Without a Doubt by Kathleen Long

Author:Kathleen Long
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2013-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

They worked late into the night, each exhausting every contact they had. Just before midnight, the list of Teresa Cartwrights from Pennsylvania sat in the middle of Sophie’s kitchen table.

“More coffee?” Sophie asked as she pushed away from the table and moved toward the counter.

Gary had rolled up the sleeves of his denim shirt and his hair stood on end, having been shoved back more times than she could count.

She smiled, remembering the habit from college. She’d seen him run a hand through his hair the night he’d first asked her out, during an exam, and then when she’d broken up with him. Her heart twisted.

Had it really been seven years?

“Soph?”

She shook herself from her memories. “What?”

“I said yes.” His vivid gaze narrowed.

“Yes, what?” She’d kicked off her shoes hours earlier and now stood on the cool kitchen floor in her stocking feet. Her jacket hung neatly over the back of a chair, but she grimaced when she realized one tail of her silk blouse had come untucked.

“What?” She fumbled with her shirt, shoving the soft fabric back into her waistband.

A smile played at Gary’s lips. “Coffee. You asked if I wanted coffee.”

She groaned. Was she so tired she’d forgotten her own question?

Gary nodded toward her outfit. “Seriously, is there any reason why you haven’t changed into something more comfortable? There aren’t any cameras here, you know.”

She felt heat rise in her cheeks. “Just habit. I usually change right from this into sweats. I didn’t think it appropriate for me to slouch around in—”

“I’ve seen you naked.”

His blunt statement stopped her mid-sentence, and she swallowed down the sudden lump in her throat.

Gary shrugged, looking as though he enjoyed calling attention to her uptight wardrobe.

“I’m just saying you can wear whatever you like around me.” He tapped a finger against the sheet of paper. “How about I put on the coffee, and you tell me what you think of these names.”

Sophie wanted to think herself capable of some stinging comeback to his naked remark, but when her brain didn’t offer any suggestions, she slid into a chair instead, reaching for the list. “Fair enough.”

A few minutes later, they had their choices narrowed down to two. The rest had been either too old or too young to be the right woman.

Sophie took a sip of the hot coffee Gary had poured and glanced at the clock. “It’s too late to make phone calls. What do you think? Can you access the Inquirer’s database?”

He nodded and keyed his name and password into a screen he’d pulled up on her laptop. One of the benefits of both of their jobs was the ability to tap into information anywhere they could find an Internet connection.

The laptop on her kitchen table worked just as well as any back at the Inquirer offices.

“You do know the woman could have vanished in five years.” He spoke flatly as he worked the keyboard.

Sophie nodded, wrapping her hands around her coffee mug, fervently hoping their Teresa Cartwright had not left the state.

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