My 6-year-old granddaughter phoned me in panic just after midnight. “Mommy says the baby is coming! Help!” I asked, “Where’s daddy?” She answered, “He k!cked mommy’s tummy and left.”…..

But if I find out you’ve been helping Trent cover this up, we’re going to have a different kind of conversation. Timmons opened his mouth to respond, then seem to think better of it. He turned and walked away, his boots squeaking on the polished floor. Harry watched him go, memorizing the set of his shoulders and the way he favored his left leg.

information was ammunition, and Harry had a feeling he’d need plenty of both before this was over a few minutes after Timmons left. Voices drifted down the hallway from the nurse’s station. Harry moved closer, keeping one eye on Lydia. “Never seen injuries like that from a fall,” one nurse was saying. Looked like she got kicked by a horse.

Third time this year, another replied, “Remember that Peterson girl? Same pattern of bruising.” And the Freeman woman, I heard she fell down the stairs, too. All the same guy, Trent Huxley. He’s got connections, though. Nothing ever sticks. Harry filed the information away. So, this wasn’t Trent’s first time.

That made it worse, but it also made it easier. Pattern of behavior meant there would be other victims, other witnesses, other people with scores to settle. The surgery took 4 hours. Dr. Martinez emerged just after sunrise, still in scrubs, but with exhaustion weighing down her shoulders. How are they? Harry asked standing immediately. Your daughter is stable.