kind of guardian to Charlie. The marshals had felt that Charlie would respond to a male better than a female, but he had no time for the boy. He was a pastor now.
    His unspoken words cut through him, right to his heart. He shut his eyes to the realization that he was just as much at fault as the relatives he hated.
    And on top of that, he didn’t like the selfish way he was thinking of Liz.
    He hadn’t sent Liz packing yesterday because she unwittingly became part of the WITSEC program. Charlie needed her, and Ian needed her to keep Charlie talking.
    “All the more reason to get that statement out of Charlie, before things get a whole lot worse,” he muttered, half at her words of pawning off and half at himself for knowing that he couldn’t and