Chapter 15
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Sammy absolutely loved the fact that she was getting honest answers from Burton.
She’d learned how and why he’d gotten into the military family, the same as her into nursing, because of his grandfather telling him all kinds of stories and romanticizing the entire thing.
His family had been absolutely horrified, blaming their grandfather for Burton’s decision the whole time, whereas Burton himself had been thrilled.
It had become a sore spot for the entire family, but he didn’t let his grandfather feel guilt or remorse because how could something like that be wrong?
“Anyway, the family more or less got over it. I’m still alive, and, from their perspective, as long as I stay alive, I’ll probably get off the hook eventually,” he shared, with a laugh. “I don’t see them very much. They live a quiet life in Ohio, whereas I live—”
“All over the world,” she interjected.
He chuckled. “More or less. Obviously my military brothers and I consider Talia’s home as our home base, and we have come back here time and time again.
Plus, it is so close to our military base in San Diego.
Still, I go home to Ohio to visit with family and show up when it matters.
Yet Talia’s house is home to me and to Anderson, even to Leland and Gunner.
It’s a nice little area, and we’ve talked about settling in here because it’s where we all consider our personal home base is.
I’m not sure why we chose this place,” he admitted, with a shrug and a smile.
“I haven’t had any reason to go elsewhere. So, the only place we meet up is here.”
“That makes a lot of sense,” she replied. “Does Talia have any idea how lucky she is that you guys have been around, both before her attack and after?”
“She took it pretty hard when Anderson left for the navy, but she wouldn’t say anything against it because she knew how important it was to him.”
“Of course,” she muttered. “That sounds like what I would expect from her.”
He laughed. “Not everybody was quite so forgiving.”
“No, of course not,” she noted, waving her hands.
“Yet Anderson calls this place home, and that’s what’s important,” Burton added.
When the front door opened, they were still deep in conversation. When Leland walked in, he looked from Sammy to Burton and then back to her. “Am I interrupting?”
She turned to him and smiled. “Nope, we’re just talking.”
He nodded, but his gaze was intense as he studied her. “Seems to be a pretty intense conversation though,” he pointed out, watching Burton now. “And how are the babies letting you have this time is something else yet again.”
She smiled, watching the babes, now full, playing with their food or their plates. “Just pure luck, I’m sure,” she replied, trying to ease the tension that had suddenly thickened the air. “We’re just getting to know each other.”
“Ah.” Leland laughed. “That’s important too.”
“Ah?” Burton repeated. “What does that mean?”
“I forgot you two were an item.”
She looked at him in astonishment. “I don’t know that we’re an item,” Sammy countered, with a nervous laugh.
“We’re definitely an item,” Burton stated immediately. “She’s just not quite ready to call it.”
“Oh please,” Sammy replied, horrified that her cheeks were hot, probably turning pink.
“I thought you were going to stay at the hospital,” Burton asked Leland, taking the focus off Sammy.
“I was, and then I decided to come home, get a shower, maybe grab a few minutes of sleep, since Anderson is determined to stay for a bit. I’m about wiped out.”
“I can go up and do the night shift if you need sleep that badly,” Burton offered immediately, standing up and staring at him. “Are we thinking that the visitor is likely to come back tonight?”
“I don’t know. I’m hoping that the guy turns up while Anderson’s there, so he can see him and hopefully talk to him and confirm his ID. In the meantime, we don’t know who this guy is. As long as Timothy is in jail—”
Sammy asked, “Do we know for sure that he’s in jail? It is just a small sheriff’s office, with a small jail. Keep that in mind,” she pointed out.
Burton stared at her, confused for a moment. “What do you mean by that? Anderson just saw him there earlier.”
“I’m not sure what I mean, but I guess, … even if he’s in jail, that doesn’t mean that he’s staying in jail.”
Burton frowned at her, and then a slow whistle escaped. “Now that is something I hadn’t considered.”
“What?” she asked, now looking at him in confusion.
“I hadn’t considered that maybe he was being let out and then going back in again.”
Leland stared at her, nodding. “I hadn’t considered that either, though most of the time we’re dealing with larger jurisdictions with pretty standard procedures and heavy security.”
