Read Online Racing Against Time by Marie Ferrarella - Free Book Online Page A

judge for five years, Callie. It would be unusual for me not to have been threatened.”
    “All right, anyone in particular stand out in your mind?” Before he could answer, she quickly added, “This isn’t to say that it might not be someone who has just quietly plotted revenge, but odds are, the vocal ones are more likely to carry out a threat.”
    But why drag his daughter into this? “Wouldn’t a threat mean they’d tried to kill me?”
    She could see he was struggling to suppress rage. “You kill someone, it’s over. Taking your daughter promises the kidnapper that you will be suffering for a very long, long time.”
    He hated admitting it, but she was right. Brent shook his head, hoping he would be able to get five minutes alone with the kidnapper. Even just three. “You have a very logical mind, Callie.”
    She blew out a breath. At times she was too logical. If she hadn’t been so, she and Kyle would have been married; then they couldn’t have been on the same squad and he wouldn’t have taken that bullet meant for her.
    “Yeah,” she agreed quietly, “it’s a curse.”

Chapter 5
    B rent’s chambers at the courthouse seemed somehow more somber than they had before, as if the weight of what he was enduring had permeated his surroundings. Working with the vibrations coming off the man, Callie felt as if the very walls of the room had darkened and were closing in.
    Without waiting to ask, Callie walked over to the curtained bay window behind Brent’s desk and drew back the drapes. The late-afternoon sun immediately brightened the room tenfold.
    Brent held his hand up before his eyes. In his present frame of mind, he felt the room had far too much light in it. “What are you doing?”
    She moved away from the window. There were filing cabinets all along the adjacent wall. Oak, to match his desk. No one had to tell her that he had brought in his own cabinets. Standard issue was gunmetal gray, emphasis on the metal.
    She wondered if they were for show, or if they were filled. “You need light.”
    He had thrown the light switch on when they’d walked in. “That’s why they invented electricity.”
    Callie deliberately stood in front of the drawstrings on the drapes, blocking his access. “We’ll use that, too, but nothing beats sunlight when it comes to illuminating and to buoying up.”
    He frowned at her. The last thing he wanted was a cheerleader. He wouldn’t have said she was the type. But his judgment wasn’t exactly on target right now. “Do I look as if I want to be buoyed up?”
    “No, but you need it.” Her voice was nonconfrontational, but firm just the same. He had the feeling that she was accustomed to taking charge. “You can’t give up hope. All we have is our faith and our hope to see us through.”
    There was that word again, hope, both his enemy and his friend. “I’m not giving up hope, I just don’t believe in using crutches.”
    Her eyes held his for a long moment. It was a visual tug-of-war and for the moment, it was a draw, but one grounded in respect. “Sometimes crutches are all we have until we can stand up on our own again.”
    Impatience clawed at him. Brent blew out a breath, trying to maintain control over his emotions, which threatened to burst out and go all over the board. “I know you mean well—”
    She placed a gentling hand on his arm. He looked down at it, then at her. Callie kept it where it was. “I mean more than that, Brent. I mean to find her.” Withdrawing her hand, she let it drop to her side. “Now, shall we get started?”
    Brent squared his shoulders, telling himself to focus on the task ahead and not what it might ultimately mean. That one of the people within the case files had his precious girl. “Right.”

    They’d been at it for hours, sorting through files, with Brent first making a judgment call and then Callie considering it. The list of people to investigate began to form.
    The filing cabinet drawers had turned out to be