Chapter 1
Sharp answered the door,wiping his hands on the kitchen towel. Two officers from the San Diego Police Department stood on the porch, both of them looking uncomfortable. Two officers showing up like this meant bad news was being delivered. It wasn’t Danika. She was still in bed. Why were these men here?
“Can I help you?”
“Are you James Douglas?”
“Yes. Is something wrong?”
The shorter of the two cleared his throat. “I regret to inform you that there was a fire at Mr. Stephen Nolan’s house last night. It took a long time to extinguish the fire. Once the men began going through the place, they realized there was a body inside.”
It took Sharp a moment to realize the officer was talking about Thario. “Oh crap. Are you sure it’s him?”
The officer nodded. "Fairly. The medical examiner will confirm, but you were listed as the primary contact with the VA. I'm sorry to have to bring you this news. Mr. Nolan perished in the fire."
Sharp wiped his hand over his face, trying to come to terms with the information. The door opened upstairs, and he glancedover his shoulder, seeing Danika coming down. She stopped midway on the stairs, concern etched on her face.
“Is everything okay?”
Sharp shook his head. The words were too hard to get out. She rushed the rest of the way down and wrapped her arms around him. He loved that she knew he needed support.
“It’s Thario. There was a fire at his place, and he didn’t get out.”
“Oh, no. That is awful.” Her arms tightened around him, and he wasn’t sure if she was holding him up or holding on for dear life.
The officers took a step back. They were done with their task and were ready to leave.
“Thank you for coming in person to tell me the news.” He shook their hands for the respect they’d shown. Giving death notices wasn’t ever a wanted task.
The shorter officer nodded. “I’ll keep up with the medical examiner and find out what he thinks. Once he has answers, I’ll come back and tell you what we find.”
“Thank you.”
He closed the door, and Danika enveloped him in a hug. His eyes squeezed shut, blocking out everything as he held onto his woman, trying to find some comfort though they'd heard the worst news possible.
It wasn’t fair for Thario to die this way. He’d been doing so well. Frog was getting older, but he was still doing stuff for Thario. They all knew he would need a new dog soon, but Thario had come to terms with that and had been trying to decide what to do about a new dog.
Physically, Thario was still dealing with some pain, but he’d started a new physical therapy regimen that was helping. He had a great group he was working with to track down terrible people who were abusing others, and they’d done some incredible work.Overall, he thought Thario’s life was coming together. And now it was all over.
Danika leaned back, and Sharp wasn’t ready to let her go, but the look in her eyes made him pause.
“What?”
She shook her head. “Nothing. Just a wild thought.”
“Tell me.”
She shrugged. “It’s dumb, but what if someone did something and that’s not Thario? I mean, he’s always looking into bad people. What if one of the bad people found him?”
He blinked at her, drawing in a slow breath as he thought about her words. He didn’t want to get his hopes up too much. He’d lost so many great friends over the years, and hoping they weren’t really gone was never a good thing. Friends on planes or helicopters that dumped into the ocean, there was always that little niggling doubt in the back of his mind that maybe they were still out there. But going down that path was never good.
“I don’t know.”
She held up one hand as if she wanted him to listen to her. “Just let me talk. Okay. I know this sounds crazy, but what if someone came to attack him and he took off? What if he’s out there, alive?”
Sharp shook his head. It was wishful thinking on her part. He needed to let her down easily. “No, he would contact us.”
“What if he can’t?” She threw up her hands as if her frustration had multiplied. “I don’t know. What if?—”