Sammy added, “Tim’s kind of a player, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he was friends with the sheriff or at least some of the deputies. And, if they have no reason to suspect that he’s really involved, or if there are any hidden hands in play—”
“How did you think of that?” Leland asked, shaking his head.
“I don’t know,” she muttered, confused by their reaction and feeling a bit on the spot now. “It just seems to me that, if it looks like Tim, if it sounds like Tim, if it’s acting like Tim, why wouldn’t it be Tim?”
Burton smiled. “You’re right. That’s actually far more plausible than the twin theory. It was right there in our faces, and we completely overlooked it. Good job.” He pulled out his phone and called Anderson. As soon as he relayed her theory, they engaged in a heavy discussion back-and-forth.
She wasn’t even sure if she should have mentioned anything, but it was just one of those things that seemed obvious to her. Yet they were coming at it from a very different viewpoint and believed that Tim was actually incarcerated. Therefore, her theory changed everything for them.
Realizing that it was time for the babies to have a bath before bed, she got up.
While the guys were still talking, she started the bath.
By the time she got all three of the triplets into the bathroom and then into the bathtub itself, she was fully immersed in trying to keep them from drowning themselves and each other.
A tap came on the door, and Burton came into the bathroom with a smile on his face. “Hey, you could have asked for help, you know?”
She smiled and nodded. “It seemed like you guys were a little busy.”
“Well, that was a damn-good theory on your part.”
“Doesn’t mean it was right or wrong though, does it?”
“Leland’s heading over to the sheriff’s department right now.” He tried to keep one of the Lisas from pulling her sister’s hair. “He seems to think that he might be able to get some information out of one of the officers.”
“Oh, great,” she replied. “Is it a female?”
He laughed. “She is. I guess he stopped in to talk earlier and hit it off with her.”
“Good for him, but that doesn’t mean she’ll release that kind of information.”
“And yet it’s not like it should be hidden.
I mean, the whereabouts of an inmate is not some top secret information,” he pointed out.
“If he’s got a day pass to legally get out, that’s one thing.
If he’s being released by some of the staff for some purpose, that should also be documented.
And, if it’s something completely different, then we need to find out. ”
“And what could possibly be completely different?” she asked, astonished.
He shrugged. “He could be bribing somebody on staff to give him an hour’s pass to go see his poor sick wife that he had absolutely nothing to do with hurting. And, of course, as he comes back-and-forth, the myth continues.”
“But they shouldn’t do that,” she muttered. “Is that even allowed?”
“No, they shouldn’t, but when you shared how it’s a small sheriff’s office and a small jail, the possibilities became clear.
They probably just use that as a holding facility while they await more information or for the circuit judge to show up.
And I realized it would actually be a very easy thing for not only the staff but also the mayor to pull off, which also would imply that they don’t seem to think Tim’s guilty.
He’s been here in this area a long time, and chances are they all have their own ideas as to what happened.
It’ll be some version of him being coerced, or he was unconscious at the time someone else did the beating, and now he’s being framed. ”
“Good Lord,” she whispered, hanging her head. “The deviousness that people come up with is absolutely insane.”
“But it’s also the truth half the time,” he pointed out, as he squatted beside her.
“So, I’m staying here with you and the babies, and Leland’s heading to the sheriff’s department because he also wants to know what kind of security system they have there.
So, if Tim’s breaking out, we should be able to see him on tape, or, if somebody’s letting him out, the security system being used is something that Leland might be able to hack into and get the truth. ”
She stared at him, her jaw dropping. “Do people actually do that?”
“Well, if not Leland, it will most certainly be somebody on one of the teams that we work with,” he shared, with a smile. “I guess for you, it sounds illegal and dodgy as hell, but it’s also a way to get answers.”
“I just thought I heard you say hack and I—”
“I did,” he confirmed, with a laugh. “So, we don’t know exactly what’s going on, but we need to know. Thus this is just one more of those little things we may have to try in order to figure things out.”
She shook her head. “Good God. I can’t imagine what the sheriff or the mayor would have to say if they found out what you were doing.”
“I guess it depends on if they’re complicit in the crimes, plus aiding and abetting a criminal, and a violent inmate at that,” he pointed out. “Or maybe they have no idea, and somebody else is helping him get in and out on his own.”
She rubbed her forehead. “That’s incredibly complicated.”