proud that the family history could be traced all the way back to the first settlers in this region.
Despite the early hour, Daniel was dressed in crisp black pants and a raspberry pink shirt. The color should’ve looked ridiculous on a grown man, but somehow, Daniel pulled it off. “What’s this about?” he asked, a frown between his brows and a steaming mug of coffee in one hand. “Does it have anything to do with all those flashlights I saw on the beach last night?”
Will didn’t particularly like being talked to as if he was the hired help, but as he needed the man’s assistance, he decided to keep it civil. “Miriama is missing.”
“Missing?” Daniel took a sip of his coffee, not making any move to offer Will a cup. “Are you sure she hasn’t just taken off to see the sights somewhere else? The girl’s too beautiful to be happy stuck in a dead-end town.”
“She went missing while out for a run.” Will’s temper had never been a hot thing of rage and fury… not until the night of the fire. It had cooled again in the aftermath, and he could handle Daniel’s smug sense of superiority without losing control. “I came to ask if you’d help with an aerial search.”
“I’ve got meetings out of town today. What about the police helicopters?”
“There’s another ongoing case involving children.” He’d checked in with his commander, been told the choppers would be going up again at first light, along with a massive army of search volunteers. Will could be frustrated with the allocation of resources while agreeing with them—the children had to be a priority.
“If you won’t help, just say so. I’ll have to call in private aerial teams from outside and they’ll take time getting here.”
He thought it was the word “outside” that did it—Daniel might turn up his nose at the town, snubbing all the social events to which he was invited and making it clear he didn’t think most of the residents were fit to lick his boots, but he also considered himself the most important man in Golden Cove. It was his town; he couldn’t stomach the idea of outsiders coming in and taking over.
That, of course, was part of his problem with Will. Daniel had expected Will to fall in line. His first month here, Will had accepted a dinner invitation from Daniel and his sulky-faced wife. In a place this small and remote, the local cop had to make an effort to build bonds no matter his own desire to keep a distance.
It had been toward the end of the night, as Daniel walked him to his vehicle, that the other man had made it clear he expected Will to keep him informed of everything that went on in Golden Cove. “You understand?” he’d said in that supercilious master-to-servant tone. “This is my town and I like to keep my finger on the pulse. You’ll find I’m a generous man to those who please me.”
Will had simply said, “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that,” and left.
Two days later, he’d received a call from a friendly senior officer who’d told him to watch his back. Daniel, it turned out, had tried to get Will fired. “Just be careful,” the older man had said. “May might live in Golden Cove, but he has connections everywhere.”
Now the self-professed Lord of Golden Cove grimaced. “I’ll take up the chopper.” A pause before he added, “I’ll need a spotter. Might as well be you if you’re ready to go up.”
Will looked at the horizon through the breaks in the trees, saw the first blazing edge of daybreak. “I’ll call, inform the rest of the search party.” While he did that, Daniel went back inside the house to tell his wife his plans and to inform his secretary that he’d be late.
“Nik,” Will said when the call was answered, “I need you to run the entire ground operation for the time being. Go back over all the areas we did last night, search deeper where you can, and don’t forget the dump and other outlying areas.”
“No problem.”
Will stared out at the trees backlit in orange flame by the rising sun. “And spread the word that I want to know if people saw anything even vaguely related yesterday afternoon.” Will needed a starting point to begin the investigation—a piece of Miriama’s clothing, a description of a stranger in town, a report of a local seen with Miriama, something.