An Impostor in Town (Colorado Series) Read Online Free PDF

manner to keep her escalating fears in check. “He’ll be all right.”
    She glanced around the room. No one was any wiser. She uttered reassurances all the time to emergency room patients.
    ****
    Peyton climbed four flights of stairs and paused outside room four-fifty-two before knocking. A male voice entreated her to enter. She peeked around the door, wondering if she had found the right room. A man sat in the guest chair next to Johanna. They both turned to her with weary expressions.
    All the things Peyton had planned to say flew out of her head. The moment became awkward. Johanna spoke first, splitting the thick apprehension in the room. “Pierce, this is the nurse that was in the emergency room last night.”
    “How do you do? Austin Pierce.” He nodded his dark head, stood, and offered Peyton his right hand. His easy manner broke the tension in the room.
    Johanna’s eyes glittered while the man greeted Peyton. She understood now why Johanna had lingered in Ouray. There was obviously something going between Johanna and Pierce. Johanna continued staring at him instead of turning her attention to Peyton. Another uncomfortable silence ensued.
    “Would you mind if I have a word with Miss Caldwell alone?” She hoped the man would think her visit routine, so she tried to sound official, but her request came out forced and unnatural. Pierce looked at Johanna as if getting her approval. She nodded and he left the room, but not before he tossed Peyton a scowl.
    The air grew heavy with memories, unspoken doubts, and underlying uncertainties. “I must have missed you in Albuquerque. That’s where you were coming from, wasn’t it?” Her strained voice reverberated around the small room.
    “I looked for you for nearly half an hour and then left. That was our agreement, wasn’t it?” Was there a hint of criticism in Johanna’s question?
    Where had Johanna been all this time if not still in Albuquerque? Peyton had arrived in Durango hours ago. “I was there, but I never saw you.” A thirty-minute wait was their agreed-upon time limit. She wasn’t going to admit she had stayed almost an hour.
    They could both be to blame for the failed attempt to meet…and they could both be blameless. “Why did you want to see me?” Johanna pushed past the unspoken accusations they hurled at each other.
    She pulled the crumpled letter from her pocket. Johanna’s eyes widened with shocked comprehension when she read the red-inked addition at the bottom. “Oh no.” An apology spread across her face.
    “Do you know anything about this?”
    “I didn’t do it, if that’s what you mean,” Johanna sputtered.
    “I didn’t think you did.” That wasn’t what she was implying. “Do you have any idea who might have done it?”
    Johanna squirmed on the mattress. “When did you get it?”
    “The same day your letter arrived.” She pushed a button and raised the upper portion of the bed without thinking.
    “I think I know who did this.” Johanna appeared to retreat into her private thoughts.
    “Well?” Her patience with the woman was wearing thin.
    “His name is Jeff Corbin. He works for Pierce.”
    A sinking fear formed in the lower regions of her gut. “Jeff Corbin? Can you tell me what he looks like?”
    “I have a picture of him. I don’t think he knows I took it. He avoids getting his picture made.” Johanna pointed at the wardrobe. “If you’ll get my purse, I’ll show it to you.”
    Peyton retrieved a large handbag for her. Johanna dug in the bottom until she pulled out a ragged photograph and passed it to her. She studied the picture in disbelief. He was twelve years older, but she recognized Mason Osborne’s son. “His middle name is Corbin. His last name is Osborne. He’s Mason’s son.” She collapsed onto the guest chair.
    “What are we gonna do?” Johanna’s question was barely audible.
    She wanted to scream at the woman, but now wasn’t the time for recriminations. She focused her attention on