Simon Says Die

She swiped the tears away and shook her head. “You can’t watch over your shoulder all the time. What if he . . . has a rifle or something.”
    He tenderly cupped the side of her face. “Don’t worry. This will all be over soon. I have a feeling that whatever Logan is going to tell us will be good news. If he’s found something we can use to put Damon away, then everyone will be safe.”
    Since he seemed to be waiting for her agreement, she nodded. But she very much feared he was wrong. Pierce didn’t know Damon the way she did. And he hadn’t seen the look of pure evil in Damon’s eyes when he’d promised to kill everyone she loved if she didn’t pay him.
    After pressing a whisper soft kiss on Madison’s lips, Pierce closed her car door and headed around the front of the car toward the driver’s side. Madison desperately hoped he was right, that Logan had discovered something that would help them put Damon behind bars. Because if he hadn’t, she would have to fall back on plan B—the million dollar cashier’s check hidden inside her bra.
    â€œW E’RE HERE, L OGAN —Madison, Lieutenant Hamilton, and me,” Pierce said. “Casey and Tessa had to go back to the office. I’ll fill them in later.” He turned the computer monitor around on the conference room table. He centered it so the built-in Webcam would hopefully capture all three of them. “Can you see and hear us okay?”
    â€œYes.” Logan looked at Madison. “How are you holding up, trouble?”
    She squeezed Pierce’s hand beneath the table. “Pierce is taking good care of me.”
    â€œGood. I don’t want to have to teach him his manners again when I get back.” The teasing expression on his face turned serious. “You should have told me about Dad.”
    She nodded, blinking her eyes rapidly as if to hold back tears. “I know. I’m so sorry.”
    â€œWhat do you have for us?” Hamilton asked, sounding impatient.
    â€œMore than I expected, but it took some trickery to get the information. Bigfork is a tight-knit community, and no one wanted to share anything about their former benefactor. I told them Damon had died in a car accident in New York, and that I was trying to find out if he had any family or friends that needed to be notified. They suddenly became quite friendly.”
    â€œI’ll bet,” Pierce said. “They were hoping for a cut of his estate.”
    â€œI’ve already e-mailed softcopies of this information to Lieutenant Hamilton and you. I’m overnighting the hardcopies, which are mostly pictures.”
    Logan shuffled some papers on the table in front of him. “Damon was born here and had few friends, but he was generous to the local community. They named a high school, and even this library after him”—he waved toward the building he was sitting in—“because of a large donation. But he was sick, a lot. He had failing health for the last couple of years that he lived here. No one seemed quite sure what his diagnosis was. The local doctor refuses to give me any information without a warrant. He had a full-time nurse during most of those two years. Then, all of a sudden, he picked up and moved away. He had the house sold and liquidated all his assets in Bigfork. That was around the time he went to New York.”
    Madison frowned. “Damon was always healthy. I can’t remember him ever being sick.”
    Logan’s lips thinned. “That thought occurred to me too. The man I heard about didn’t sound like the man I’d met.”
    He held up a picture in front of the camera. “Trouble, tell me if you recognize this man.”
    Madison studied the black-and-white photo of a man sitting on a bench in a garden. His hair was dark, streaked with gray, and his eyes were slightly sunken in as if he was ill. She shook her head. “He doesn’t look familiar. Should I know him?”
    â€œI would think so. Since you married him.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œThis is Damon McKinley, the real one,” he said, picking up another photo and holding it up. “And this is the male nurse who used to take care of Mr. McKinley.”
    Madison made a choking sound and pressed her hand against her throat. “That’s Damon,” she whispered.
    Logan put the picture down. “No, that’s Simon Rice, the man I believe stole