Page 72 of Christmas Homecoming Secrets
“I never would have suspected it.”
“I know. Me either.”
“Are they any closer to figuring out what happened to Heather’s fiancé?”
Another topic she didn’t want to discuss. “No, not yet. I know they’re interrogating the people from the drug ring that Dylan was involved with, but so far, no one seems to know anything—and if they do, they’re not saying.”
“Yeah.” He fell silent. “I knew Frank a little.”
“When’d you meet him?”
“At the precinct picnic back in September. Seemed like a really nice guy.”
“He was.”
She fell silent, remembering the afternoon he was referring to. It had been a hot day with lots of food and laughter. She’d only been with the force for about six months at that point. About as long as Heather and Frank had been engaged.
“You went to high school with him?”
“Frank, Bryce, Heather and I were all best friends. We did everything together. People thought we were couples, but we weren’t. We just enjoyed hanging out.”
“I was a couple of years ahead of you guys.”
She remembered Tom from the football team and had always thought he was a handsome guy, but he’d been surrounded by cheerleaders and the popular kids. She was surprised he even knew who she was—other than being on the police force with him.
Tom pulled to a stop in front of Heather’s house, and she blinked out of the memories. The windows and front door were open and Jade frowned. Then realized Heather had to be painting. But with what?
She opened the car door.
“I’ll be waiting,” Tom said.
Jade hesitated. “I can get Heather to run me home so you don’t have to miss lunch with your family.”
“And leave you unprotected?”
Jade laughed. “I’m a cop and so is Heather. With her watching my back, I’ll be fine.” And it would be incentive to get Heather out of the house. “Seriously. I’ll just tell her she has protective duty.”
He still seemed unsure.
“Or stay here,” she said. “It never hurts to have another pair of eyes.”
He nodded. “I’ll just stick around.”
“Fine.” Jade climbed from the vehicle and shut the door. She took a deep breath and headed for Heather’s open front door.
* * *
Bryce pulled into the parking lot of the gas station where they’d agreed to meet.
The place was a beehive of activity, but he spotted Lisa parked to the side out of the way of the gas trucks and the traffic coming and going from the store. Sasha sat in the back, her head resting on Bryce’s shoulder. When he slowed, she lay down on the back seat, her eyes watchful and curious. “Stay here, girl. I’ll just be a few minutes.”
He got out of his truck and walked toward Lisa, catching a glimpse of her through the driver’s window. Three steps closer and he could see she was holding something and crying. Two more steps and he could see the item was a small book. Frank’s journal, no doubt.
He rapped on the glass and she opened the door to step out. “I got to thinking about what you said. That Frank may have left some kind of a clue about what he was investigating. I read a little more. He not only wanted to call of the wedding, he was concerned about Heather’s mental state.”
“What do you mean?”
“Apparently when he told her he wanted to postpone the wedding, she went crazy. Yelled at him that he’d never loved her and that this was just the first step in backing out of the wedding. He wrote that he really hadn’t meant it to come across that way, but once she verbalized it, it hit him that she was right.”
