PART 5

Richard Hayes had a respected name in the county.

He volunteered at an annual health fair, contributed to the library fund, and ran a small medical practice in an office building opposite the old courthouse.

His photographs appeared regularly in the local newspaper: smiling beside scholarship recipients, standing behind a ribbon at the opening of a clinic wing, shaking hands with people who called him a generous neighbor.

Denise Carter knew all of that, which was precisely why she insisted that the investigation be conducted without shortcuts.

She had worked too many cases in which reputation became an excuse not to ask difficult questions.