Love by Association

No wonder his wife wouldn’t speak up. She’d fear for her life.

Chantel saw no good way out. She also was not a quitter. Ever. The day she turned her back on people in need was the day she might as well be dead. Even if she couldn’t help bring justice to Julie, for now, her best shot at getting any real information about the Morrison household would be through Julie.

Julie.

She couldn’t get the woman, the determined and lost look in her eyes, or her brother out of her mind.

She couldn’t put them at risk without their knowing. She’d have to come clean to do that. And lose what might be their only chance to find enough proof of violence to charge James Morrison, and then be ready to catch the commissioner trying to make the paperwork disappear.

She needed more information before she could do anything. Undercover work required patience.

Not her strongest suit.

But she’d be strong enough.

In the meantime, on her dinner break from the most boring detail of all time, she made a phone call while eating a double cheeseburger and fries—sitting alone in the cruiser while her partner enjoyed a Chinese dinner with two other cops. She pushed the first speed dial button on Harris’s cheap smartphone.

“What’s up? You coming for dinner tomorrow?” Max asked, picking up on the first ring. Which probably meant one or other of the kids had just fallen asleep on his shoulder and he hadn’t wanted the phone to wake them. Max and Meri had dual rockers in the nursery and rocked them together every night that they could.

Chantel wasn’t jealous of them. She just tended to forget bedtime more often than she should.

And they never called her out on it, but she always felt guilty when she realized the time.

“I’m sorry,” she said now. Knowing that just as he didn’t want the ringing phone to wake either Haley or Caleb, he also wouldn’t talk much. She kind of liked that part. Her being able to do all the talking without him butting in, telling her what to do. Or what not to do.

“I did it again.” She took a bite of burger. “I keep saying I won’t and then I do.” A fry followed the bite of burger. “You know that you and Meri and the kids mean everything to me. I just... I need to be more in tune.” She was going to work on it.

Harder. “Just know that I’m truly sorry. Every single damn time I do this...”

Max wasn’t good about letting her apologize. Or speak about her feelings. He just wanted to brush everything off and tell her it was all okay.

Which it was.

But sometimes you just needed to be able to get things off your chest. Guilt had a way of building up, and nothing good could come of that.

“I need a favor, Max.”

“Anything.” His soft tone was followed by some rustling. She figured he’d either put the child to bed or that Meri had taken him or her.

She felt a pang. Just because it felt so good to hold those babies.

Not because she didn’t have any of her own. And, at the rate she was going, probably wouldn’t.

“It’s a biggie.”

“I figured as much, or you wouldn’t have called right now.”

“Why do you say that?”

“You only call in the evening if it’s really important.”

So...maybe he was right. She didn’t like to interrupt his and Meri’s special time. Lord knew, she’d done enough of that when he’d been with Jill. Maybe that was part of the reason his marriage to Jill wasn’t as close as it could have been.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“Ten years ago a girl was raped. It was pretty brutal. She went to the emergency room here in Santa Raquel right afterward. A rape kit was done. Medical report stated that rape was obvious, even without the kit.”

“What can I do? You need me to look at the report? Give expert witness testimony?”

“The report vanished, Max.”

“What do you mean, vanished?”

“There’s no record here. No record of charges being filed, either, but I know the girl made an official report. She was forced to make a deal, stating that the rape didn’t happen. The report vanished, along with the medical evidence. But there might be a copy of it at the hospital. The doctor’s name was Albertson—a female. I have no idea if she’s still there, but you doctors are meticulous. She probably left a record someplace. Of course, it could have disappeared, too, for all I know. Unless she’s still there and kept a private record.”

“I don’t want to know why you’re looking at this again, do I?”

“Probably not.”

“Is danger involved?”

“Possibly.”

“But it would be less if I could find a copy of the report?”