“Frank!”

Lineup was about to start when Frank’s name was hollered through the headquarters.

It cut Gavin off as he bemoaned missing some real police action last night. “You should’ve called me! I would’ve wanted to be there. I-”

“Frank! Now!”

Frank looked at the kid, who was shaking his head like he’d just heard the news of a relative’s death. “We were off duty. I went in as a favor to the captain.”

“Frank!”

“Looks like he appreciates it,” Gavin said in a flat tone.

Frank sighed and lumbered down the hallway to Captain Grayson’s office. The door was wide open, so he walked in. “Angela?”

She stood straight, just to the left of the captain’s desk, her arms crossed tightly in front of her slender body. The light pink jacket and skirt, matched perfectly to her lipstick, were not doing much to make her scowl look any softer. Her glare hit Frank like sunlight beaming off a mirror. He knew he was in trouble but with whom? Her or the captain?

“Frank, sit down,” Grayson said.

“You stay right there!” Angela barked, pointing her finger at him.

The captain skittishly ducked.

Frank froze, unsure what to do. He tried a small smile. “I’m glad you’re okay. I was worried.”

“Worried? How can you be worried?”

Frank glanced at Grayson to get a read on him. Yep, he was fuming. “It’s not like you to not be at home. Then work. And then last night, not at home. Again. And-”

“You came by my house last night?”

“I was with Damien,” Frank said with a shrug. “I just thought I’d check on you, and when you weren’t there, I, um…”

She grabbed a piece of paper out of her purse and waved it in the air. “A missing person report? Really? Really?” She crumpled it up and threw it at him. It hit his chest and dropped to the floor, where he was looking anyway. “Do you know how humiliated I am? I’m at work, a professional place of business, when two cops show up this morning and start asking me all these questions.”

Frank tried to keep it in but couldn’t. “Where were you?”

Angela gasped. “You’re an idiot! I can’t believe you would even stand there and ask that!” She yanked her purse off the chair and swung it over her shoulder. “You have to stop this. Do you understand me? I am a grown woman. We are not married anymore. You have no business being in my business. You need to move on. Why do you even care whether I’m at work or home or elsewhere?”

Frank glanced at the captain, then back at Angela. “Because I still care about you. That’s why. Some weird things are happening in town, and I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

She stepped closer to him, her brow so furrowed that the skin between her eyes turned purple. Her finger jabbed his chest. “Leave me alone or I’m going to file a restraining order on you.”

“Please don’t do this. I, um, overreacted-”

“You’ve crossed the line. You always cross the line. Heard you gave MaLue a ticket. When are you going to get over that? Get a life. Please. Get a life.” Angela brushed past him and out the hallway. Her stilettos clicked and clacked until he heard the back door open and close.

Grayson said, “Close the door.”

Frank closed it and decided to sit down. “Well, I’m glad she’s okay.”

Grayson’s expression didn’t change. “Captain Stephens sent out his guys on this. Gave it preferential treatment because you’re one of our own. Said you sounded frantic when you were filling out the form at the station last night.”

“I couldn’t find her.”

“Yeah, but don’t you think this is a little extreme?” Grayson asked. “We all know the divorce was hard on you. I realize it’s been difficult to let her go, but-”

“It’s not about that,” Frank snapped. He drew in a quick breath. “It’s not about the divorce.”

“Then what’s it about?”

“I just… I overreacted. That’s all. I mean, we’ve got dead cats hanging in trees and deacons abusing their wives. Stuff like this doesn’t happen in Marlo.”

“If she were to press criminal charges against you, you’d lose your job. You understand that, don’t you?”

Frank leaned forward, trying to relieve the strain on his chest caused by all the emotion that wanted to bubble up and out. None of this would be happening if she hadn’t insisted on a divorce five years ago. He could protect her.

There was nothing for Frank to say. He froze in his own humiliation. It was one thing for the captain to come down on him, but another for Angela to. He saw the hate in her eyes. It was the same look she’d had for him that morning at breakfast when she announced she wanted a divorce.

Grayson pulled a folder off his desk. “The woman from last night, the deacon’s wife, she’s not pressing charges. Says it was an accident.”

“So I guess she’s going to live.”

“Fractured skull but the bleeding has stopped and the doctors said she’ll make a full recovery. So the case is closed. I don’t know if the neighbors are going to press charges about the cat. I need you to write up your part of the report. Murray will fill in the rest. Now, go on. Get out of here.”

Frank stood slowly. His knees hurt today.

“By the way, I told Gavin to report if you go anywhere near Angela.”

“Is that really necessary?” Frank asked.

“I don’t know. You tell me.”

Frank went to the door. The day hadn’t started and already he was exhausted. “Captain?”

“Yeah?”

“What about this Web site?”

“What Web site?”

“The one where all this information is coming from. It’s got this ominous message on it about our town, and now apparently we’ve got someone recording private conversations and posting them there. Look what it’s already caused.”

The captain sighed. “There’s always going to be things to get mad about. Any guy that would throw a remote control at his wife doesn’t need a Web site to set him off. It could’ve been anything.”

“It’s stirring up trouble in our community.”

Grayson nodded, but his focus had turned to a file on his desk.

“Aren’t you curious how this person’s doing it?”

“Doing what?”

“Listening to people’s conversations?”

Grayson lifted his hands as if he were at a loss for words. His focus went back to the file he was trying to read.

“I think we should investigate it.”

“Come on. We can’t get involved in this.”

“The Shaws aren’t the first. There are days’ worth of conversations on there now. Some of the conversations are mundane and meaningless. Others have more of a…”

“A what?”

“There are words. There are words on there that are going to change people’s lives.”

“Just let it drop. If it becomes a big deal, then it becomes a big deal. Marlo doesn’t need anything else to worry about right now.”

Frank tried to walk out but he couldn’t. Wouldn’t. “I think that it’s in the best interest of the town to find out at least how the Shaws’ conversation was recorded.”

“Frank,” the captain said in a heavy tone, “we’ve got two detectives working all of our departments. Our budget was slashed last year. We don’t have the resources for…” His tired expression grew stern. “This is about a man assaulting his wife with a remote control. Whatever caused him to go off isn’t our problem.”

“But if we could just check their house for bugs-”

“You mean bring the state in on this? You know we don’t have the resources for that, and the last thing we want is the state involved in our town.” Grayson gave him a hard look. “Now leave this alone. That’s an order.”

“This is great stuff,” Edgar said, skimming the notes Damien had handed him. Edgar sipped scalding black coffee, blowing the steam off the top. “Yeah, I like this. I like the direction this is going.” He tapped the paper. “And this Web site. That’s intriguing.”

“The Web site? Well, yes, I suppose it is. But I’d like to focus on the Shaws and their-”