Buried Truth by Dana Mentink Page A

partner, his badge and his town by his cowardice. He will not be missed.

NINE
    H e heard Heather gasp as she read her own name on the byline. She looked at him, eyes round with horror. “Bill … I never …”
    He squeezed her shoulder. “I know. Oscar hacked into the system. Your editor will take it down soon.”
    Margot’s voice jerked him from his reverie. “Is this the man who is stalking you?”
    Egan whistled. “If he’s able to hack into your work system, who knows what else he can do?”
    Heather groaned. “I’m going to lose my job.”
    He wanted to hold her, to apologize for jeopardizing her work, but she was up and pacing.
    “I’ve got to get my editor a story.”
    “The fossils—” Egan suggested.
    Bill cut him off. “No. No one is crawling around my aunt’s property until this thing with Oscar is resolved.”
    Heather mumbled to herself. “It will have to be Mr. Brown’s story. I’ll write up the uranium thing tomorrow. Take some pictures. It will buy me some time.”
    Margot cocked her head. “Uranium? That’s my field. I can help you. Take readings, if I can find the equipment.”
    Heather’s face was awash in disbelief. A little girl’s face peeked out of the woman’s, tender and vulnerable. Seeingthat look on her face was almost too much for him. Though he wanted to tell Heather to forget it, to stay inside and let things slide until Oscar was brought down, he would not sever the delicate thread that bound mother and daughter at that moment.
    Heather was still gaping at her mother when Egan spoke up. “I can lend you the equipment. I’ll bring it tomorrow.”
    Heather alternately went pale and then flushed pink. “Oh … okay. Tomorrow, then.”
    Egan walked to the door. He turned to Bill before he left. “I really did like your sister very much, Mr. Cloudman. I was trying to help her by getting her that janitorial job at the lab. I wonder every day if I made a mistake not telling you about my suspicions.”
    Bill nodded slightly. The thought came from the dark place inside.
Yes, you did and you won’t find forgiveness here.
    Margot was fingering the top of her cane. “It’s settled, then. We’ll go tomorrow and see if we can get you a story. I think I’ll lie down for a while now.” She got up and limped down the hall.
    Egan left, closing the door softly behind him.
    Heather stood with a dazed expression on her face. “She offered to help. She knows it’s a rag magazine, a trash paper.”
    He felt his heart fill. “And she knows it’s important to you.”
    Heather’s eyes brimmed and she bit her lip. “But she doesn’t care. She never cared. She left me and Dad.”
    Before he realized it, he had her in his arms and he was caressing her back, his lips brushing across her hair, inhaling the subtle scent of her. “People do terrible things, Heather, even to the ones they love.”
    “This is too much,” Heather cried into his chest. “I don’t know what to think or feel.”
    He sighed, enjoying her softness. “I can’t give you any advice there. I’m no good at the tender stuff.”
    She pulled away and looked at him, a tear glistening in each eye. “You used to be before… .”
    He put her gently away from him as reality once again seeped in. “Everything changed for me, Heather. Now I’ve only got anger left. That’s a good thing, in one way.”
    Her face was pained. “How?”
    “Because I’m going to use every ounce of that rage to bring down Oscar Birch once and for all. He’s not going to hurt you or anyone else ever again.” He walked to the door, missing the feel of her in his arms. “I’ll be back tomorrow. Don’t go anywhere until I’m with you.”
    He called to Tank and hastened out the door, anxious to leave before those tears left a sad trail down her cheeks.
    Heather made omelets for dinner and she and her mother sat at the same banged-up wooden table they had when she was a child. They both ate little. The conversation was strained to