Page 57 of Cold Light of Day

Maybe the fact that he’d been in her dream convinced her that he’d been on that boat, and he was a criminal. Seeing him in a dream wasn’t enough to prove he’d been there that day with her mother, but she knew she’d seen him before.Somewhere.He struck an inexplicable chord of fear in her heart, and there had to be a reason why. What better reason than that he was on that boat?

A knock came at the door. Mayor White stuck her head in and smiled.

“Mayor White, what a surprise.” Dread settled in Autumn’s chest.

“Have you got a minute?”

“Always.” What was she going to say? It was the mayor. “Come in and have a seat.”

Holding a paper sack, the mayor closed the door behind her and sat in the chair across from Autumn’s desk. She placed the sack next to the chair. “And please, you know you can call me Cindy.”

Autumn smiled. She’d always liked Mayor Cindy White. “Yes.”

Cindy’s smile shifted, and her expression became pinched.Uh. Oh.The mayor always favored Autumn’s father while he was in charge, and even after—at least before he started drinking. Cindy had pursued him, but everything had crumbled, understandably. So maybe that’s why Cindy liked Autumn and extended her grace. Still, that could have gone either way.

“Autumn, you know I respected your father, and you were the only one for the job when he stepped down. No one disputes that.”

But...

“No one is blaming you for the uptick in crime lately, but, well, the city council has been talking, and a few made a good point that you’re distracted.”

Autumn didn’t have to think too hard to know who had made the point. She held back her retort and pushed down the growing anger. “And right now, you’re distracting me from my laser focus on finding answers.” Autumn revealed the list of entities that she’d contacted. “So you can’t pin dereliction of duty on me. The Shadow Gap PD will do our best, but we’ve never had enough officers to truly protect the citizens. And we need to bring back a trooper to the area.”

Cindy’s eyes widened. “Let’s hope this crime wave isn’t here to stay. And if not, then we don’t need a trooper we can’t afford. We have a police department, and that’s all we need.”

Autumn couldn’t exactly counter with the hope that the crime wave would continue. “Why are you here?”

Cindy stared at her hands before looking up. “I can’t say you’re not doing your best. Just make sure that your best is good enough, Autumn, and I’ll back you every step of the way.”

Without waiting for Autumn’s reply—which was good, because she didn’t have one—Cindy reached down and lifted thesack. She pulled out a plastic container and handed it over. “I brought some Tongass Forest Cookies.”

“Oh, yum. The family recipe. I love these. Thank you, Cindy.” Autumn opened the container and reached for one. She bit into the oatmeal coconut cookie.

“I know you do, and that’s why I made them.”

To soften the blow.

Cindy stood. “Well, thanks for your time, Autumn. Let me know if you need anything at all.”

With a nod and a smile, she left, closing the door behind her.

Autumn stared after her and finished off the cookie.

Every officer wanted to do their best, protect their community, and of course, keep their job. But so much more was on the line—like lives.

Pushing the mayor’s visit out of her mind, she spent the next several hours searching the fugitive databases to see if she could find the suspicious man, as well as the unidentified man, now deceased, who had shot her father. She had no guarantee the ME would be able to identify his body, even with DNA.

After all, at least two of the criminals in town had a Red Notice out for them. Maybe the other two were on the list too. But there were other international fugitive notices—yellow, blue, black, green, orange, and purple.

Tanya had gone home long ago, and at around midnight, Kelly peeked into Autumn’s office.

“You’re working awfully late these days. You should go home, Chief.”

“I will. I won’t be long.”

A half hour later, Autumn rubbed her eyes. Kelly was right. She needed rest. She locked the door and hurried across the street, where Grandpa Ike was waiting at the door with his shotgun. She couldn’t help but smile. She had family here who loved her and Nolan, and yes, her father too, regardless of his struggles. She couldn’t ask for more.

With another yawn, she stepped inside the dimly lit Lively Moose.

---