Holiday Homecoming Secrets. Lynette Eason

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       THREE

      Heather opened the door on the third knock, her bleary blue eyes blinking rapidly. Jade noticed she held her service weapon in her right hand. “Jade?”

      “Hi, Heather,” Bryce said.

      “Bryce? Bryce Kingsley?” Heather launched herself into Bryce’s arms and hugged him. He returned the hug until Heather leaned back and cupped his face. “Wow, is that really you?”

      “It’s me.”

      “Frank said he’d been talking to you and that you were coming home to open a PI business.”

      “Yeah. At some point.”

      “Well...um...it’s good to see you.”

      Heather gave him one more hug, then motioned them inside. Jade swallowed as Bryce shut the door behind him. She didn’t want to admit she was a little jealous of Heather’s enthusiastic greeting. She’d wanted to do the very same thing when she’d first seen Bryce in the mill. Throw herself against him and hug him, run her hands over his features and reassure herself that he was real. But she hadn’t. The fact that she’d wanted to scared her silly. Bryce had walked out of her life and she’d managed to survive. The fact that he was back in it didn’t mean anything had to change.

       You’re lying to yourself. Everything’s going to change.

      It was just a matter of when. But there wasn’t a thing she could do about it right now.

      Heather set her gun on the counter just inside the door to the kitchen that was next to the small foyer, where they now stood a bit awkwardly. “What are you guys doing? It’s the middle of the night.” Her eyes sharpened. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

      “We hope nothing,” Jade said. “Let’s go into the den and we’ll explain.”

      “No,” Heather said. Jade froze at the sharpness and Heather held up a hand. “Sorry. Can we go in the kitchen, please? I’ve torn up the floor in there to start fixing the place up to put it on the market. Frank and I don’t need two places. And besides, I’m thirsty.”

      The three of them took a seat at the kitchen table while Heather retrieved water bottles from the refrigerator.

      “Tell me what’s going on,” she said, unscrewing the cap and taking a long swig from the bottle.

      Jade explained about the attack at the old mill and finding the jersey with the autograph on the left shoulder. “It has to be Frank’s,” she said. “Do you know where he is?”

      “Well, before you asked, I would have assumed he was home in bed. Obviously he’s not.” She rubbed her eyes, a slow fear building in them. “What are you not telling me? Is he okay?”

      “We’re not sure,” Jade said. She should have known better than to try to leave out details. “That jersey we found at the mill? It...ah...it had two bullet holes in the front and is covered with dried blood.”

      “What?” Heather paled. “His Panthers jersey?”

      “Yes.”

      “But...no. It can’t be his.” A short, humorless laugh escaped her. “I mean, he just wore it the other day.” She snagged her phone from her robe pocket and tapped the screen. From her seat, Jade heard it go straight to voice mail. “Frank, this is Heather. I know it’s the middle of the night, but I don’t care. Call me as soon as you get this message.” She hung up and tried four more times before she finally set the phone on the table and clasped her hands in front of her. Her gaze bounced between Jade and Bryce. “There’s got to be some explanation.” She stood. “I’ll get dressed and head to his house.”

      “We’ve already been there,” Bryce said, and Heather froze. “I’m sorry, Heather, but he’s not there.”

      “But his car is,” Jade said. “I know that when he flies, he sometimes takes a car service, but I don’t recall him saying anything about taking a trip anytime soon—outside of your honeymoon.”

      Heather shook her head. “No trips scheduled. At least, none that I know of. Every so often he takes off and calls me from the road if it’s a last-minute thing with the paper, but—” She checked her phone. “Nothing but your missed calls. He’s got to be here in town somewhere.” She raised her brows. “Or he went to see Lisa.” His sister lived an hour away in Charlotte. As soon as the words left her mouth, she was shaking her head. “But he would have taken his car, so that can’t be. And he would have left me a message that he was going.” She paced from one end of the kitchen to the other, arms crossed, features taut and pale. She turned. “What about his office?”

      Frank worked out of the newspaper office downtown. Jade nodded. “But he’d still have to drive.”

      “Unless one of his coworkers picked him up.”

      “Let’s find out,” Bryce said. “You have their numbers?”

      Heather’s lips quirked even though the action didn’t reach her eyes. “I’m a cop. I don’t think getting their numbers is going to be a problem.” The smile didn’t last long. “But I’ll call his boss. If anyone would know what Frank was up to, it’d be him.”

      “If Frank told him,” Bryce muttered.

      Heather scowled. “Why would he not tell him? His boss is the one who approves the stories that he works on.”

      “I’m not sure he was working just one story.”

      “Then his boss can tell us that.” Heather dialed the man’s number and waited. “Hi, Larry, it’s Heather.” She tapped the screen to put him on speakerphone. “I’m so sorry to wake you, but I have reason to believe that Frank’s in trouble. Can you tell me if he had to go out of town suddenly?”

      “Ah, no, not on the paper’s dime.” He cleared his throat. “What makes you think he’s in trouble?”

      Heather explained. “What was he working on?”

      “A couple of things. Nothing I can discuss with you. I’m sorry.”

      “Larry—”

      “No, I’m not budging on that. Frank’s probably just looking into something. And truthfully, he didn’t tell me a lot of details, just that he was on to something big and hoped to have the full story on my desk sometime next week. Seriously, Heather, he’ll most likely turn up when he’s good and ready. Now, go back to sleep and quit worrying.”

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