Lynette Eason - Trail Of Evidence

He sighed and mentally recited his to-do list. Call his home owners insurance company was number two. Find out where Felix had gotten the phone was definitely number one.

And learning if anyone had managed to capture the guy who’d returned to his house last night. Brooke had followed him to his office, and they’d planned their next move. Get Felix from his friend’s house and find out where he got the phone. Usually, he and Felix attended the local community church. He wasn’t that active, but he couldn’t seem to completely tear himself away from his faith. In fact, at this point in his life, he knew he should be reaching out for it with both hands. So today would be a different kind of Sunday. He paused. “I guess I should be mending my fences with You, shouldn’t I, God?”

Silence echoed through the bathroom and Jonas sighed and went back to his morning routine. Maybe God was tired of listening.

He’d just finished brushing his teeth when he heard his assistant arrive. Then voices reached him. He stepped into the lobby to find Claire Simpson and Brooke introducing themselves. Brooke hadn’t wasted any time getting back to his office this morning. “Good morning,” he said.

Brooke nodded. “Morning.”

“I see you two have met.”

Claire nodded. “I was just telling her what a beautiful dog she has.”

“Claire loves anything with four legs,” he told Brooke. “Let me just leave a few instructions for her and we’ll head out.”

He could see the curiosity in Claire’s narrowed eyes, but didn’t want to take time to explain Brooke’s presence in addition to the other things he needed to tell her. He glanced at the clock on the wall. Eight forty-five. He’d told the Fullers he’d pick up Felix at nine-thirty. Plenty of time to cover the morning’s work with Claire. He looked at Brooke. “You get any sleep?”

She shook her head. “Not much. I finished the paperwork and closed my eyes for a few minutes.”

Jonas rubbed a hand down his freshly shaven chin. “I can’t believe you were right. The whole smoke bomb thing was just to get us out of my house so someone could search the place.”

“It looks like it.”

“Should have set it up so an officer was inside my house and could have just grabbed the guy when he broke in.”

“Maybe.” She gave him a soft lopsided smile. “Mercy and I’ll be in the car,” Brooke said. “Nice to meet you, Claire.”

“You, too, Brooke.”

They left and within minutes Jonas had finished up with Claire and was climbing into the passenger seat. Mercy sat in the back in her special kennel. “So tell me more about who Felix spent the night with?”

Her question grounded him, brought all of his worries surging to the surface. “He’s a friend from school and the track team. His name is Travis Fuller.” He gave her the address, and she entered it into the GPS and pulled out of the parking lot. “I can tell you how to get there,” he said, amused.

“I don’t want to have to worry about it. You said Felix had been getting into trouble.”

Jonas sighed. “Yes.” He shook his head. “He’s been getting in fights lately. His grades are circling the drain, and his attitude is getting hard to tolerate.” His hand fisted on his thigh. “I’m up to my ears trying to keep my practice going since my partner quit three months ago.”

“Working a lot of hours?”

“Too many,” he admitted.

“And Felix is taking advantage of your distraction.”

“In a big way. I know it, I see it, but I feel trapped. I can’t ignore my work or I won’t be able to keep a roof over our heads, but I can’t ignore Felix either or I’m going to be visiting him in juvenile detention.” He didn’t know why he was baring his soul to her, but he had to say it felt good to share it.

“I’m sure you do the best you can. It can’t be easy being a single parent.”

“It stinks.” He gave a soft laugh. “But I love that kid more than anything.”

“Yeah,” she whispered. “I can tell.”

He reached over and snagged her hand to squeeze her fingers. His throat tightened. “I’ve missed you, Brooke.”

She sucked in a deep breath and shot him a glance out of the corner of her eye. “I’ve missed you, too.”

He blinked and she laughed. “What? You didn’t expect me to admit it?”

“No.”

She shook her head. “The past is sitting like a weight between us, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

She tapped the wheel and made a left turn. “I don’t know what to tell you, Jonas. I thought I was making the right decision at the time when I chose to keep all distractions to a minimum and focus on my career.”

“So it was strictly your career that was keeping you from being willing to talk about us having a future together?”

“It was part of it.”

“What was the other part?”

A sigh slipped from her and she gave a small shrug, but didn’t answer the question. He relished the fact that she hadn’t pulled her hand from his yet and continued to watch her as she drove. “I thought we had something, that we could have been good together. I never did understand why you wouldn’t give me a chance. As you can imagine, all kinds of things ran through my mind. Was it because I was divorced? Because I had Felix?”

She seemed to think about it. Then slipped her fingers from his. He grimaced. He wanted to kick himself. He’d moved too fast. Too much too soon. She’d been back in his life for just a few hours and he was already scaring her away.

But this time she didn’t run. “No, your divorce didn’t have anything to do with it. And Felix is a precious gift. He never factored into why—” She fell quiet and he hoped she’d elaborate. She didn’t. “When we were friends,” she said, “you never really talked about your ex-wife. I mean never. Like not one word. And when I brought her up, you changed the subject. Mostly to talk about Felix.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

He thought about that. Was she right? Maybe. “What do you want to know about her?”

She shrugged. “What happened with you two? Why did you split up? Or is that too personal?” she asked.

“Not too personal. It’s not a secret. She had a problem with commitment.”

“Ah.”

“She found someone else who suited her ‘live and let live’ lifestyle better than I did.” He shrugged.

“What? So she left you? Why would she leave you ? Is she crazy ?”

Jonas barked a short laugh. “Well, those questions just did more for my self-esteem than anything else I could think of.”

She flushed and it endeared her to him. She also looked uncomfortable. He let her off the hook. “I miss what could have been, but I don’t miss her now.”

“But Felix does?”

He sighed. “No, he doesn’t remember her. He misses the idea of her.”

“He wants a mother.”

“He does, but when she left us, she left. Like I have no idea where she is or what she’s doing now.”

“You’ve had no contact with her at all?”

“None. After I signed the papers, she disappeared from our lives.”

Brooke pulled to the curb of the Fuller home and cut the engine. “I’m really sorry about that.”

“I was too at the time. But it is what it is and I’ve moved on.” He looked at the house. “And now I’m ready to get some answers from my son.”

“You want me to go with you?”

“No. I’ll get him. I don’t want to say anything in front of his friend.”

“I’ll wait here.”

He nodded and climbed from the car. He walked toward the front door and drew in a deep breath. Trouble and Brooke had re-entered his life without any warning. He prayed the trouble was resolved fast and left as quickly as it appeared.