gun on him while Jacob bent and handcuffed the bastard.
* * *
PEYTON’S HEART HAMMERED as she watched the evening news in the staff break room at Golden Gardens, the assisted-living and nursing home where she worked. After she’d left Whistler, she’d accepted a job at the facility to watch over her mother and had been looking over her shoulder ever since.
The words Late Breaking News scrolled across the TV screen, then the reporter spoke. “Special Agent Liam Maverick and Sheriff Jacob Maverick of Whistler made an arrest today in the case of the hospital fire that killed several people five years ago.” A photograph of a thin man with a long beard flashed on-screen. “The person of interest, Barry Inman, a man who filed a lawsuit against Whistler Hospital, has been taken into custody. Inman made allegations that his wife’s death was caused by negligence, but the day before the fire, the case was thrown out.”
Footage of the fire as it engulfed the hospital, then the chaos on the lawn that followed, filled the screen.
Barry Inman looked weathered and defeated, a shell of the man who’d stood by his wife’s bedside pleading for the doctors to save her. His devotion to his wife, Gloria, had been intense. His anger over her death a force to reckon with. And understandable.
Guilt pressed against Peyton’s chest. So many lives had been destroyed that night.
Had Barry set the hospital on fire?
The threatening message she’d received about Gloria Inman’s death played through her mind. Whoever had called her wanted to cover up the mistake.
Did Dr. Butler have something to do with the threat?
That was hard to believe. He was her mentor when she first came to Whistler. He seemed caring and conscientious. Did he really believe she’d made a mistake and he wanted to protect her career? Or was he covering for someone else?
The fire had started near the record room for the ER. The room where files were kept on all the patients. Evidence that could have proven Inman was right had disintegrated into ashes in that inferno.
Suspicions that had dogged her for years mounted again.
Then fear. If the person who’d threatened her saw that Inman had been arrested, he might think she’d talked.
Pulse pounding, she grabbed her purse from her locker and rushed from the room. She had to check on her mother.
Keeping her safe was the only thing that mattered.
* * *
LIAM’S JAW TIGHTENED as he studied Barry Inman.
He’d been hiding out for a reason. And Liam and his brother Jacob intended to find out why.
“I did not set that fire,” Inman snapped. “I’ve told you that a dozen times.” He ran a finger through the scraggly strands of his beard. “You have no right to hold me.”
Liam folded his arms while Jacob leaned against the wall, a silent force of anger as he shot Inman a look of intimidation that would normally make a man wither.
“We have every right,” Liam said. “You have been wanted for questioning in this arson case, which by the way has been upgraded to multiple homicides, for five years. But you disappeared to evade the law. That makes you look guilty as hell.”
Panic zinged through the man’s gray eyes. “I didn’t murder anyone. I would never.”
Liam slammed his hand on the table in front of Inman. “Then why did you run?”
He shifted in the metal chair. “Because you guys were trying to pin that fire and those deaths on me.” Bitterness laced Inman’s voice. “You didn’t want to listen to the truth. You just wanted someone to blame, and I was the easy choice.”
“Nothing about this case has been easy,” Jacob interjected. “We lost our own father in that blaze.”
“That’s what I mean,” Inman screeched. “You have a personal vendetta against me.”
Liam forced a calm to his voice, although he was sorely tempted to beat the man into admitting what he’d done. “We just want the truth. And if you didn’t set the fire, you may have information that could help us.”
Inman looked down at his hands which were cuffed to the scarred metal table. “What makes you think that?”
Liam’s patience was fading fast. “Because you ran, and you have motive.”
“That doesn’t mean I’m guilty.”
“Then help us determine who is,” Jacob said. “You filed that lawsuit and were angry when it was thrown out.”
“Of course, I was mad. My wife died and it was the hospital’s fault.”
“Tell us what happened,” Liam said. “Why you think they’re to blame?”
Inman glanced back and forth between him and Jacob,