There was no more talk. They’d worn her out. Natalie held Amy until her little girl started to squirm to get down. Kit must have seen the signs and plucked her out of Natalie’s arms. Gladys had gone to sleep.
With tacit agreement they left the room and walked down the hall to the reception area. Kit approached the desk. “We had a nice visit with Gladys and can see she’s well taken care of. We’ll come again soon.”
“She’ll love that.”
Natalie left her name and phone number in case they needed to call her. Then she joined Kit and they left the nursing home for the rental car.
Kit got behind the wheel. “What do you say we stop at a drive-through for lunch and go to a park for a little while before we have to head to the airport? It’ll give Amy a chance to run around.”
“That’s a wonderful idea.”
Before long they located a nearby park. They found a nice spot for their picnic and Natalie laid Amy down on a quilt to change her diaper. With that accomplished, she disposed of it in the diaper bag then sanitized her hands.
Kit opened the sacks. Natalie fed Amy some yogurt with fruit. She ate part of Natalie’s grilled-cheese sandwich while Kit tucked into a ham-and-cheese melt. They drank soda and laughed at Amy’s antics as she walked around on unsteady legs in the grass, carrying her cow. It went everywhere with her.
“I don’t think I fooled Gladys. She had to have known he’d escaped from prison and was a fugitive. I’m just thankful she didn’t press me.”
Kit eyed her thoughtfully. “In my opinion she was so thrilled you gave her news about Harold and let her see her great-granddaughter, she was willing to go with what you told her.”
“She’s a lovely, bright woman. So was her husband. It means—”
“It means Harold’s parents were great people, too,” he interrupted her. “Something did go wrong inside his brain. It’s tragic, but it happens. Are you glad we came?”
“Oh, yes, Kit. Thank you for making it happen. I’ve learned so much...the kinds of things I’ll be happy to tell Amy about when she’s older. But what about you? Do you think the name of that former friend of his could give you a lead?”
“I’m counting on it, but I’ll look into it tomorrow. Tonight I’d like you to call your friend in Phoenix and ask her when would be a good time for a visit. We’ll fly out there. The sooner the better. Wednesday if we could.”
Natalie felt a fluttering in her chest. “I’ll call her after nine when she’s off work.”
“Good. I need to talk to her in person. Her answers could prove crucial to this case.”
Natalie waited until Amy drank the fresh milk she’d poured into her sippy cup. “All right, young lady, it’s time to get you back to the car.”
Time to bring an end to this amazing day with Kit Saunders, Texas Ranger extraordinaire in every sense of the word. In three days Natalie’s life had undergone a drastic change. She could tell she wasn’t the same person who’d walked into her house on Saturday to find it violated the way Rod had violated her. The life she’d had with him seemed light-years away.
* * *
TUESDAY MORNING KIT was up and out of the house early. He left a note for Natalie that he needed to get to headquarters and that a surveillance team in a television-repair van was parked near the house to keep watch over her until he got back.
He’d dressed in his clerical shirt and headed for the office. Before he did anything else, he needed to talk to his boss. Everyone who saw him walking down the hallway did a double-take before he reached the captain’s inner sanctum and knocked on his partially open door.
“Come in.”
Kit did as he was told. “TJ?”
The gray-haired man looked up and gave Kit the once-over. “I thought I’d seen it all. Don’t get any ideas about changing careers, Father Saunders. We need you around here.”
“Thanks.” Relieved to find his boss in a good mood, Kit sat.
“Give me an update.”
After five minutes TJ had been brought up to speed. “What’s your next move?”
“I’ll be in my office for a while. I’ve got to check out the information on Jimmy Salter. After that I’ll touch base with Forensics. Tomorrow I plan to fly to Phoenix. Mrs. Harris’s friend may hold the key to the person who killed Harold Park.”
TJ regarded him shrewdly. “I take it you’ve cleared Mrs. Harris as a suspect?”
“I’m one-hundred-percent certain she’s innocent of everything except falling in love with an expert con man.”