Page 6 of Craving Morgan

Chapter 5

Lawry may not realize it, but he had given Jameson a clue.It all centered around Rick Banner.The man had worked for the person who’d hired Lawry to kill him.He had been killed because of the knowledge he’d possessed.Rick was the answer to everything.He’d had some kind of evidence to use against Lawry’s boss.It was why he had been killed.It was why Brooklyn had been chased into hiding.The file.The answers had to be in the file.

“Did he tell you anything?” Chuck asked as Jameson left the cell holding.

“Nothing important.” It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Chuck, the man had been on the force longer than him.He used to be a street cop until his advancing years and his nagging wife had put him in a safer job—Jameson didn’t agree that guard duty was much safer, but it wasn’t his decision.However, Jameson didn’t make it a habit of talking about his cases with anyone.

“Sorry to waste your time, buddy.”

“No one could have known he was just messing around.See you later, Chuck.”

Jameson headed back up the elevator but stopped on the evidence floor and collected the file.It was a thin envelope.He hoped that wasn’t a bad omen that there wasn’t a lot of information in there.

He didn’t open it until he was back at his desk and then just stared at it.Not because there was information overload like a treasure map with an ‘X’ that marked the spot.It was because it looked like pig Latin to him.

Everything was written in code, and he had no way of deciphering it.There were only a handful of pages, and all of them were written in the same way.

What the hell was he supposed to do with this?He couldn’t just walk away though.The answers were in here.He just needed some way to crack the code.Jameson’s phone rang.“Yeah?”

“We need you downtown.Double homicide.”

Jameson wished they would give the case to someone else, but he wasn’t supposed to be working on this case.It had simply become a personal project.“What’s the address?” Jameson locked up the case file in his desk and headed off.Banner’s code would just have to wait.

Chapter 6

Morgan hastened her steps to get to the office.For the first time in her life, she had overslept.She had hustled to get herself ready this morning and knew she looked a sight, but it couldn’t be helped.Good thing her office wasn’t more than a few blocks away.If only she had a free hand at the moment.Her purse strap was slipping, and both hands were full with a briefcase and coffee.

If that wasn’t enough of a pain, her phone was ringing.No doubt it was Jessica, her assistant.She better answer it before they thought she was kidnapped—again—and sent the cavalry out looking for her.

Morgan stopped and set her briefcase on the brick wall of the bridge over the river that ran under her.It was high this time of year with rushing rapids and large boulders protruding from its depths.

Morgan noticed a jogger coming toward her but didn’t pay them any mind as she tried digging through her purse to look for her phone.She really needed a smaller bag.Morgan kept buying larger bags to hold more of her stuff but kept losing everything inside of them.

She wrapped her hand around it when someone bumped into her.Her coffee went flying out of her hand, and she felt herself falling over the brick wall, toward the water, and would have gone in if it weren’t for strong arms grabbing her arms and holding her steady.

Morgan looked up at her rescuer and froze.Her rescuer was a tall well-dressed man, somewhere close to her age, maybe a few years older.He was tall and lean with wide shoulders and a trim waist.His sandy brown hair was raked to the side and held perfectly still as if held with hair spray.He had warm chocolate eyes that reminded her of caramel.

Morgan looked around to see the jogger halfway across the bridge, they had half turned to look back but didn’t slow.

“Are you alright?” her rescuer asked.His voice had a deep baritone that was as smooth as whiskey on the rocks.

Morgan noted he was still holding her arms.She stepped back, and he dropped his arms to his side.“No problem at all.I shouldn’t have just stopped where I was.” Normally she didn’t stop on the bridge.The wall wasn’t too high that one couldn’t just fall over the edge like she’d almost done.

“I’m afraid your coffee didn’t survive.” His eyes crinkled as he looked down at her shattered coffee mug on the sidewalk at her feet.She didn’t have a travel mug, so she had to rely on a regular cup.Though she didn’t think it would have fared much better.

Normally she got up early so she could enjoy a cup before coming to work.She should have just waited until she got in the office, but the machine had already made it, and she didn’t want it to go to waste.That was laughable.

“No, but I have more at work.”

“No, please allow me to pay for a cup.That way I can at least assure you’re alright after your almost spill.” He started to reach into his suit pocket, no doubt for his wallet.

“No, really, that’s not necessary.I’m perfectly fine.I’m actually late for work.I need to go.” She started to step around him, and he let her pass.As much as it would be nice to stay and chat, she needed to get going.

“Another time then.”

“Sure,” she replied, already forgetting about him and the incident.

“I’ll see you again soon,” he called after her.