The Rookie's Assignment. Valerie Hansen

“I didn’t say that.”

       “You didn’t have to. Nobody would mistake the implication. You want to take a sample yourself because you don’t trust us.”

       When Nick swiveled to look at her, she could tell he was hesitant to say more. Well, he didn’t have to. She knew precisely what he’d meant.

       “Look, Keira, wouldn’t you rather the second sample was taken and proved to be a match to the first? It would help the state police and your brother at the same time.”

       “The truth is in the first sample Charles gave.”

       “Okay. But Olivia worked for his family. There’s still a good chance that some of the material found under her fingernails belonged to a Fitzgerald. The question is how it got there and whether that’s all that was found.”

       “You have results that I don’t know about?” Keira asked.

       “We do have more than one blood sample from the rock that we believe was the murder weapon. Unfortunately, the blood type is a common one and it does match your brother’s.”

       “I read that in the preliminary toxicology report. So?”

       “So, the best way to clear his name is send a new sample for typing and a DNA test. If the prime suspect wasn’t related to you, you’d jump at this chance. Admit it.”

       “Okay. Maybe you’re right. But you’re not going to pin this murder on an innocent man. We won’t allow it.”

       “Do you actually believe I came here to frame him?”

       Keira sighed. “No. But I’ve heard of cases where men spent years in prison before the truth came out and they were freed. Charles has small children to raise. He needs to be there for them, not locked up over some trumped-up evidence that an overzealous prosecutor decided to use.”

       “You’re really afraid for him, aren’t you?”

       She knew Nick was reading her just the way he’d claimed he could. Well, maybe she was a little transparent but Charles was her big brother. She loved him. And she loved his twins, Aaron and Brianne, too. They were only two years old, their mother had deserted them, and now the nanny they’d grown attached to in her place had been murdered. What would happen to the poor little things if their daddy was hauled off to jail?

       Before she could decide how to rebut Nick’s suggestion that she was fearful, he reached across the table and patted the back of her hand. His touch was gentle and the look in his hazel eyes warmed her to the marrow in her bones.

       “I promise you one thing,” Nick said quietly. “I will never assume anyone is guilty unless I have solid proof. And I’ll give your brother the full benefit of the doubt. That’s another reason it’s important to take a second swab for DNA. It’s the surest way to rule him out.”

       “What if it doesn’t? I mean, Olivia worked for him. Suppose she got his or the kids’ DNA under her nails some other way? It didn’t have to have happened right when she was killed.”

       “No, but she did have that day off.”

       “You don’t know much about toddlers, do you? They don’t understand things like days off. Maybe Olivia did something for one or both of the twins that day, even if she wasn’t supposed to be working.”

       “I guess that is possible.”

       Keira was glad to see his expression show that he was seriously considering what she’d said. “Lots of things are possible when you open your mind and stop focusing on one suspect.”

       “Only after that person is proved innocent beyond the shadow of a doubt,” Nick countered.

       If Keira could have thought of a snappy comeback she’d have used it. Unfortunately, she knew he was right. Only God could be trusted to be totally fair, totally impartial.

       That conclusion left her wondering why the Lord hadn’t cleared her brother’s name already.