Sam wished he could be paged back to work about now, but he wasnât on call tonight. Not on call, but always on duty, as the gun in his ankle holster reminded him.
His motherâs Italian accent expressed a sense of excitement that Sam had no desire to feel right now. âJessica Mathers, this is our son, Samuel. Heâs a detective with the Colorado Springs Police Department.â
Jessicaâs mouth tightened when she glanced up at him. âYes,â she replied, âweâve met once, under not-so-wonderful circumstances.â
So she remembers that night, too.
Jessica moistened her lips. âI hope this meeting will be a little less stressfulâ¦for both of us.â
FAITH ON THE LINE:
Two powerful families wage war on evilâ¦and find love
FINDING AMYâ
Carol Steward (LI #263)
wrote daily to a pen pal for ten years, yet writing as a career didnât occur to her for another two decades. âMy first key chain said âBloom where youâre planted.â Iâve tried to follow that advice ever since.â
Carol, her husband and their three children have planted their roots in Greeley. Together, their family enjoys sports, camping and discovering Coloradoâs beauty. Carol has operated her own cake-decorating business and spent fifteen years providing full-time child care to more than one hundred children before moving on to the other end of the education field. She is now an admissions advisor at a state university.
As always, Carol loves to hear from her readers. You can contact her at P.O. Box 200286, Evans, CO 80620. She would also love for you to visit her Web page at www.carolsteward.com.
Dedicated to families searching for loved ones.
May the Heavenly Father be your support.
Acknowledgments
My thanks to Jeffrey Sweetin, Special Agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and Dave Galyard, School Resource Officer with the Greeley Police Department, for helping me clarify the intricacies of he wonderful jobs you do!
Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Carol Steward for her contribution to the FAITH ON THE LINE series.
He that conceals his transgressions
shall not prosper: but whoso confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy.
âProverbs 28:13
Detective Samuel VanceâHeâs successfully taken down his friendâs would-be killer. Can Sam rescue a missing childâ¦and not lose his heart to the girlâs mother in the process?
Jessica MathersâThe single mother has lived with terrible pain since the car accident that left her widowed. She wouldnât be able to survive losing her precious little Amy.
Amy MathersâJessiâs daughter is only three years old. Where could she be?
Deanne JonesâWhat reason did the physically scarred baby-sitter have for disappearing with Amy?
Detective Rebecca HilliardâHer job was to find missing persons. But would her feelings for her ex-boyfriend Sam get in the way?
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Letter to Reader
D etective Samuel Vance had seen Jessica Mathers before, too many times. One too many, anyway. Like the night her drunk of a husband died. It was nothing short of a miracle that the accident hadnât killed Jessica and her daughter at the same time.
Jessica greeted each single man at the engagement party with a champagne flute in her hand, then sipped the bubbly faithfully. The waiter stopped and offered a replacement for her empty glass; Jessica giggled and leaned close, but didnât take another. Her light-brown hair glistened in the soft light of the chandelier. Though a healthy-size woman, she seemed thinner every time he saw her.
Sam recalled the way sheâd looked the night of the accidentâbruise on her left jaw, cuts all over her face. Heâd been the first on scene. Her husband died immediately. Sam had taken her vitals, then glanced into the back seat and his heart had raced. He looked for the baby belonging to the diaper bag. âThereâs a baby somewhere! Whereâs the baby?â He jumped away from the car and turned circles, shining his flashlight into the field. No one had believed him, but he hadnât given up. Heâd been the one to hear the little girlâs whimper.
Sam turned away, wishing he hadnât been the officer on call that night. âA Vance never forgets,â his father used to tell him. How he wished he could. Hers had been the most gruesome accident heâd seen. He shook the memory loose and searched for the bride-and groom-to-be.
Love songs crooned for Adam and Kate, the couple whose engagement sparked the laughter and happiness tonight. But as Sam bit into a dainty appetizer, he realized he needed to vent some frustration. After arresting Dr. Lionel Valenti for shooting Adam Montgomery in Venezuela and assaulting Kate Darling, Sam should be elated. Unfortunately, Valenti hadnât been as cooperative as theyâd hoped he would be during the questioning. Sam needed something more than suspicion to tie Valenti to the Diablo crime syndicate. Tension in the division was at a peak. After almost a week, neither Sam nor any of the other top-notch interrogators had gotten the doctor to crack.