Snowed In at Silver Lake - Stephanie Fowers Page 0,1

man. I know he’d spend more time with you if he could.”

Gracie was done with excuses. Chris had filled up her phone with empty ones, but her father didn’t know that. “You always made time for me and Mom when it mattered most,” she said. “Chris told me he couldn’t make it for Christmas.”

“Yeah, about that.” Her father hesitated before he broke his cardinal rule of not talking about a case. “We lost a man a few days ago, one of our undercover officers. We’re pretty torn up about it, Chris especially. They were good friends. We’ll find the guy who did it, but... this case might run over Christmas. It’s been rough.”

Gracie swallowed hard. Her worst nightmare would be getting that call that her father had fallen in the line of duty. She didn’t want to ask who died, though her mind still ran with the possibilities. There’d been a few temporary guys at the station working an undercover case. One of them had been Chris’s good friend borrowed from another station. Could that possibly be him? “I’m sorry to hear that, Dad.”

“It’s bad. I’ve never seen Chris in such a... way. Have you talked to him?”

“No.” Chris’s refusal to celebrate the holidays with her had happened weeks ago—before any of this had happened. When she’d pressed him, Chris mentioned friends coming into town. She’d invited them over too, and he’d blown up at her—What was she thinking when they were there for ‘business?’ She’d been flabbergasted. What kind of business would Chris have that didn’t involve her father? “We haven’t talked since Wednesday,” she admitted.

She’d sent him back his ring, and Chris had blown up her phone with angry texts and calls. It was a far cry from his aloofness of the past months. He’d used his work as an excuse to push her away. Though she wanted to support him, she no longer recognized the man she’d fallen in love with.

Her father cleared his throat. “I don’t know what’s going on between the two of you, but Chris might appreciate a friendly call right now. This manhunt’s taking a lot out of him.”

“I bet,” she said, not agreeing to anything. She tried to change the subject. “You have any suspects?”

Now it was her father’s turn to clam up. “Ah—don’t worry about that, just some lowlife. He’s slippery, but we’ll have him soon.” Apparently they both had things they didn’t want to talk about. Most Raven Sky PD cases had to do with rescuing tourists from remote areas, which was why they depended on their satellite phones, but this case was definitely not the norm. Ralphie panted loudly next to her father’s receiver then let out another bark followed by the sound of crashing. “Ralphie!” her father shouted out. “Gracie’s going to have your hide. Honey, the dog took out...” His voice cut out again.

The storm was getting worse, if that was possible, and more treacherous in the black cloak of these clouds. Her sleek windshield wipers swished back and forth, usually more efficient at clearing her view, but the snow was so thick that the blades couldn’t keep up. Bear Snout Pass was usually hard to navigate, but worse now. She’d barely squeezed through before the pass was closed to more traffic. Maybe it had been a bad idea to travel tonight.

“You... tree.”

“Dad?” She laughed. Nervously. Satellite phones didn’t do well in storms when there wasn’t a clear shot to the sky, and now she was heading into a forest. Their connection was doomed. “I can’t hear you. The storm’s getting pretty bad.”

“Really? ... gets bad, pull over. Stay... hotel.” His voice was breaking up all over the place. “Gracie May?” She knew he was serious when he used her middle name. “May Day, Gracie May, you read me?”

“Loud and clear.” And she still had no intention of staying at a hotel tonight. No, she wanted a big bear hug from her dad that would put the million pieces of her broken heart back together again. The icy overhanging branches of the forest swallowed the pass and that was the end of her reception.

The crackly snatches of music from the local station let her know she still had a radio. Thank goodness for that. She wasn’t completely alone. She turned the sound up and tried to turn the knob to even out its fuzziness and got a classic show tune from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

She smiled at the song by the oldest brother who was trying