Racing Against Time Read Free Page A

going.”
    It was then that she noticed her father was holding a brown paper bag in his hand. Full if the bulge in the middle was any indication.
    He held it out to her. “Packed you a lunch.” He smiled, the character lines about his eyes crinkling. “In case you get hungry one of these days.”
    She knew he meant well, but she wasn’t thirteen anymore, being sent off to school. “Dad—”
    Taking her hand, he closed her fingers around the top of the bag. “Humor me. I’ve been both mother and father to this bunch for fifteen years.” His smile took twenty years off his age. “These parental urges get hard to fight sometimes.”
    As always, she retreated from the line of skirmish. She’d learned long ago to pick her fights, and this wasn’t worth more than a few words. She grinned at him, nodding at the bag. “Will I like it?”
    The expression on Andrew’s face was incredulous, as if he couldn’t believe she had to ask. “Is the pope Catholic?”
    “Last I checked.” She paused to kiss his cheek. “Thanks, Dad.” The words had nothing to do with the lunch he’d tucked into her hand, and everything to do with the care he’d spent raising her right.
    Embarrassed, Andrew waved her on her way. “Go. They’re waiting on you.” He guessed at the caller. “Tell Adams I said hello.”
    Callie stopped. She hadn’t told him who was on the phone. “How is it you know everything?”
    He gave her a crooked grin. “I’m old. I’m supposed to know everything. I’ve got it in writing. Now get going before the crime scene gets contaminated.”
    If it hasn’t already been, she thought. Nodding, Callie hurried out the door she’d used less than ten minutes ago.

    An hour and a half later, Callie paused outside the closed doors of the courtroom. Gathering courage and the right words.
    There were no right words. Not for this.
    The corridor on the second floor was mostly empty. Courts were in session behind the black double doors that lined both sides of the long hallway. If she listened intently, she could swear that she could almost hear various lives being altered.
    And behind this particular set of doors some family’s life was being rearranged by a man known to be both just and fair. And not easily swayed by pretense. A dark, sober man who brooked no nonsense, stood for no lies. And had had his share of grief.
    And she was going to add to it.
    Callie let out a long breath, then took in another, centering herself. She’d just left the scene of the accident.
    The scene of the crime, she amended grimly.
    The judge’s housekeeper, a woman in her late thirties, still pretty, still with so much life ahead of her, had died instantly, according to the coroner’s preliminary findings. And, despite the fact that the hit-and-run had occurred on the corner of a well-traveled street, there had been no witnesses to see what had happened. At least none who had come forward so far.
    But it was still early.
    Because there were no witnesses, there would have been no reason to suspect that the dead woman, who had been in the judge’s employ for just over four years, hadn’t been alone.
    If it wasn’t for the pink backpack found twenty feet from the body.
    Rachel Montgomery’s backpack.
    A backpack but no Rachel Montgomery.
    And it was up to her to tell this to the judge. To tell him that the peaceful world he’d left just a short while ago was no more. His housekeeper was gone and quite possibly so was his daughter.
    Staring at the black door closest to her, Callie squared her shoulders. This kind of thing was never easy. Adams had said he was willing to go see the judge and tell him what had happened, but she’d vetoed that. He’d looked at her in surprise when she had volunteered to be the one to break the news to Montgomery. But there was a reason for that.
    She knew the judge. Once upon a time, they’d had a brief connection. Before life with all its details had gotten in the way.
    Into the valley of death rode