Holiday Homecoming Secrets. Lynette Eason

that,” she muttered.

      “I talked to him on the phone around ten o’clock this morning,” Bryce said. He glanced at the clock. “Or, rather, yesterday morning. So we just need to find anyone who saw him after that.”

      “Heather,” Jade said, “why would Frank have Tony Swift’s name written down? Was he meeting with him for something?”

      “At the shooting range?” Heather shook her head. “I don’t know. He didn’t say anything to me if he was. He could have just been practicing.”

      “True.” Jade looked at her watch. “All right. I need to grab a couple of hours of sleep before we get started looking for him again—assuming he doesn’t show up in the next little bit.”

      Heather nodded. “I won’t be able to sleep, but I can make a list of more people and places to check with.”

      “Do you want me to stay here?” Jade asked. “I can crash on your couch.”

      “No. It’s not that comfortable. We’re getting a new one, but not until after the wedding. Just go home. You have to help your mom in the morning with the kids anyway, don’t you?”

      “Kids?” Bryce asked. “Are your parents still taking in foster children?”

      Her face blanked for an instant. Then she nodded. “They are.” She rubbed her eyes, then narrowed them at her friend. “Are you sure you’re going to be all right?”

      “Yes. Go and help your mom. I think we should get some sleep if we can. None of us will be any good if we’re so tired we get sloppy and miss something. Besides, there’s probably some logical explanation for where he is. Missing sleep isn’t going to help finding out what that is.”

      She had a point, but Bryce was itching to keep looking. The only lead they had was the shooting range. He glanced at his watch. Three o’clock in the morning. It had been seventeen hours since he’d talked to Frank, and he needed to know his friend was okay. Even if he went back to his sister’s and tried to sleep, he knew he’d be tossing and turning.

      He kept his mouth shut until they were back in her vehicle, but once he clipped his seat belt, he said, “I want to go find Tony Swift, ASAP.”

      She gave a slow nod. “I was thinking the same thing. Let me see if I can call him and give him a heads up. No need to wake the whole family.” Using the laptop mounted on the dash to her right, she pulled up Tony’s license and noted the address. Next, she dialed his number.

      “Hello?”

      The groggy Southern voice came through the squad car’s Bluetooth. “Tony, this is Detective Jade Hollis with the Cedar Canyon PD. I’m so sorry to be calling this late, but we’re looking for Frank Shipman. Can you tell us the last time you saw him?”

       Click.

      She frowned and lifted a brow. “Well, okay, then.”

      “Call him back.”

      She did and it went straight to a busy signal. She tried his cell phone and got voice mail. Bryce locked his gaze on hers. “I don’t like the implications of that.”

      “I don’t, either. I think we should head over to his house.” She cranked the car and backed out of Heather’s drive.

      “You think Frank’s alive?” Bryce asked softly.

      “I don’t know, Bryce. You saw what I saw.”

      “Two bullet holes and all that blood doesn’t give me much hope.”

      “It might not have been him wearing it,” she said. “That’s what I’m holding on to—and feeling guilty for doing so. I don’t want Frank to be hurt or dead, but I don’t want anyone else to be, either.”

      “And yet, it’s highly likely someone is.”

      “Yeah. Someone is.”

      But who?

      Jade slipped her weapon into her holster and rubbed her bleary eyes. Last night she and Bryce had found Tony Swift’s wife home alone. “I don’t know where he went,” she’d said. “Just bolted out of here like his tail was on fire. Didn’t even take his cell phone.”

      So now, Jade planned to show up at the range and hope he had the good sense to be there. As much as he loved his business, he wouldn’t just leave the place unopened. She hoped. She’d already talked to her supervisor and he’d given her his approval for her plan for the day—after making sure she didn’t need to take the day off. As if she could. Heather had texted that Frank hadn’t shown up and she still couldn’t get him to answer his phone.

      Little arms wrapped around her legs and her heart lifted. She turned and scooped her five-year-old daughter into a gentle hug, and she breathed in her sweet scent. “Good morning, little bear.”

      “Morning,” Mia said. “I want eggs and bacon.”

      “I think that can be arranged since that’s what I smell cooking all the way over here.”

      Mia sniffed. “I don’t smell it.” She smacked her lips. “But I can almost taste it. And pancakes.”

      “Wonderful.”

      “And I want to decorate for Christmas. When can we do that?”

      Jade smothered a small groan. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to decorate. It was just the energy decorating required. Energy she was lacking right now thanks to a still twinging head. It wasn’t pounding, but it didn’t feel great, either. “We need to do that, don’t we?”

      “So, when?”

      “How about tonight?”

      “We can go tree shopping?” Mia asked, her eyes widening, her joy practically tangible.

      “Well, as long as you bundle up really good.”

      Mia frowned and wrinkled her nose. “Oh, right. It’s very cold outside, isn’t it?”

      Her daughter had no use for cold weather. “Well, yes,” Jade said, “it is. What about if I just come home with the tree and you and the twins can help decorate. Is that okay?” Her heart ached for Jessica and Gage, the ten-year-old twins who’d been removed from their home and placed with her parents a little over four months ago due to neglect.

      Mia nodded. “It’s okay with me. I don’t really care about getting the tree, I just want to make it pretty. I’ll ask Gage and Jessica. If they want to go, you can take them. Can we string popcorn?”

      “If you can manage not to eat it all.” She tickled the little girl’s ribs, and Mia’s giggles soothed her worried heart. “Are Jessica and Gage ready to eat?”

      “They’re always ready to eat.”

      That was true. Jade gave thanks that they were good-natured children in spite of everything they’d been through and had adjusted well to the routine of the home—managing to steal all of their hearts in the process.

      Last week she’d learned the twins’ parents had finally released them for adoption. Her parents had talked to Jade about plans to adopt them, and Jade thought it was a fabulous idea. She just hoped the twins did, too. They were happy here and made no secret of that.

      Of course, the fact that there were horses on the property didn’t hurt. Jessica had already attached herself to Belle, one of the horses her parents used to teach the kids to ride. “Tell Lolly, I’ll be there in just a few minutes.” Jade’s mother was named Adelaide. When Mia started talking, all the child could manage to wrap her tongue around was Lolly. Her mom had been fine with that.

      “Okay.” Mia ran down the hallway toward the stairs, her long, dark hair flying around her head. She’d go down the steps