LITMIR.BIZ

       TWO

      Maisy watched, her head swimming in confusion and disbelief, as Chase stayed kneeling between the uniformed cops. Prayer filled her aching chest.

       Lord, what’s happening? Did Chase really have something to do with Dad’s murder?

      “Justin!”

      The tall cop turned toward her, his lips set in a grim line. “Morning, Maisy. I’ve got to ask you to step back.”

      Justin Blackwood was a tough and reliable captain, but even then, she’d never seen his face so serious.

      “I just saw a prowler in the bushes with a knife!” she said, forcing herself to leave the question of Chase’s arrest for now. If there was even a possibility it was Boyd Sullivan, that was all that mattered for now. She pointed. “Over there. I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman. But they were thin. I don’t think it was Boyd Sullivan, but he’s been living in the woods for months, so who knows how much weight he’s lost. They had a hoodie and a bandanna over their face. They pulled a knife, but when I yelled they ran away. I think they had part of a picture frame Allie and I made.”

      She held out her hand to show him the pieces she’d picked up. Justin’s face paled. In an instant he’d summoned two K-9 officers to his side and quickly took a detailed description of the suspect’s appearance from Maisy and the direction he’d gone. The cops and their canine partners took off after the suspect. Justin turned to Maisy.

      “Are you okay?” Concern reverberated through his voice.

      She nodded as something about the sincerity of her friend’s caring question made her voice catch. The single father of a teenaged girl, Justin had been someone Maisy had considered a friend for years. If she was honest, she suspected her father had been disappointed that no romantic spark had ever bloomed between her and the military police captain. She’d definitely noticed how the cut of Justin’s jaw and the intensity of his gaze had a certain attractiveness, which had turned more than one female head on base. But the fact that his obvious good looks had never had any impact on her personally had been one of the reasons she figured she was immune to the charms of any man in uniform—a thought that had promptly evaporated the moment Chase McLear had brought little Allie into Sunny Seeds and sent a thousand butterfly wings flapping in Maisy’s chest.

      “I’m okay,” she said. “They didn’t threaten me or come anywhere near touching me. They just pulled a knife and then ran. Whoever they were, I wasn’t their target.”

      Justin nodded slowly. She had a pretty good guess what he was thinking. In the several sightings of the Red Rose Killer since he’d escaped prison, one constant that remained was that he only killed people he thought deserved it—like her father—or that he needed something from to achieve that aim.

      “What’s going on?” she demanded. “Why are you arresting Chase McLear? Yvette said Boyd had been seen going in and out of his house. That can’t be true.”

      He paused and his eyes rose to the sky as if he was trying to decide what to tell her.

      “I know that different members of the investigative team have been chasing down a lot of different leads,” she added quickly. “I don’t expect to be kept in the loop about all of them and I know there’s a lot you can’t tell me. But Chase is the father of one of my students.”

      Justin’s brows furrowed and for a moment, it looked like he was weighing his words before deciding what to say. “I can confirm that the investigative team received an anonymous tip that Chase McLear was harboring the Red Rose Killer—”

      “But that’s impossible!” Maisy felt her hand rise to her lips. “Chase...I mean, Senior Airman McLear is a good man and a devoted father.”

      A single eyebrow rose. “I assume this is your subjective personal opinion of the man from your interactions with him and not based on any specific evidence as to his relationship with Boyd Sullivan?”

      Heat rose to her face. If she was honest, she wasn’t even sure why she was defending Chase so quickly and eagerly. There was just something about him that got to her. She’d always believed in Jesus’s teaching from “The Sermon on the Mount” that the true character of a person’s heart was known by the things he did. Despite his reserved exterior, she was convinced Chase truly loved his daughter. It was obvious every time she’d watched Allie barrel into his waiting arms at the end of the day. And sometimes when he met her gaze over his daughter’s blond curls, it was almost like she caught a glimpse of something lost and broken behind his deep green eyes.

      “Senior Airman McLear says it was all a misunderstanding and that there was a prowler on his property—”

      “And I saw a prowler with a knife,” Maisy interjected again. The slight narrowing of her friend’s eyes suddenly reminded her that as a friend and civilian she was being treated with far more latitude than anyone serving under the strict captain would have ever received for such an outburst. “I’m sorry. That was rude. I’m just really shaken by this.”

      “I understand,” he said, but the firm timber of his voice let her know just how little impact her passionate defense of Chase would have on his investigation. “Senior Airman McLear has maintained his innocence. We will of course be taking his claims of a prowler seriously and hopefully my officers will be able to track down and catch the person you saw. I’m trusting you to respect the fact that there is additional information about this investigation that I’m not at liberty to tell you. But I do feel a responsibility to let you know this is not the first time this suspect has come to our attention. Now, I have to ask you, do you know if he had any kind of relationship or interaction with your father?”

      “No.” She shook her head, feeling her sweat-soaked hair dance and fly around her head. “My dad was his basic training officer, but that was years ago.”

      “Do

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