In Hope's Shadow. Janice Johnson Kay

make a hasty escape. Although she’d finished her tea, she sat where she was for a few more minutes, thinking. No great ideas came to mind. Her best hope was that the tricks had come to an end. As annoyed as she was at Officer Pruitt, his interest must surely be making the perpetrator nervous. He—and she couldn’t help seeing Gavin’s smug face—might not have believed Clement Rowe would call the police. Nothing had happened since Tuesday. Five days. That was good, right?

      * * *

      “IS SOMETHING UP?” Eve’s mother asked after passing her the butter. “We haven’t heard much from you lately. Or seen you.”

      Her dad didn’t comment. A quiet man, he only continued eating, although Eve had no doubt he was paying attention.

      She cast her mind back. In fact, the last time she’d seen her parents had been the Friday night at Seth’s when she’d met Ben for the first time.

      “Just busy,” she said, and told them a little about Joel’s troubles. She’d bragged about him before, so they looked surprised.

      “But he sounds like such a nice boy!” her mother exclaimed. “Surely no one really believes he’d try to hurt an old man.”

      “I don’t. His foster father isn’t being as supportive as I’d like, though.”

      “Boy has a lot to lose,” her dad remarked.

      “I keep thinking that, too,” she agreed. “A few months from now, he’ll be gone. Doing something like this, he’d be risking his full ride to college. He’s too smart to do that, even if he had a nasty streak, which I swear he doesn’t.”

      Eve talked a little more about her work, hoping to divert her mother from her curiosity about what had been occupying Eve’s time. For some reason, she didn’t want to talk about Ben. Maybe she was afraid to jinx the tentative beginning they’d made.

      But she should have known Mom better than that. Into the first pause, she said, “You’re surely not working twenty-four hours a day.”

      “Well, not quite. I actually did work yesterday.” She hesitated, conceding defeat. “I’ve started seeing someone. A guy, I mean. We’ve had dinner four or five times, seen a movie.” She shrugged. Silence answered her.

      “Goodness,” her mother finally said. “Is this anyone we know?”

      Damn. They did know Ben. No way she could lie.

      “Ben Kemper, Seth’s partner. The man who came to Seth’s for dinner that night, with his little girl. That’s where we met.”

      Her mother had gone very still. “Yes, of course I remember meeting him.”

      “His little girl is so cute.”

      “Yes.”

      Dad watched Eve with a somber expression.

      “Is something wrong?” she finally asked. “Did you not like him? Or you’ve heard something about him—?”

      “Not at all. I’m just wondering why you didn’t mention him. You must have known we’d be interested.”

      Oh, wonderful. She’d hurt their feelings. These days, her specialty.