The return address was clearly an Ashley Hart. Unless Jalinda changed her name and started sending her husband cards, something fascinating was about to happen.

I flipped open the card wider to allow myself to read the long message and settled into my chair, ready for the case to break wide open. A knock on the door broke my concentration.

Every damn time.

"What the fuck?" I asked, mostly to myself and Samantha, and slammed the card on the desk. Who in the world had the worst timing imaginable?

I pushed back from my desk and stomped over to the door, annoyed they hadn't let themselves in like everyone else in my life. Of course, the one person to be courteous annoyed me with their appropriate actions.

Broadrick's smiling face met mine as I pulled the door open. I practiced my Ridge scowl on him. He didn't flinch and damn, he looked hot. He hadn't shaved since I left him that morning, his stubble coated his jaw. His hair was messy on top of his head, but not unkempt. It made me want to run my fingers through it.

Dress him up in some military combat fatigues and I'd jump him in a heartbeat. Actually, I had in the past. My cheeks heated at the memory.

No.

We weren't those people anymore.

"Yes?" I asked when he didn't speak. Only my head peeked through the door. I feared if I opened it any wider, he'd take it as an invitation to enter, and I couldn't have that when I was seconds away from a breakthrough. It might throw the entire case wide open.

He waved a white Styrofoam container in front of his chest. "I brought lunch."

"What?" I asked, recognizing the container from the town's only diner.

Broadrick smiled, knowing I'd like his answer. "Turkey club with mayo on the side."

I liked to dip my sandwich ends in the condiment rather than smoother it around.

"You remembered?" I asked, looking at the floor and not his face.

"Von, I remember everything about you," he said, holding on to the package.

I snatched the container from his hands and secured it behind the door. "You remember everything except that I hate having my heart broken?" In email. I screamed in my head. "Thanks for the food. I'll see you around."

"Vonnie, wait!" he yelled, but it was too late. I'd already closed the door between us.

I waited a second to see if he'd bust through the door and demand I talk to him, but he didn't. A fist pounded against the closed wood and then the outside door leading into the building shut with a loud thud. I leaned my forehead against the wood, wondering what the hell I was doing.

I had no idea. The only thing I'd been sure of included not falling for Broadrick again. His heartbreak hurt so much the first time I'd never heal from a second.

It took two deep breaths before I left my place by the door and made it to the desk, dropping the sandwich to the side. My tight chest made it hard to breathe, but I stuck my feet on Katy's box and flipped the top of the container, hoping food would chase the feelings away.

My thumb caught on the side of the container and the mayo slipped from my fingers, landing on its side on top of the important-case-breaking Christmas card.

"Fuck me," I said, dabbing at the mayo on the card and smearing some of the ink from the handwritten address.

I wiped most of the mayo from the envelope, but it distorted the green color where the fatty substance first made contact. No reason to freak about it now. I'd talk Jimmy into believing it happened from his greasy pizza.

With the envelope fiasco fixed and covered up with the perfect lie, I opened the card and scanned the message. Once, twice, and then a third time.

A deep grin split my face.

-

Jimmy,

I hope the holidays are doing you well. Next year will bring big things for both of us. I'll never forget the time we spent together or quit wondering what our future might have been if things happened differently in our past.

You'll always be the one I measure anyone else against, and they come up lacking.

Your first love,

Ashley

-

Holy shit.

If that wasn't an admission of guilt, then I didn't know what else the police expected me to find. Just tape that to her official statement and we'd call it a day.

I tapped the card against the desk, bending an edge.

"Shit."

Using a finger, I straightened it out and then stuck it underneath the envelope. My first thought told me to give the card to Anderson, but I didn't want to walk in saying I solved the case before I had the chance to check out Ashley myself. Maybe I'd cuff her and bring her to the station on my own. Do the job for the entire police force.

I'd have to buy handcuffs.

Yeah, that's what I'd do. Finish the case and deliver their murderer right to their waiting hands.

I pulled the container of sandwich closer and opened my laptop, ready to do a little sleuthing on Ashley and eat my lunch. But first I had one simple thing to take care of for tomorrow.

Look at me planning ahead.

Now that I had Tony's phone number and properly stored it in my phone, I pulled up his contact and shot a quick message.

VONNIE: I need a favor.

I called it. I'd definitely be asking for more favors before he did. His responding text came in a minute later and brought a smile to my face.

TONY: Don't you owe me a favor?

Oh, the poor man had so much to learn.

**

Four hours later, I'd completed my initial stalking-er, searching-on Ashley, hung twenty-five more missing Brent posters, and spend two hours yelling his name while I circled the city in my car. With money so tight I shouldn't have wasted the gas, but hell, it was cold outside. If I walked it, I'd end up with frostbite.

I dragged my exhausted body back to my apartment and climbed the stairs to the basement. The washer and dryer were both running, creating a commotion in the space I used to access my apartment.

"Honey, I'm home," I shouted as I walked into my apartment.

No one answered. Not even Samantha as I lugged her inside and dropped her next to the couch.

My heart twisted at the empty space, but I refused to acknowledge what that meant. So Broadrick wasn't waiting for me on the couch. Who cared?

Certainly not me.

Nope.

Not one bit.

**

The next morning, a snowy fog settled over the city while we slept. It created the perfect conditions for what much of the city had to do that day. When someone died, they always had a good turnout at the funeral. It was a rule. We didn't let our citizens die alone.

Well... we let them die alone, but we didn't let their funerals go unattended.

Someone might miss out on gossip. That would be as distressing as the death itself.

I made sure not to look in his direction, but as I neared the short bench set an inch off the sidewalk next to the entrance to the funeral home, I couldn't stop myself from the glance.

"Vonnie," Broadrick said, fixing the jacket of his black suit coat.

Where the hell did he get a suit? He never carried one of those in his military bags.

"Broadrick," I said, still not looking directly at him.

He was like a bright light. If I stared at him, I might get ensnared in his web. But it wasn't a web, it was more like one of those lamps you bought to zap the mosquitoes in the summer. And I was the mosquito.

Damn it. He sucked in my gaze and forced me to look at him with his zappy, bright light lamp. I glared, and Broadrick raised an eyebrow like he didn't realize we were in a fight.

Something blocked out the little light as the sun peeked through the cloudy sky and I turned, finding Tony behind me.

"Hey, Tony," I said, my expression brightening.

I shoved my arm through his and led us toward the opening to the funeral home.

"Don't call me Tony," he said, but when he looked down at me, he didn't seem angry. "Do you know that guy?" He jerked his head back to the bench we'd left behind us.

"Not really."

We stopped right outside the front door, letting a few other funeral goers enter before us. "Why do you need a date for a funeral, Tabitha?"

I tugged on his arm and grinned, remembered where we were, and dropped it into a frown. "Did I say a date?"

"It was implied," he said, taking the first step toward the door. Hot guys were always a great distraction in Pelican Bay.

"I meant distraction." We stepped up to the door as it closed from the last couple to enter before us. I pushed open the door with a flourish, using my free hand, and prepared to meet my next mission. "Also, my name is Vonnie."