IT WAS CLOSE to five thirty in the morning when Luke parked in his driveway, wanting a shower and bed. All he had time for was a shower and a quick breakfast. Good Morning Long Beach began taping at seven. He yawned, the early morning events playing over and over in his mind as he locked his truck, picked up the newspaper, and headed for his door.

As soon as he had seen the kid jump out the window, Luke’s first instinct was to chase him. I could have caught him, but there was no way I would have left Leslie. When Officer Woods had told him a single elderly woman lived inside, he prayed. But then the officer came back with a look that told Luke the prayer was too late. This was a homicide.

He pondered whether the person he’d seen had really been a kid. Everything happened so fast. At first he was certain he’d seen a teen, but the more the incident rolled over in his mind, the more he doubted the person was young. Could have been a small man. He debated calling Detective Hart and telling her that new insight. No, he decided, I’m not going to throw doubts into the mix after the fact. She’s good; if what I told her was helpful, she’ll run with it.

Meeting Detective Hart had unnerved him almost as much as knowing that he’d nearly chased down a murderer. He’d seen her before, actually been as close to her then as he had been this morning, but there was no reason for her to remember. He just had never forgotten. About ten years ago, Officer Hart assisted with weaponless defense training for his police academy class. She’d been on the force for only two years back then and already was a rising star. Several academy physical training records bore her name.

She’d irritated and fascinated him at the same time. Luke leaned against the door, holding his key but not putting it in the lock, remembering how rigid and by the book she was. She’d knocked his grade on a takedown because he wasn’t as exact in his technique as she was. I got the job done, but Hart wanted perfection.

At the crime scene today, he was certain Hart still wanted perfection, and memories from his short stint at the academy came rushing back. But the vibe he felt toward her now wasn’t irritation. Up close years later he observed more than a picky, driven weaponless defense instructor. He saw a competent woman . . . and he wanted to know more.

His stupid question about Good Morning Long Beach was a knee-jerk response to the strong attraction he’d felt. It wasn’t that Hart was drop-dead gorgeous —no, he wouldn’t even say beautiful. She wore no makeup and her face was set in seriousness. But she was pretty, her green eyes were alert and alive, and she had a presence, a charisma that hit him like the kick from a .40-caliber handgun.

I want to see her again.

He couldn’t help but wonder about the road not taken, if he’d completed the academy and become a cop. Shaking his head at the notion, he unlocked the door and went inside. He’d dropped out of the academy after a couple of months, not because of Hart but because he was a single father and the regimented schedule and the shift work he knew awaited after the academy took too much time away from his then-infant daughter, Madison. Now it was to her room he headed.

She’d grown so fast. She shouldn’t be up just yet, and since she was constantly in motion when she was awake, he loved the chance to steal a look at her peacefully sleeping ten-year-old face. He opened the door to her room and was not disappointed. A smile played on his lips to see her still breathing easily and resting quietly.

The smell of coffee brewing caused him to close the door softly and head to the front of the house. He and Madison lived in the back of his parents’ house. His stepfather, a contractor, had added on the space especially for the two of them. When Luke decided he’d start his own business from home in order to be there for Maddie, James designed the addition so they’d have their privacy but Maddie would also have built-in babysitters when Luke had to go out.

A short walk down the hallway brought him to the main house and the kitchen, where his mother sat with a cup of coffee and an open Bible. Grace Murphy helped Luke’s investigation business part-time by filing and taking phone calls, which had increased exponentially after that video went viral on YouTube. She knew his caseload and knew he’d been out looking for a runaway. But Nadine was more than just another runaway case to Grace. The girl’s mother, Glynnis, was a member of Grace’s Bible study group.

“You’re up early.” Luke leaned down and kissed his mom on the cheek, then grabbed a cup and poured coffee for himself.

“I can tell from your face you didn’t find her.”

Luke sat and gulped some coffee. He rolled his head on his shoulders to loosen the kinks in his neck and finished half a cup of coffee before he told his mother what had happened.

“Murder?” Grace arched her eyebrows. “Leslie broke her ankle?”

“Yeah. Martin called me as I pulled in the driveway. He was at the hospital with her and she was heading for surgery. They have to put a pin in her ankle. Guess I’m short a partner again.”

Leslie recently mustered out of the Army and was trying to decide what to do with her life. Luke had hired her part-time, and she’d been doing a great job as his partner.

“You’ll be okay until she’s back on the job. I’m glad her injury can be fixed. I’m still troubled about Nadine being out in that area.”

“Kwan was never 100 percent on the sighting. Yet, runaways are attracted to the scene there.” He sighed and started to say more but stopped.

“But?”

“This has never felt like an average runaway. Nadine was a happy kid, a good kid. I just . . .” He shrugged.

Grace smiled sadly. “I agree with you. I wish there was more the police could go on.”

Luke said nothing. He’d talked to juvenile investigators about Nadine. She was listed as a missing person, but there was no evidence of foul play. She’d texted her mother, saying she’d be home when she was ready. With that information, she was not a priority. They’d detain her if they ran across her, long enough to call her mother, but that was it.

Grace stood. “I’m going to start breakfast. Are you hungry?”

