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distance away so that most people might not have noticed.
    She noticed.
    And it sent a deathly chill over her.
    God, what had she done?

Chapter Four
     
    Nick took the turn on Old Cypress Road, noted the parked dark-green car with the heavily tinted windows and let the bit of information he’d just learned sink in. Well, as much as information like that could sink in. Now the question was—was it relevant to Kelly Manning’s visit to the ranch?
    “She was under psychiatric care at St. Mary’s Hospital a little over a year and a half ago,” Cooper added, his voice clear on the tiny speaker of Nick’s cell phone. “For severe depression. She was treated and released after just two days, but she still sees a therapist a couple of times a month.”
    Nick moved those details around in his head, fitting them to the other facts he already had in place. “A year and a half ago. That was about the same time her husband was killed.”
    “Yes. About a week after.”
    “So, it’s reasonable that she might need professional care to get through something that traumatic. Especially since she was only a few weeks pregnant.”
    “I suppose. But there’s the fact that it took me too many layers to find anything about this particular hospital stay. Someone buried her file, sir. Trust me, that’s not easy to do these days.”
    Nick had no doubts about that. Especially since he had the resources to dig through layer after layer of anything that a person might want to hide. However, a brief stay in the mental ward of a hospital didn’t make Kelly Manning insane.
    Nor did it exonerate her of anything.
    She could still be a liar. An opportunist. Or a half dozen other unsavory things, including but not limited to Eric’s employee.
    On the other hand, if she truly was an innocent party in all of this, then God help her. She’d just wandered into a viper’s nest.
    And he was one of the very vipers that could end up getting her killed.
    “Sir, I’m asking you to rethink this visit,” Nick heard Cooper say. “You shouldn’t go to see this woman alone.”
    But that was the only way this visit would happen. It was too dangerous otherwise.
    “I’ll be fine, Cooper. Besides, you have one of your men posted nearby.” It wasn’t a question. Nick had seen the security guard in the dark-green car and knew it was one of his vehicles and employees.
    “I do. But he won’t be inside.”
    “Nor do I want him there,” Nick insisted, making sure he got his point across. He appreciated Cooper’s concern, but this visit had to happen solo. The authoritative tone was a surefire way to make certain Cooper backed off.
    Nick brought his car to a stop one block up from her house. He took his phone off the speaker function, got out of his car and, despite the crisp air from the cold front moving in, walked the rest of the way. Best not to announce to the world that he was there, by parking his car right in front of her house.
    “Keep looking for more of Ms. Manning’s layers and whatever turns out to be beneath them,” Nick instructed Cooper. “If she’s hiding anything, or if you find even a remote connection to Eric, I want to know immediately.”
    Nick ended the call and stopped in front of Kelly Manning’s house. It was an odd little place. Though it was still on the fringes of the city, it was almost like a fairy-tale cottage with its charcoal-gray-slate-tiled roof, pristine ivory exterior, pale yellow shutters and cobblestone walkway. There were now empty flower beds beneath the pair of front bay windows, but he imagined that in the spring those beds would be bursting with color.
    The only thing missing was a white picket fence.
    However, the picture wasn’t quite so pastoral to Nick. For one thing, the house was isolated on a huge lot choked with thick trees and shrubs. Securing it would be a nightmare. Yet it would have to be done.
    And soon.
    Nick checked his coat pocket to make sure William’s DNA sample was there. It was. He