CHAPTER 27

“Yup,” Cassie said intoher now fully charged cell phone. “You can rest easy now, Olga, we’ve got it.” She was silent for a moment while Olga spoke. Then she said, “Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to give you any details yet.” She rolled her eyes at Wade, who nodded vigorously. They were inside the police station where he sat at his desk, fingers flying over a computer keyboard.

After she hung up with Olga, Cassie plopped down into a chair across from Wade while he finished typing up his report. As he worked, her eyes roved over him in appreciation. What that man could do to an ordinary T-shirt and pair of jeans was criminal. His toffee curls were still windblown from their earlier hike, and when he glanced up at her from his computer screen, his golden eyes ignited a flame inside her. Then he smiled at her, and she smiled back, marveling at how much it transformed his normally oh-so-serious face.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, but when will you be done?” she whined. “Angel and I want to go celebrate our win.”

The little dog lay curled up on the chair beside Cassie, but she lifted her head at the sound of her name.

“You wanna celebrate, don’t ya’ pooch,” Cassie said, scratching behind Angel’s ears and making her little tail bounce against the seat of the chair.

“Not much longer,” he said, and refocused back on the computer screen. “I just want to get it finished while it’s all still fresh in my head.” Even though he was technically off duty, Wade had insisted on staying at the station and writing his report immediately. Since they were there between shifts, and it was after normal work hours, the office was nearly empty. Aside from the shift commander, the only other person that Cassie saw was the police chief working late in his office.

“I’m so proud of us.” She kicked back in her chair and propped her feet up on his desk, until a look from him made her drop them back to the floor again. “What are we going to do about Brett, though?”

He was silent for several minutes as he typed. Finally, he said, “I’m confident we’ll find him. I put out a BOLO for our department as well as to all the surrounding cities.”

“A BOLO?”

“Be. On. The. Lookout,” he responded, not looking at her.

“Oh.”

She watched him type for a while. Then, bored, she got up and started roaming among the empty desks, looking at photographs and children’s drawings that were sitting on desktops and posted on corkboards. She circled the room until she returned back to Wade’s neatly organized desk. He had no framed photos on it, but there were some on his corkboard.

She moved behind him to examine them more closely. He had several notes push-pinned to the board in neat orderly rows. And at the very bottom of the board were three photographs. One was an image of three boys with J.P. They were fishing off the breakwall that led to the Whispering Pines lighthouse. She looked closer and could tell that one of the boys was Wade and the other was his brother Jake. She presumed the third boy must be their other brother.

The second photo showed the same three boys, now men. Wade, Jake, and their brother all had their arms thrown around each other’s shoulders and they each wore wide grins. The third photograph was of a beautiful young woman with dark curling hair that fell past her shoulders. Her dark eyes snapped with secret mirth and her lively energy emanated from the picture. Cassie felt a tiny stab of jealousy until she looked closer. There was a marked resemblance in coloring between the young woman and Jake, and between the facial features of her and Wade. Cassie decided that this must be Wade’s late mother.

Wade turned and saw her looking at it.

She stepped back, feeling guilty. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be nosy.”

Wade smiled and pulled out the pins holding the photo in place. “It’s okay,” he said, handing it to her.

“Your mom?”

He nodded.

“She was beautiful,” Cassie said.

“She was,” he agreed. “And she would have loved you.” His voice was soft and earnest, wrapping around her like a warm embrace. And he was looking at her in that unsettling, intense way he had.

“Would she, though?” she asked, dropping her gaze. “Even with my background?”

“Mom was a very perceptive person. She could always tell the good ones from the truly bad ones.”

“Good boy meets bad girl,” she said lightly, handing him back the photograph.

He pinned it back into place then spun in his seat to face her, taking both of her hands in his. They were warm in hers. Their strength unmistakable, even as they gently cocooned hers. “You know, I took a pretty, big risk today—”

“Look, I know you wanted to drive when we went after Brett!” Cassie interrupted.

“That’s not what I meant,” he shook his head. “Cassie, I said some...things to you this afternoon.”

At the memory, a thrill of pleasure washed over her.

He continued, “And as I recall, we never got to finish our conver—”

“What’s Zack doing here?” Cassie whispered, interrupting him.

“What?” He turned to follow the direction of her gaze. Sure enough, Zack Barrett was striding purposefully toward the police chief’s office. He held a small gray box with a handle in one hand, and he rapped on the office door with the other.

Before either of them could say anything, the chief waved him in and Zack shut the door behind him. The chief’s office was like a fishbowl with windows on all sides. Cassie and Wade watched as Zack reached up to close the blinds all the way around the room.

They exchanged bewildered looks.

“Okay,” Cassie said. “We’re not talking about anything, or going anywhere, until we find out what he’s doing here!”

“Agreed.”

Then, sitting on opposite sides of Wade’s desk, they both propped their feet up on it and waited.

Several moments later, the officer in charge of the evidence room came in, carrying Olga’s wooden crate. He knocked and was admitted. Cassie could see the officer giving Chief Roland a form to sign through the cracked opening of the door. Then he set the crate down and left, closing the door behind him.

“Stranger and stranger,” Cassie murmured.

After several interminably long minutes, the chief’s door flew open and his eyes swept the room, landing on Wade and Cassie. “Oh good, you’re still here.” He made a beckoning motion with his hand. “Wade, I’d like you and Ms. Sherwin to come in here.”