Page 65 of Night Hawk
“But did he see anyone while he was here?” Toni asked.
“Maybe,” her grandmother said. “Was a long time ago.”
“Maybe or he did?” Toni pressed.
Her grandmother’s chin lifted, and Toni almost sucked in a breath at the similarity to her mother. An older version, but her mother nonetheless. And she was stubborn like her mother. Like Toni too.
“Did he see someone while he was here?” Toni asked again.
“Yes, all right,” her grandmother snapped.
“Now, Gert,” her grandfather said.
“I’m so tired of holding onto this. It’s time to let it out.” She knitted her fingers together in her lap. “Andrew was an elder in our church before he moved to Virginia, and he mentored our church youth leader, Nolan Wilshire. Nolan came over for a few minutes the night before Lisa went missing. He met Lisa while he was here.”
“Why didn’t you want the police to know that?” Toni asked.
“Because Nolan didn’t do anything wrong.” Her grandfather glared at her. “He was a good Christian man. The sheriff was so eager for a lead he would’ve hounded him.”
“If he had nothing to hide, he would’ve faired okay,” Clay said.
“He was going through a nasty divorce.” Her grandmother reached for a glass of water and took a long drink. “His wife cheated on him, but she claimed it was Nolan doing the cheating, and he was faced with losing custody of his kids. Any suspicions cast his way would’ve made sure hedidlose custody, and he had nothing to do with Lisa, so why ruin his life?”
“And did he? Lose custody, I mean?” Toni asked.
“Sadly, yes. His ex lied so very convincingly.”
“So you could’ve told the sheriff about Nolan then,” Toni said.
“No. No.” Her grandfather pointed his long chin at her. “Would’ve made us look like liars and call into question everything else we told him. And what would the point be? Nothing. ’Cause we told him everything else. Honest.”
When someone felt a need to add the wordhonestto the end of their statement, they were most likely hiding something else, but the stubborn tilt to her grandfather’s head declared he had said all that he planned to say about that point.
“Might Nolan, Andrew, or either of you have mentioned Lisa’s visit to someone else?”
“I mighta told my golf buddies,” her grandfather said. “Not sure if I did or didn’t.”
“I know I didn’t say anything,” her grandmother said. “The trip was a quick thing. The DEA wanted to send your dad to Chicago, and your parents needed to decide if they wanted to move before telling Lisa. That was why they sent her out here. To give them time. If we’d had a Sunday before she arrived, I woulda told everyone at church because I was so excited to have her stay with us. But they called on a Monday, and she was here by Wednesday. No time to tell others with getting a room ready for her.”
“But Nolan might have?”
“No. I asked him. He swore on his Bible that he didn’t say a word.”
Swearing on a Bible meant nothing. People lied and used every method to cover it up, but clearly her grandfather didn’t think so.
“Did you ever hear the name of the woman he supposedly had the affair with?” Clay asked.
Her grandparents both shook their heads.
“And does he still live here?” Toni asked.
“No.” Her grandmother looked so sad. “Poor man went a little crazy when he lost his children. Threatened his wife. She got a restraining order. He was so dejected he took off.”
“To where?”
“He went to live at his grandfather’s old farmhouse in Douglas County,” her grandfather said. “He wanted to be on his own. Find some seclusion and live off the land, and I don’t blame him. We wanted to do the same thing back then. You have no idea what we went through.”
Clay eyed her grandfather. “Nothing compared to what Lisa went through.”
