Christmas Haven. Hope White

are you calling?”

      “Detective Beck. You remember Ethan? He’s a Seattle cop.”

      “Oh, right.”

      She wished she would have known that before. She always liked Ethan, one of the Three Musketeers, as they’d called themselves growing up. Ethan and his friend Jake would vacation in Port Whisper every summer, and Morgan always looked forward to seeing them. As teenagers Morgan and Julie saw less of the guys from the other side of the water. She was glad Morgan had kept in touch with Ethan.

      “I’ve got a name,” Morgan said into the phone. “Henson. Yeah…no…” He glanced at Julie. “I doubt it. Sure, thanks.” He hung up and eyed Julie. “He’s going to look into it. In the meantime we need to figure out a way to keep you safe.”

      “What about my mom?”

      “Need to keep her safe, too.”

      “She’ll want to lock me up and not let me go back to Seattle.”

      “Is that so bad?”

      “Look, I know you love it here, but—”

      “All I’m saying is, a few weeks off or even a month away from your work could be a good thing. I can see it’s sucking the energy out of you.”

      “I was fine until Andy disappeared and Dane was abducted.”

      Morgan quirked a brow.

      “What?” she said.

      “How long have you been at this?”

      “Six years.”

      “When was the last time you took a vacation?”

      “Last spring.”

      “Really? Where’d you go?”

      She hesitated and he smirked.

      “Omaha,” she snapped.

      “For a vacation?”

      “Okay, fine. I went for a conference.”

      “I rest my case.”

      “I wish you’d get off my case.” Probably because he was right. Her job was sucking the life from her and she didn’t know what to do about it.

      “Let’s talk about your safety,” Morgan said. “We should get you out of your mom’s house.”

      “What? No.”

      “It’s temporary. You can stay at Dad’s place. I’ve been working on it.”

      “No, I couldn’t—”

      “Sure you could.” He scribbled something on a piece of paper.

      “Mom won’t agree.”

      “She will when we explain the situation.”

      Julie sighed. “I hate involving her in this.”

      “Too late, you already have.”

      Anger rose in her chest. “Stop doing that.”

      “What?”

      “Making me feel guilty for coming back and bringing my work baggage with me. I thought I’d covered my tracks.”

      “That’s not what I’m trying to do.”

      “No? You want me to feel bad about coming back, you’re punishing me for—”

      “I’m stating the truth—you landed in trouble. You got scared and came back to the one place where you feel safe. That’s okay, Jules, but you have to forgive yourself for coming home.”

      She was speechless, didn’t know how to respond to that one. “You’re right, I guess.”

      Their eyes locked and she couldn’t bring herself to break the connection. He wasn’t trying to make her feel worse than she already did. He was trying to stop her from beating herself up.

      As only Morgan could do.

      His desk phone rang and he grabbed it, breaking the connection between them. She took a deep breath, realizing she’d been holding it.

      “Chief Wright,” he said in a deep, clipped voice. “That was fast. What?” Morgan leaned back in his chair and ran his hand slowly down his face.

      She knew that expression, one of utter frustration.

      “Thanks for letting me know.” He dropped the receiver onto the cradle.

      “What?” she pushed.

      “The boy you reported missing, Andy Trotter?”

      “Yeah.”

      “They think they found his body in an alley.”