Chapter Eight #3
“And what about the graffiti on her garage door?”
“The sheriff doesn’t think Nicholson has anything to do with that. He thinks it was done by a tourist from Texas who didn’t agree with the way ski patrol handled a collision he had with a skier.”
“I don’t agree.”
“Did you see the notes in Lake Placid?”
“No. But some of them were presented as evidence at Nicholson’s trial. He admitted writing them.”
“Yes. But you don’t know if the two notes she’s received here were anything like those notes.” She held up a hand to silence his objection. “I also think it’s very interesting that this so-called harassment started the very day you arrived in town.”
He rose from his chair. “Are you accusing me of harassing Nina?”
“Not at all.” She met his gaze with a hard look of her own. “I think Nina may have done this as a way of drawing your attention and concern. I know the two of you were involved before the incident in Lake Placid. Maybe she’s trying to win you back.”
“That’s absurd. That’s not the kind of person Nina is. She made it clear to me the first day I was here that she’s not interested in a relationship right now.”
“Sometimes people say the opposite of what they feel,” Marlena said. “I’ve watched the two of you together, and I can tell you, Nina is very into you.” Her gaze flickered over him. “I can’t say I blame her.”
“Everything you’ve said is ridiculous, and if you start spreading this around I’ll make sure Nina sues you for disparaging her and downplaying a genuine threat.”
Marlena put out her hands in a placating gesture. “I’m not accusing Nina of anything.”
“It sounds as if you are. You’re accusing her of fraud.”
“Not deliberate fraud. I think she may be ill. Truly suffering. And I want to help. But not at the expense of the resort’s reputation.”
“I don’t share your concern about the resort’s reputation. And Nina isn’t making up this threat. It’s real. If you choose to ignore the threat and she’s harmed, she won’t have to hire a lawyer to sue you, because I will.”
Marlena glared at him. “Think about what I’ve said. I believe you’ll see I have a valid point.”
“You can leave now,” he said.
She moved toward the door. “I’ll expect your finished videos no later than Friday at 4:00 p.m. Then you can leave the resort.”
“I know the terms of my contract. You’ll have what you paid me for.”
He shut and locked the door after her, then punched his fist in the air and swore.
Angel, who had been curled on a blanket on the end of the bed, sat up and cocked her head at him.
“I can’t believe anyone would accuse Nina of faking something like this,” he said.
“It’s bad enough she had to go through all that and barely escape with her life.
Now she has someone like Marlena questioning her mental stability. ”
The dog whined and wagged her tail. Liam sank onto the bed and pulled her into his lap.
He stroked her soft fur and tried to focus on his breathing, trying to calm down.
Instead of Marlena’s voice, he heard the words of his boss at the wire service he had worked for a decade ago.
“What do you mean you’re turning down this assignment?
I didn’t ask if you wanted it—I told you to go do it.
I get that you dealt with some horrible stuff on that last tour.
Nobody likes photographing dead children.
But it’s our job to document these horrors.
We make sure these atrocities don’t get swept under the rug.
If you can’t deal with that, then this isn’t the job for you. ”
He had left that job, and later, a fellow journalist had told him he was one of the few people he knew who had the courage to admit to being traumatized by the things he had seen. “Most of us suffer in silence,” the man said. “We know admitting we can’t handle it means losing the job we love.”
Liam had lost the job he loved, but he had gradually built a new job he loved.
He started out with “soft” work—photographing marketing materials like he was doing at SkyCrest, but also bidding for contracts with environmental services and charities.
He had won a few awards and gone on to more prestigious work, and now, a decade after that disastrous assignment in Kosovo, he could pick and choose his jobs.
Taking that assignment in Ukraine last year had been a personal turning point, as he focused on not just the tragedies of war, but the survivors.
A counselor he had turned to after he left the wire service had suggested a dog to help steady him emotionally.
That’s when he had adopted Angel. He looked down at her, her eyes a little dimmer with age but still lively, and felt a deep gratitude for all she had given him.
He didn’t have a permanent home these days, but he always had her to anchor him.
He had overcome his trauma. And he could see how far Nina had come in dealing with her own demons. He wasn’t going to let Marlena Jarvis or Aaron Nicholson or anyone else take that hard-won peace from her.