Didn’t matter. The coffee wasn’t going to sour her mood.
Ha!
She missed having Declan and Abby around to abuse with her puns.
Charlotte moved the laptop and swung her legs over the bed.
I have to tell Angelina.
She looked at her watch. It was only six.
Too early. Grr.
But that’s okay. She’d found the pattern. Now all they had to do was figure out what crime Siofra would be solving next.
Her shoulders slumped.
How the heck are we going to do that?
Chapter Eighteen
“Did you see this?”
Hunter glanced over at the police officer lying in her motel bed. He held aloft a newspaper; the one she’d bought for herself. She’d turned away for one second and he’d grabbed it and now she sat at the peeling, laminated table drinking coffee and staring out the window at the parking lot, mulling on her oh-so glamorous life.
She looked at him. “No, I didn’t see it, because you stole my paper.”
Hunter smiled to show she didn’t really mind and studied the line of Officer Kevin’s manly nose and the curl of his lips to create a last mental picture of him. Kevin was a nice guy. She’d been lucky to work with him over the past few months. She’d miss him a little.
“Some chick swapped a baby,” he said, still staring at the paper, unaware she was cataloging him.
Hunter laughed. “What?”
“Some chick’s kid was taken and the cops thought they got it back, but it turns out it was a different baby.”
“That’s crazy.”
“Totally.”
Hunter lifted her phone and tried to read the newsfeed, but found her mind returning to the kidnapped baby.
“Where was this?” she asked.
“Hm?” Kevin had moved on to the sports page.
“The baby swap. Where did it happen? Here?”
He shook his head. “Oh, no. I forget.”
She continued to stare at him until he glanced up and noticed. “You want me to check?”
“Yes, please.”
He picked up another piece of paper and opened it to skim the page.
“Florida. Jupiter Beach, Florida.”
Hunter heard herself release a tiny gasp. It felt as though someone had flipped a switch in her body and charged her veins with a low buzz of electricity. Her hands and face went tingly.
It can’t be.
She leaned forward, her hand outstretched.
“Give me that.”
He handed her the paper and she folded it to the page he’d been reading. She could feel the ink coming off on her fingers and thought no wonder so many people read their news online. Still, she liked the feel of holding a book when she read. Sometimes it was nice to have something not glowing in her eyeballs.
Kevin sniffed. “Hey, you know, I was thinking. I mean, now that we solved the case, maybe you don’t need to live in a motel—”
“Nope. Not a good idea.” She answered without really hearing him, but she could tell by the sniff he was about to say something he feared she wouldn’t like. Add that to his softened tone, and she knew where the conversation headed.
He peppered his soft tone with a hint of irritation. “Whaddya mean? You don’t even know what I was going to say.”
She lowered the paper.
“You were going to ask me if I wanted to move in. We were going to spend a few months finding out we don’t actually have anything in common except finding that little girl. We’ll start fighting about how you put the toilet paper on the roll backwards—”
“But I don’t put it on backwards—”
“—and how I leave my socks on the floor. Then I’ll move out and we will have wasted what good years we have left on a pipedream.”
He stared at her, his eyebrows raised and hopes dashed. Maybe. She didn’t think he was as invested in her as maybe he was kidding himself to believe. Kevin was a lovely, honest man, but they’d never had that thing. She suspected he knew that too, somewhere in that ruggedly handsome head of his.
He scratched at his graying stubble. “Jeeze. Tell me what you really think.”
“That’s one thing you’d never have to wonder about,” she said, returning to the paper.
“You’re getting kind of old to be alone,” he added after a measured pause.
She looked up. Ouch.
“Don’t lash out. It’s not sexy,” she scolded.
He grunted and she stood.
“Anyway, it’s not you, it’s me. I have to go.”
“Go where?”
“Away. Leave Concord.”
“You’re leaving leaving?”
She nodded and stuffed the few things she hadn’t packed while he was sleeping into the overnight bag that served as her world.
“Where?” he asked. The soft tone had returned.
She shrugged, thinking she truly didn’t know, but she’d already slipped the paper with the story about the baby swap into her bag. She knew what that meant.
He tried again. “When were you going to tell me this?”
“I just did. Anyway, that girl at the coffee shop has been dying to go out with you.”
He scowled as if he was offended she thought he’d be interested in another woman, but the corners of his mouth couldn’t help but curl up. “Who? Janice?”
She chuckled. Kevin would be just fine without her.
“Yes, Janice.”
“Why would you say that?”
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t be stupid. You know.”
“Yeah, but, I mean, she’s not you—”
She leaned forward and tussled his hair. “Oh stop. I’m not me either. You’ve only seen me at my best, both of us in the heat of a case. Day-to-day I’m a pain in the neck.”
He grinned and grabbed her wrist to pull her towards him. “I never doubted that.”
She pecked him on the lips and cupped his jaw with
