“I do this a lot,” she admitted.
Everyone nodded again. Even Alec. She decided to ignore him and turned to ask Cordie a question, but he distracted her again. Before she realized what he was going to do, he’d put his arm around her and pulled her in to his side.
Regan noticed that neither one of her brothers looked the least bit surprised. Sophie and Cordie, on the other hand, looked astonished.
“So that’s some good news, isn’t it, Regan?” John had asked the question.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I wasn’t paying attention.”
“It’s been a long day. I was talking about Peter Morris and saying that the murder charges were dropped, of course, but he had already confessed to stealing that grant money and gambling it away. If the judge throws that confession out, they’ll still get him for embezzlement. Seems Morris was dipping into the center’s bank accounts. He’s going to be doing some hard time.”
“That’s good to hear,” Spencer said.
Regan agreed. Both of her brothers were calmer now. When they had arrived at the park, they were half out of their minds with worry. Regan was sitting in the back of an ambulance with Cordie and Sophie while the paramedic cleaned her cuts. Regan had never seen Aiden or Spencer carry on so. It was another revelation. Aiden was actually shouting at a detective. Spencer had tried to punch out one of the TV cameramen when he tried to climb into the ambulance to get a close-up of her. Spencer needn’t have bothered. Alec wouldn’t let the man get near her. He reined in Aiden too and got him to calm down.
“We still haven’t been able to get hold of Walker,” Spencer said.
“Do you think he’ll remember the accident?” Sophie asked.
Regan frowned. “Of course he’ll remember.”
“He didn’t cause it.” Wincott repeated what he had already told them. “According to the patrolman’s notes, he cited the truck driver and Gage for reckless driving.”
“Then Gage did have a hand in the accident,” Cordie said.
“That’s right,” Wincott said.
“Why did the truck driver’s insurance company settle then?” she asked.
Alec answered. “There was an eyewitness who swore the truck driver deliberately increased his speed so Gage couldn’t get back in when he was passing him. I’m sure the insurance company didn’t want a long legal battle. It was cheaper to settle.”
Regan looked at Aiden. “And more practical.” She was thinking about Emerson and how they had decided to give him a small settlement to get rid of him.
“Gage shouldn’t have tried to pass that truck,” Sophie said.
No one disagreed with her. Then Alec said, “I don’t think Gage could accept responsibility for any of it.”
“Walker got around the truck without any trouble, but Gage couldn’t, and maybe that’s what set him off.”
“You should have seen that bedroom upstairs in their house. It was Eric’s private domain because Nina couldn’t climb the stairs. He had all sorts of interesting things sitting around.”
“Like what?” Sophie asked.
“Nina’s medical records from the hospital and the rehab facility. Among some of the papers were bills for Eric Gage from a psychiatric hospital.”
“How did he get medical files?” Sophie asked.
“He must have stolen them,” Cordie said. “But why?”
“Maybe she wanted him to steal them,” Wincott answered. “He was the unstable one in that marriage. She wasn’t, though.”
“How do you know that?” Regan asked.
“Bradshaw went through her records and read me some of the comments the doctors and the therapists had written about Nina and her progress. She was an extremely difficult patient,” he said. “And that’s putting it mildly. She didn’t want to get better; she wanted to get even. I think she pushed and pushed until Eric did what she wanted. Nina Gage was a bitter, broken woman.”
“I think Eric was real conflicted about killing you,” Wincott told Regan.
“He sure didn’t act conflicted when he was chasing her through that park and shooting at her.” Alec got angry thinking about it.
“He found your murder list, and maybe he was trying to fulfill your last wishes before he… you know,” Cordie said.
“What a sick bastard,” Aiden remarked.
“I’m with you on that,” Alec said.
“Do you suppose he wanted someone to stop him?” Regan asked. “And that’s why he sent the e-mail and the faxes? He knew the police would get involved.”
Wincott flipped his notepad closed, put it in his pocket, and said, “At first he did, but then Gage set Morris up to get us away from you, so he must have changed his mind. It appears to have been a game to him. Nina was the controller in their marriage, and Eric was eaten up with guilt. He did whatever she wanted him to do.”
“And they blamed my brother for their misery,” Regan said.
“She knew exactly what she was doing. As soon as she was strong enough, they packed up everything they owned and moved here, to Walker’s hometown. It’s my belief that Walker was their first target, and Eric was waiting for an opportunity to kill him.”
Alec nodded. “But plans have a way of changing.”
“There were photos on Gage’s kitchen table, and a clipping file on Walker. They were keeping track of where he was,” Wincott said. “And you know what else was on that table? About twenty copies of a photo of all of you that was in the newspaper. I think that’s when their plans changed. Imagine how she must have felt every time she looked at your smiling faces. In that picture, Walker is standing behind Regan, sort of looking down at her, and he’s got his hand on her shoulder. He’s looking so proud of her and happy, and that must have sent the Gages into orbit.”
“They wanted to make Walker suffer before Eric killed him,” Alec said. “They had a real hate going on.”
Regan shivered. “The accident turned them into monsters.”
“Sweetheart, I don’t think they were real nice people before the accident.”
“You almost have to pity them,” Regan said.
“The hell with that. He tried to kill you. If I could, I’d shoot him again.”
Wincott stood and stretched. “That’s about it.”
Sophie also stood. “I’m going home. You scared me to death today, Regan. I swear it’s going to take me a week of shopping to get over it.”
“Am I supposed to apologize?”
Sophie grinned. “If you want to.”
“Sophie, you have to drive me home,” Cordie said. “And if Regan apologizes to anyone, it should be me. I didn’t want to walk in that race anyway. If you’ll remember, I suggested we go to the frozen custard shop.”
“No, we were supposed to meet there after the race,” Sophie said.
They were arguing as they walked out of the suite. Wincott said good-bye, shook hands with her brothers, and also left. Alec followed him.
“Hey, John, hold up. I want to run something by you.”
Aiden and Spencer also headed for the door. “Are you going to be okay tonight?” Spencer asked Regan.
“I’ll be fine.”
She walked over to Aiden and nudged him in his back as he was walking out the door. “You want to hear something funny?”
“I could use a laugh about now.”
“You know that little problem I had?”
“Which little problem?” He made it sound as though she had too many problems for him to keep track of.
“The problem with sleazebags.”
“You mean old men marrying young women?”
“Yes.”
“I remember telling you to get over it.”