Page 34 of Taken from Her
Georgia gathered her purse with theatrical slowness. "Good night, dear. Chief Marten, thank you for tonight. The community feels safer knowing we have someone genuinely on our side."
She paused at the door, looking back with that knowing smile. "Some partnerships are worth nurturing, Lavender. Don't let caution get in the way of something good."
The door closed behind her with a soft chime, leaving Diana and Lavender alone for the first time all evening.
"She's..." Diana began.
"Perceptive," Lavender finished. "And not particularly subtle about her observations."
Diana moved closer, close enough that Lavender could see the exhaustion around her eyes, the way her careful composure had softened over the course of the evening. "About what we're doing here. Balancing the investigation with..."
"With this," Lavender said simply.
Diana nodded, reaching out to touch Lavender's hand where it rested on the counter. The contact was brief butdeliberate, acknowledgment of everything they couldn't say while maintaining professional boundaries all evening.
"I kept losing focus," Lavender admitted. "Every time you spoke or moved or looked at me, I forgot what I was supposed to be doing."
"I noticed." Diana's smile was soft. "I also noticed that even when distracted, you facilitated better than most people do at full attention."
The compliment made Lavender's chest warm. "We work well together."
"We do. Even when it's complicated."
Diana's thumb brushed across Lavender's knuckles, and Lavender felt the evening's tension finally beginning to ease. They'd navigated their first public interaction after intimacy, managed to maintain professional boundaries while acknowledging personal connection, and created genuine progress for community safety.
"Tomorrow morning," Diana said, stepping back reluctantly. "Seven-thirty."
"I'll have coffee ready."
Diana's laugh was genuine, transforming her features in ways that made Lavender's pulse quicken. "Looking forward to it."
She straightened her uniform, but when she reached the door, she paused, looking back with something that wasn't entirely professional.
"Lavender? Tonight was good. All of it."
The words carried weight that had nothing to do with the workshop’s success and everything to do with their growing ability to integrate their personal and professional connection.
"Yes," Lavender agreed. "It was."
After Diana left, Lavender stood alone in the café, surrounded by evidence of productive collaboration andsuccessful community building. The evening had tested her ability to balance personal feelings with public responsibility, and while it hadn't been easy, it had been possible.
More than possible. It had been good.
She turned off the lights and locked the purple door, already anticipating tomorrow morning's coffee and the continuation of whatever they were building together. Tonight had proven that their personal connection could strengthen instead of undermine their service to the community.
Now they just had to figure out how to sustain it.
7
The morning light streaming through Diana's office windows caught the dust motes dancing above scattered evidence photos, transforming the sterile space into something almost ethereal. She'd been at her desk since six-thirty, nursing her second cup of coffee while studying the coastal maps Detective Morgan Rivers had delivered an hour earlier. The salt-tinged air drifting through her cracked window carried the distant calls of seabirds and fog horns, sounds that usually provided background comfort but today felt like an invitation.
Diana spread the new cell phone data analysis across her desk, the technical printouts stark against the worn wood surface. Three weeks of dead-ends, and finally, there was a pattern that made sense.
"Chief?" Morgan appeared in her doorway, laptop bag slung over her shoulder, copper highlights catching the morning light. "Got a few minutes to review the coastal analysis?"
"Please." Diana gestured toward the chair across from her desk, noting the excitement Morgan was trying to contain behind her professional demeanor. "What did you find?"
Morgan settled into the chair and opened her laptop, fingers flying across the keyboard. "Cell phone ping data from all three disappearances shows coastal activity on the nights they vanished. Not just random signals, but concentrated activity along the Phoenix Ridge coastline between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m."
