SECOND CHANCES (ORIGINAL WORK)

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Nathan signed heavily and pinched the bridge of nose to ease the oncoming migraine. Eighteen months had passed since Angeline had left. Since then, he had hoped to find at least a hint of his wife's whereabouts, but nothing had turned up. She was good. Damn good at covering her tracks.

I will find her though, he thought, no matter how good she thinks she is, I'm better. I'm a damn cop.

All the same, no matter how confident he felt that he would find her, the fact that he hadn't yet left him frustrated.

The search for his wife had kept him up night and day, yet the end didn't look any closer than it was when he had started.

He'd just hit another dead end. A private investigator had come upon an Angeline Snyder matching his descriptions three months ago. He'd followed up in that trail until she had relocated to Canada. He hadn't panicked at the immigration—he was fine as long as she was close enough to reach.

And just when he thought he had her, the PI had called a few minutes ago to tell him that was the wrong Angeline Snyder. In his anger, he had immediately fired the investigator. Nathan had spent a lot of money on the PI and yet, in over a year there was nothing to show for it.

He would have to take matters into his own hands.

Just then, his desk phone rang, and interrupted his musings. With a frustrated growl Nathan picked up the receiver and stabbed the button to connect the call.

"This is Detective Snyder," he said.

"Hello, Detective Snyder? This is Deborah Sparks, I'm an attorney—"

The line went dead.

Nathan stared at the receiver for a while before replacing it in the cradle. He wondered briefly what that was about. What would an attorney want with him? Unless...

He rubbed his throbbing temples with his fingers before leaning back in his chair, his brows drawn together in a frown.

Nathan raised his head at the sound of approaching footsteps. An officer stopped at his desk.

"Hey," the officer said. "Nathan?"

"What do you want?" Nathan groaned.

"Captain Langston wants to see you in his office."

Nathan's frowned. What in the hell did his captain want with him?

Nathan looked past his desk. The office was empty, Nathan looked at his watch and realized the other officers were on their lunch break. He should be off too; the captain couldn't be sure he was at his desk.

"Tell him I'm busy at the moment," Nathan said. He was in no mood to deal with the captain and his drivel.

"He needs you now. It's important," the other officer stated matter-of-factly.

Another frustrated groan erupted from Nathan. He pushed away from his desk and followed the officer down to the captain's office.

The first thing that struck Nathan as odd was the hush that fell over the bullpen as he walked past. The officers that were gathered by the water cooler instantly clammed up as they fixed their eyes on the dark-haired detective. Not once during his time serving this department had he seen them quiet down so he wondered what made today so different.

As he stepped inside his captain's office, he wasn't expecting to see Daniel Hightower, Veronica's husband and Los Angeles' District Attorney standing beside his captain's desk.

"Daniel," Nathan greeted him and held out his hand for Daniel to shake. Daniel stared at his hand for a few seconds but made no move to take it.

"Have a seat, Nathan," Captain Langston said, motioning to the chair in front of his desk.