“I can’t go through that again. I can’t.” The realization shocked his whole system as if he’d just grabbed a live electrical wire and pulled it to his chest. Where was his trust in God?

It would be safe to break it off, not leave himself open to another loss like that again. But as he continued to study the man in the mirror, that idea was a nonstarter. God was trustworthy, gracious, and good.

And life was not about playing it safe.

–––

After Tess finished talking to Steve, she knew she’d never get back to sleep, so she started a pot of coffee and took a shower.

As the warm water pounded away at tired muscles, Tess thought about the day before. It had been the strangest, busiest day ever in her law enforcement career. An attempted murder, then an attempted kidnapping and a self-defense shooting, followed by a murder and a kidnapping. With the exception of the self-defense shooting and Ken Blakely being dead, which solved the poaching and the kidnapping, nothing else was resolved and there was a cold-blooded killer loose in this valley.

What would today bring?

She finished her shower and dressed, trying not to think about Oliver. He’d been angry with her the last time they’d spoken on the phone, thought she was stretching herself too thin and needed to call the state police.

He couldn’t understand her need to see everything she had started through to the end. And she’d come to see Oliver as someone who always understood her. Obviously she was wrong.

Was she wrong about their relationship as well? That thought brought a pinch of pain that made her take a breath.

After she finished half a cup of coffee, her thoughts cleared a bit. She realized Steve hadn’t given her any updates on Tami’s case or on the hunt for the killer. He would have if there were any news on either front, she knew. Maybe that meant she could deal with Livie Harp, find out why the woman didn’t go in to be fingerprinted. She knew Oliver had a number for Harp, though the woman didn’t want anyone else to have it. Tess could call him and ask him to call Harp, or she could just drive up there and hope Harp opened the gate.

Tess didn’t really want to talk to Oliver at the moment. Her thoughts switched gears. She wondered about the agent Bass was sending. Was he here yet? If he’d shown up at the station, she would have been paged. She decided to call Bronwyn and ask if the agent had shown up at Faith’s Place.

Bronwyn didn’t give her a chance to ask a question right away. “What great news to hear about Janie Cooper,” she said. “We really needed some good news after yesterday.”