The Family Man - By Trish Millburn Page 0,3

and bought a can of caffeine-laden Coke instead.

As she entered the bull-pen area of the station, she passed Keith just as he was headed out on patrol. “There’s still coffee.” He nodded toward the break room.

“Keith, I hate to break it to you, but I’m pretty sure what’s in that coffeepot is used motor oil.”

“Nobody around here appreciates a good black coffee.”

Sara laughed as Keith walked toward the back door.

By the time she reached her desk, however, the laugh had died away. She examined the photo of David Taylor again. He was a cute kid with dark hair and light eyes—blue, based on his father’s description. Though he was smiling in the picture of him standing by his school locker, there was something about him that seemed a little off, maybe even sad.

The question Adam Canfield had asked replayed in her head. “What is he running from?” she murmured.

No matter how long she stared at the picture, the answer didn’t reveal itself. Nor did his whereabouts. She hated the idea of him out there alone.

“Heard we nearly had a tragedy at the pier earlier.”

She tossed the picture onto her desk and looked up at her boss, Captain Mark Pierce.

“Yeah. But everything turned out okay.”

Pierce pointed at the photo. “Any luck?”

“Nothing since we got the call from the lady who said she thought she saw him on the edge of town.”

The captain shook his head. “No telling where he is. Could be hundreds of miles in any direction.”

Sara’s heart squeezed at the thought. She wasn’t ready to believe he was beyond her help yet. “He’s young and has limited funds. I don’t think he’s gotten very far. That’s just a gut feeling though.”

“Well, I’ve been at this long enough to respect a gut feeling.” Pierce rapped his knuckles against the edge of her desk. “Keep working it, but don’t let the other stuff go.”

She nodded before he turned to walk away, leaving her to heave a sigh and look at the pile of work on her desk. How did detectives in larger cities handle it? Horizon Beach was far from a metropolis or a hotbed of crime, and still she stayed busy from the moment she came on shift until the moment she left. And sometimes beyond that.

The picture of David went back into the manila folder that held all the information about the case, though that was precious little. With only a few minutes left on her shift, she decided to tackle the pile of mail and pulled out a letter opener. Among the items that went directly into the trash and those that she deposited in various case files, she found two tickets to the Helping Hands Ball, the annual dance and auction to benefit special programs hosted by the police and fire departments.

She sighed as she stared at them. It seemed as if she’d attended the ball only weeks ago instead of months. And she was no closer to finding the right man now than she’d been then.

The image of Adam Canfield popped into her head, making her snort at the very idea of him in that role. She shoved the tickets back into their envelope and then into her desk drawer. That she was even thinking about him again annoyed her. Her common sense rebelled at the idea that she found him attractive, that it had taken all her willpower not to turn around to see if he was watching her as she’d left the Beach Bum earlier.

Of course he hadn’t been. She wasn’t the kind of woman Adam made the effort to watch.

She pushed the unwanted thoughts away and glanced at the framed photo of her daughters sitting on the corner of her desk, huge smiles stretching across their faces. Her number-one priority remained being the best mother she could be to Lilly and Tana and finding them a good, solid father who could love them, dote on them, as her father had loved her.

“Isn’t your shift over?”

Sara jerked out of her thoughts and looked up at Captain Pierce where he’d stopped on his way out.

“Um, yeah. Just cleaning up a bit of mail before I leave.” And trying not to fantasize about what Adam Canfield looked like with water glistening on his naked chest.

Captain Pierce left, but Sara still took a couple of minutes to get her brain back in correct working order. She used the ten-minute drive home to get into mommy mode and leave inappropriate daydreams behind.

After parking her car in front of