“Starved, without much time. Can you get Maddie to the church this morning? The homeschool group is working there today. I have to hurry and get to the college for Good Morning Long Beach. I should be able to pick her up.”

The local cable program was produced and filmed at Long Beach State University, five minutes away.

“Of course. And I’ll pick her up. I have some errands to run down by the church.”

Just then Maddie burst into the kitchen and gave Luke a hug, crinkling her nose at the stubble on his chin. He hugged her tight anyway, considering Nadine and the thousands of other young girls out there in the big bad world and vowing that would never be Maddie.

As normal morning activity swilled around him, Luke kept reliving the events of the morning and his conversation with Detective Hart. His best friend, Bill Roper, was a narcotics detective for the PD and hoped to move to homicide. Coincidentally, a slot opened up because of the retirement of Hart’s partner, so if Bill were selected, he’d told Luke that he would be Abby Hart’s new partner. Bill hadn’t asked Luke’s opinion; he’d just raved about the prospect of working with Hart. “She’s so focused when she gets a case, her nickname in the office is Superglue. She sticks to something until she solves it. Everyone respects her work ethic.”

At the time Luke had teased him, in his mind’s eye seeing the picky perfectionist from the academy. “Do you think you could work with someone like that? There has to be a little bit of fun in the work you do, even if it’s solving murders. All work and no play would make Bill a dull boy.”

Bill waved him off, excited about the new assignment. “I’m sure there’ll be some give in a partnership. She can’t be on 100 percent of the time. And I would like the opportunity to find out. She’s the best. I’ve seen her testify in court and she’s ice, man. Defense attorneys can’t shake her. And it’s because she’s built the best case possible. She’s superglue relentless when she gets a body —no stone unturned, that kind of thing. I want that slot to be her partner.”

He’d asked Luke to pray about it and expected to find out in a couple of days. The new assignment with much more responsibility and a heartbreaking workload would be what Luke and Bill liked to call a “hard blessing.”

It was something they’d come up with during their service in Iraq. The hard blessing of being able to serve together and fight side by side, the hard blessing of surviving when some good men didn’t. While Bill joined after 9/11, Luke had already been a member of the Army Special Forces and wanted a career there. But his wife’s death and his daughter’s injury stopped his reenlistment cold. It had been hard coming back to a baby daughter in the hospital being treated for burns from the fatal car crash, a little girl who would never know her mother. And a hard blessing to come back to the faith he’d walked away from while living a wild life in the service.

Luke still ached when he saw the scars on his daughter’s legs. They’d faded with time and hopefully would eventually disappear completely. Becoming a single father had been a hard blessing. Now Maddie was a vibrant, happy child, the image of her beautiful mother and never troubled by the scars that faded a bit every year.

Yes, he understood a hard blessing.

His conversation with Bill had been two days ago. Luke knew he’d get a call when Bill found out whether or not he got the promotion. I wonder what he’ll think when I tell him about my encounter with her, Luke mused.

After breakfast, Luke kissed his daughter before leaving her with Grandma and went to his room for a shower, shave, and fresh clothes for the taping. Abby Hart stayed on his mind. Superglue. He chuckled as he remembered the horrified look on her face when he suggested publicity.

He realized he’d spoken without thinking and only made the suggestion because he wanted to see her again. Keeping a connection to the investigation might mean just that. She was more striking than he remembered, even at four in the morning, when it was obvious she’d been dragged out of bed to come to a homicide scene. She seemed to shine, and it was impossible to imagine that a woman so focused on justice for innocent victims wasn’t warm and worthwhile to call friend.

Her emerald-green eyes, so vivid and alive, touched him most. Add the hair, a color he couldn’t quite place —brown and blonde, an appealing mixture. It was long, and she’d had it pulled back and bunched into a clip. Luke bet it was soft and touchable. Sighing, he was embarrassed with where his thoughts were taking him. Even if they did connect again on the investigation, he’d never take a step closer to her on any level, so why fantasize?

The last thing in the world Luke wanted to do was let another woman down like he’d let his wife down.

Even when he was back in the car heading for the college, his mind was active with thoughts of Abby Hart and Nadine. He winced as he considered Nadine’s mother, Glynnis Hoover. She’d been widowed two years ago. Like Luke’s wife, her husband was killed in a traffic accident. Unlike Luke, who lived with the memory of having a horrible argument with his wife on the phone while she was driving and hearing the crash that killed her because the argument had distracted her, Glynnis’s last memory of her husband was warm and loving.

Lately she’d been sending out signals she wanted more than friendship where Luke was concerned. They shared a connection she clearly thought was a God thing. But he didn’t share the attraction and planned to be honest with her. And then Nadine ran away. Glynnis was devastated and clingy and scared to death she’d never see her daughter again. Luke did his best to handle the situation professionally, but Glynnis was leaning on him hard, and he prayed that the Lord would give him wisdom so he wouldn’t hurt the woman.

He pulled the card Detective Hart had given him out of his pocket. Detective A. Hart, it read, on a standard Long Beach Police Department business card. He ran his thumb over her embossed name and couldn’t help but wonder if he’d ever have the chance to help Superglue put some bad guys in jail.