Free Nighthawk & The Return of Luke McGuire by Justine Davis, Rachel Lee Page B

had just shut up.”
    “So it was your fault?”
    “It was always my fault.” She shook herself then, and some of the life came back to her eyes. “Sorry. You don’t want to hear this, and I certainly don’t want to repeat it. I must be boring you.”
    “Boring isn’t the word I’d choose.” Folding his arms, he looked down at her, taking in the way she was almost huddled as if she expected a blow. “You really think he’s after you?”
    She bit her lower lip and shook her head. “I can’t say for certain. Who could? But…yes, I think it’s a definite possibility.”
    “Are you sure your testimony convicted him?”
    “How can I be sure? I was fifteen at the time and I can barely remember getting on the stand. But I know he told the police that he and my mother had gone out to a bar together, that she’d gotten into a fight with someone in the parking lot, and that he’d intervened and brought her home where she tripped and fell down the stairs.”
    She lifted her head and looked up at him. “They’d gone to a bar all right. But she was fine when they got home. Maybe a little drunk, but not as drunk as he was. They got into a fight, he beat her up pretty bad, then knocked her down the stairs. I saw the whole thing.”
    “But maybe they had other evidence, too.”
    “I don’t know. I do know that he said he’d kill me if I ever told anyone what he’d done.”
    “But you did anyway.”
    “He killed my mother!”
    He unfolded his arms and spread his hands. “I’m not criticizing you, Esther. I’m just thinking how brave you were.”
    “I wasn’t brave, I was mad. As furious as I’ve ever been. But I don’t want to talk about it. Damn it, I don’t even want to think about it! Why couldn’t he have been the one to fall down the stairs?”
    But he hadn’t been, and Craig felt a genuine concern for Esther’s safety. There was absolutely no way anyone could predict what her father might do. All these years in prison might simply have turned him into a very angry, very vindictive man.
    Although the letter didn’t sound that way. Of course, it was brief, so brief that it wouldn’t be safe to reach any conclusions based on it.
    “I’m sorry,” she said abruptly. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
    “Why not? I can understand why you wish he’d fallen down those stairs.”
    “But it’s wrong to wish that on anyone.”
    Craig shook his head and expelled a long breath. “So, let me see. It’s not enough that he hurt you and terrorized you throughout your childhood. It’s not enough that he’s terrifying you right now. You have to feel guilty as well for wanting him out of your life?”
    “I don’t feel guilty for wanting him out of my life! I just shouldn’t wish him dead.”
    “Why the hell not? It’s apparent he won’t stay out of your life any other way!”
    The stark words hung on the air, and Esther seemed to shrink as if from a blow. He felt like a crud, a complete and total crud. But why should he feel bad for stating an obvious truth? Damn, this woman was an emotional mess. All twisted up in the barbed wire of guilt and fear. He wondered how she managed to laugh as easily as she did. He also wondered how she was going to handle this. And he felt about as useful as teats on a bull.
    “Have you talked to the sheriff?”
    “He said he’d keep an eye out, but there isn’t a whole lot he can do unless my father does something.”
    “I guess that makes sense. Unfortunately.”
    She astonished him then with a small smile. “Unfortunately. No, I can understand it. He’s served his time. Theoretically he’s learned his lesson.”
    “Rehabilitated unless proved otherwise.”
    She nodded. “That’s it.”
    “So…” He shook his head again and looked around.
    “Would you mind if I made some coffee?”
    “I’ll do it.”
    Before he could stop her, she rose and limped toward the coffeepot and sink. He watched her move, taking no pains to conceal his stare, thinking it was