“What are you looking for?” Peyton asked, scooting closer to me. “Did you find something?”
I put Amanda Goad into the Google search and scrolled through the links until I found one that might look promising.
“CNA in Denver Becomes Prime Suspect in a Nursing Home Fire,” I read, and Peyton gasped in horror next to me.
“It’s her,” she said, leaning her head in to look at Amanda's blurry, black and white photo. “It’s actually her. Was she ever convicted?”
“It doesn’t look like it,” I murmured. “It looks like she got away with it.”
“When did this happen?”
“Three months after Peter died,” I said, eyes scanning the article. “She was working the night shift alone when the fire started. Apparently, she was unconscious in the kitchen when firefighters responded.”
“Was that intentional?” Peyton asked, and I shrugged.
“Maybe, but maybe not. But I bet it was her first fire.”
Peyton stopped talking, glancing over at Susan, unconscious and sick, on the bed. “Do you think she did this, too?” she asked me, reaching out to take hold of her mother’s hand again. “Do you think she intentionally hurt my mom?”
I sighed, wishing I didn’t have to say what I knew I did. “Yes,” I said. “I fully believe that she did this to Susan. I believe that when Susan told her that you were moving in with me, it must have triggered it. I’m sorry, Peyton. I’m sorry we couldn’t have stopped this sooner.”
Holding back tears, Peyton stared at a spot on the bed, shaking her head. “You warned me,” she said softly. “You warned me that I should fire Amanda, but I thought she was such good company for my mother.”
“We all thought so,” I insisted, getting up from the chair to put my arms around her from behind. “None of us knew that a silly girl like that was capable of something like this.”
“But she was,” Peyton said softly. “And we missed it.”
Before I could respond to this, there was a slight knock on the door, and Dr. Shaffer came back in, followed by two officers of Eagle River PD.
“I’ve briefed them on what little I know,” Doc Shaffer said. “But you’ll have to explain the rest.”
I nodded gratefully at him as the two familiar guys entered the room. One of them was Eli Burton, and the other was Dereck Denny.
“What’s going on, Butler?” Burton asked, reaching out to shake my hand. He shook Peyton’s as well, and Denny did the same.
“We think we know who did this,” I told them, nodding towards Susan. “It’s an overdose, but a tough one to do yourself.”
“The doc said something about a home health nurse,” said Denny, and I nodded, handing him the phone where the article on Amanda was still pulled up.
“That’s Amanda Briggs,” I said. “I’ve known her for a couple of months now. I met her at the first commercial fire the department responded to a few months ago.”
“I heard from arson,” Burton said, making a note on his pad. “Do you think she’s also relevant to these commercial fires?”
“Yes,” I said, and it felt good to say it aloud. Finally. “I believe she is both the arsonist and the criminal who hurt Peyton’s mom.”
“Is she an employee of the hospital?” Denny asked, and Peyton shook her head.
“We thought she was. We thought my mother’s doctor had sent her. But—Dr. Shaffer checked, and she’s not even on the ledger.”
“Not her maiden name or her married name,” Doc Shaffer added, handing the clipboard to Burton. “She’s been a home health aide for this patient for months, and no one had any idea that she was a fake.”
“And this is her?” Denny asked, still reading over the article. “Was she ever convicted?”
“Not that I know of,” I told him. “Which is why she returned to her maiden name and came here, I imagine. No one would know or remember.”
“Why is she after you?” Burton asked. “Why not someone else?”
“Because I was with her husband the day he was killed,” I said softly, taking a deep breath that rattled me to my core. “I didn’t remember it until recently, but it was a bad fire. I got out, but Peter didn’t.”
