Read Online Just Like Heaven by Barbara Bretton - Free Book Online

Ultimately it had nothing to do with him and everything to do with everybody else.
    They were an eclectic group of cops, lawyers, doctors, writers, teachers, housewives, ex-cons, and a priest on sabbatical, with one thing in common: they were all recovering alcoholics who wanted to stay sober and were willing to do whatever it took to make that happen.
    He’d been to groups that were nothing more than an aggregation of individuals linked by an acronym. But this one was different. He’d found some real friends and he wasn’t looking forward to telling them that the New Hampshire job had come through and he’d be leaving Memorial Day weekend.
    He switched off the lights and locked the door. Scott, Matty, and Ann were waiting for him in the parking lot for the weekly run to Zaslow’s for pastrami and fellowship.
    “I’ve got news,” he said after they’d settled into a booth and placed their orders.
    “You won the Megabucks lottery,” Ann said.
    “You’re trading in that Honda for a Pinto,” Matty chimed in.
    “You sold the house,” Scott said, “didn’t you?”
    “I signed the papers Wednesday morning,” he said. “We close the Thursday before Memorial Day.”
    “Shit.” Matty didn’t even try to hide his disappointment. “That was fast.”
    Ann elbowed Matty in his well-padded ribs. “You knew this was going to happen sooner or later.”
    Scott gave Mark one of those ex-cop looks that had scared hell out of a generation of perps. “You got the job?”
    “I got the job.”
    It was a bittersweet moment for all of them. They had all known he would go back sooner or later, but it surprised them just the same. He told them about the timeline his real estate agent had laid out and about the equally stringent timeline Maggy had set for his return to New Hampshire.
    “I don’t see what they’ve got that we haven’t got,” Matty said. “Maple syrup? You can get that at Costco.”
    Ann shot him a look. “We all have fences to mend. Mark’s happen to be in New Hampshire.”
    The waitress brought their orders and they tucked into pastrami sandwiches while they caught up on the last week. Matty had had a root canal. Ann’s traffic dispute was headed to court. Scott’s insurance work might take him to Dallas next week, but he wouldn’t know until Sunday night.
    “We already know what your week was like,” Ann said, reaching for a kosher dill. “You’re pulling up stakes and leaving us behind.”
    He looked up from the remains of his sandwich. “Actually there’s more.” And he told them about the red-haired woman in the Miata.
    Even he had to admit it was a damn good story. It had drama, a hint of sex, a touch of ER and Grey’s Anatomy. What it didn’t have was any kind of resolution.
    “You went all the way to the hospital with her and you never got her name? What a moron!” Ann was the tactful one of the group.
    “I had other things on my mind.” Her life had seemed more important than her identity at the time.
    “So why are you looking for her?” Scott probed. “Idle curiosity or is it something else?”
    He didn’t answer right away, which was an answer in itself. “She was carrying some Revolutionary War documents in a metal box. I brought them with us on the ambulance but—” They knew the rest.
    “You’ve got a problem, pal,” Scott said as the others exchanged meaningful looks. “No name. No ID. You don’t even know where they took her.”
    “You could take out an ad in the paper,” Ann suggested. “If those papers are valuable, somebody’s bound to know about them and see it.”
    “What you need is a plate number,” Scott the ex-cop said. “If you had that I could run a trace for you.”
    Mark reached into his pocket and withdrew a folded piece of paper and slid it across the table toward Scott. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
     
To Kate’s surprise she was able to convince both her mother and her daughter that she could manage without them for one night