Laura wrapped her fingers around her coffee mug and stared at the dark Colombian blend. “I thought I’d moved on, but I guess I haven’t. I don’t suppose I ever will until the killers are brought to justice. Can you understand that?”
“I can. I hear it every day from other families, but they’re not being threatened by people who want to kill them. You made yourself a target when you did that interview.”
She nodded. “I didn’t think about it at the time, but I did when I was standing in the river.” She took a sip of her coffee. “Grace’s station had been reporting about your new unit, and she thought it might give the story a personal twist if viewers could hear from a family member wanting a case solved.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Well, I can’t say I like the twist your story took afterward.”
The waitress approached with their breakfast, and they fell silent as she set their plates in front of them. Laura clasped her hands in front of her on the table, bowed her head and closed her eyes. When she opened them, Brad stared at her as if he couldn’t believe what he’d just seen.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Since when did you become religious?”
She smiled and put her napkin on her lap. “It’s not a question of being religious, Brad. The truth is I turned my life over to God, and I live my life in faith. I’m happier than I’ve ever been in my life.”
“What does your brother think about that?”
“He approves. Especially since he’s done the same thing, thanks to the influence of his wife.” Brad shrugged and began to spread jam on a piece of toast. “I guess whatever makes you happy is fine. You know I’ve never had any reason to believe in God. I don’t need God or anybody else in my life.”
Her forehead wrinkled. “You sound cynical. I hope I’m not the reason for that. I’m sorry for what happened between us six years ago. I’ve wanted to ask you to forgive me for a long time, but I didn’t think I’d ever have the nerve to face you.”
His eyes narrowed. “I can understand why. I loved you, Laura, from the first day I saw you at school. We were a couple from then on. I would have done anything to make you happy, and you gave back my ring and walked out on me without a backward glance.”
His words were tinged with hurt, and Laura wanted to make him understand what had driven her to do what she did. She set her fork down on her plate and clasped her hands on her lap. “I might have been twenty-three years old when I left Memphis, but I still felt like the ten-year-old girl who’d seen her parents bombed in that car. My brother, Mark, carried the same scars I did, and he wanted me to come live with him in Raleigh. He thought we could help each other. I left for your sake as well as mine.”
“That’s what you told me, but I wanted to help you, Laura.”
Her eyes grew wide. “Oh, I know you did, but I felt like I had to find my own peace. It wasn’t fair for me to saddle you with all my baggage. You didn’t deserve that. I left here as much for you as for myself.”
He grimaced and a grunt of disgust rumbled in his throat. “I’m afraid I didn’t see it that way.”
She tilted her head to one side and stared at him. “I’m sorry I hurt you, but it was the right decision for us both.”
He picked up his fork and scooped up some eggs. “Well, as they say, that’s all water under the bridge now. I recovered and moved on.” He pointed to her plate. “Let’s eat our breakfast. Then we have to figure out what we’re going to do about keeping you safe.”
Laura stared at Brad for a moment before she poured syrup on her pancakes and began to eat. In the time she and Brad had been talking, she’d sensed a change in him. Instead of the caring man she remembered, he seemed distant and jaded. Had she caused that change in him, or was it his job?
A groan of approval rippled from her throat as she swallowed her first bite of pancake. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was. “Thank you for bringing me here and thank you for wanting to help me.”
He paused with his fork halfway to his mouth and set it back on his plate. Then he cleared his throat before he looked up at her. “It’s my job, Laura. Don’t read something personal in what I’m doing for you. I would do it for anyone needing help. Now eat your breakfast, and then we’ll go by your house and get you some clean clothes.”
The rebuff felt like a slap in the face, and she struggled not to let her face betray how his words had hurt. After a moment she took a deep breath and nodded. “I understand. I’m sorry I didn’t let you know I was back, but I knew you didn’t want to talk to me. When I saw the article in the paper that you were heading up the cold case department, I wanted to ask you to look into my parents’ case again. Then I decided it was better to let it go, that maybe it wasn’t meant for me to know who killed them.”
He gave no reaction to her words. “Then why did you agree to that interview?”
“Coming back to Memphis triggered a lot of memories for me, and it makes me angry that the people who killed my parents are still out there somewhere. I thought doing the interview might make somebody who knows something about it step forward. I didn’t think that it might also get me killed.”
He exhaled and raked his hand through his hair. “It scares me to think how close you came to that happening. But you’d better think about what you really want before you get back on that emotional roller coaster you were on before you ran away.”
“I’m afraid of that, too,” she whispered.
He leaned forward. “If it means anything to you, one of the first things I did when I went to work in the unit was to pull the files on your parents’ deaths and look them over.”
Her heart pounded and she sat up straight. “Did you find anything?”
He shook his head. “No. I didn’t find anything at the time, but it wouldn’t hurt to take another look. Your abduction may give us some leads.”
“Like what?”
“We’ll question hospital personnel to find out if anybody saw a vehicle leaving the parking lot at the time of your attack. We’ll trace the cell phone number of the call you received. Either of those things might lead to something.”
“Thank you, Brad.”
He shook his head. “You don’t have to thank me. It’s my job to work on the cold cases we’ve been handed. But it’s not going to be easy for you.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve always been a little headstrong, Laura, but listen to me. You don’t want me to start something if you’re not willing to see it through no matter where it leads.”
“I know that.”
He shook his head. “No, you think you know that, but cold case investigations can take years. Are you prepared to wait out the time it takes to see this to the end?”
She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. “I am.”
He sighed and nodded. “Okay. Let’s finish our breakfast, and we’ll go pick up your car at the hospital. Then I think we need to go by your house and let you get cleaned up. I’ll take you back to my office. If you’d like, I can pull your parents’ file, and we’ll look through it.”
“I’d like that. Thank you, Brad.”
“And another thing. I think you’re going to need some protection. I have to figure out how we’re going to do that.”
She started to protest that she