Page 124 of Asher's Assignment

“You know I will.” He walked over to where they were seated and dropped a quick kiss on Esther’s lips. “Don’t get any ideas while I’m gone.” He gestured between her and the box. “I love you, but we’re not ready for that yet.”

“Oh, I think we’ll be ready sooner than you think.” She flashed him a sweet smile.

Asher sighed, knowing he’d better wrap his head around a major life change sooner rather than later. Surprisingly, the thought didn’t bother him as much as he thought it would, though. He wasn’t ready to be a dad, but it wouldn’t take much convincing. Not if Esther was the mom. She’d be great at it.

One thing at a time, though. They needed to figure out where they would live first.

After they caught Lennox.

Tapping her nose, he returned her smile. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. The others should be too.” Audra, Annabeth, and Brooke had run out to get Halloween candy for trick-or-treat tonight as well as supplies to make the tomato soup and grilled cheese on homemade bread Edie was craving. Rather than interrupt Edie and Esther’s time with their mom, the three women had offered to give them some space and go get the ingredients.

“Git.” Edie shooed him away. “The sooner you leave, the sooner you can come back.”

He chuckled and held up his hands. “I’m going, I’m going.” Walking away, he tucked his laptop under his arm, then grabbed his keys off the counter and let himself out the front door, arming the alarm system as he left.

The drive to the police station was uneventful. He pulled into a visitor’s spot and went inside. The officer working the desk recognized him and buzzed him back. After signing in, Asher headed down the hall to Stroud’s office.

He knocked on the detective’s partially open door and stuck his head in. Stroud looked up. Asher tipped his head. “Damn. You look terrible. When was the last time you slept?”

“Well? Before you came to town. Get in here and sit your ass down.” He motioned him inside.

As Asher walked in, Stroud turned a laptop around. “Can you enhance that? We need to know who’s driving.”

Sitting down, he set his computer on the other guest chair and pulled Stroud’s closer. A few quick clicks on the photo enhancement menus and he shook his head. “I need to put it into my software. Yours is crap.”

“So, log in and do your thing.” Stroud waved his hands.

“Uh-uh. I’m not logging into a government computer with my creds and my software. You can send that picture to me.”

Stroud eyed him from behind the desk. “What if I don’t?”

Asher arched an eyebrow. They both knew that he could leave and back door his way into the police station’s systems and get the picture with little effort. “You really want to play this game again?”

Fine lines appeared around Stroud’s mouth as he pursed his lips and glared. He snagged the computer, spinning it around. Angrily, he pounded the keys. After a half a minute passed, he gave the device a small shove and sat back. “There. Check your email.”

“Thank you.” Asher picked up his computer and did just that. In moments, he had the file downloaded and plugged into his photo enhancement software. “This might take me a few minutes.” He spared Stroud a quick glance.

“I’ll go get us some coffee.” The detective pushed away from his desk and left Asher alone.

Tongue poked between his teeth, Asher clicked on menus and filters, doing his best to zoom in and not lose image quality. The camera this picture came from wasn’t the best. It looked like the car was in motion, too, which didn’t help.

Slowly, he zoomed in, cleaning it up with each magnification.

“You get anywhere?” Stroud walked in, carrying two cups of coffee. He held one out to Asher.

“Thanks.” Asher took the cup and set it on the desk, too absorbed in his task to take a break. “I’m close.”

Stroud stood behind him, looking over his shoulder. “That’s definitely better than what our techs got it to. I still can’t tell who it is, though.”

“I’m not done yet,” Asher muttered. He zoomed once more; close enough that this time they should be able to see a face.

The detective leaned down as Asher sharpened the image.

“Hell.”

“Yeah.” A grimace crossed Asher’s face. It wasn’t Lennox. “You’re sure that’s his car?”

“One hundred percent. The techs didn’t have any problem enhancing the view of the license plate. It’s a match.”

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