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debating now.
    “He’s as capable of running it now as he ever was,” Jonathan said.
    Ben went to the window and looked out again. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. He never was capable. Our illustrious former mayor was his uncle. Nepotism, pure and simple. The whole family is corrupt. He’s not qualified to do that job, and it’s time somebody else was appointed.”
    “When he finds Lisa, you’ll change your opinion,” Jonathan said. “Meanwhile, I’m calling off the debate.”
    Ben threw up his hands. “I don’t care.”
    Jonathan looked at Morgan, and she knew he realized the urgency of the situation. This was no publicity hoax.
    Ben Jackson was scared to death.

CHAPTER 5
    B lair Owens’s morning walk always provided the last bits of peace in her day, before she started chasing down stories for the newspaper that came out three times a week. The newspaper business was new to her. For the past several years she had worked as a librarian, and only bought the paper a month ago. While she was widely known as a research whiz who could chase down facts like a greyhound after a rabbit, being a librarian had suited her specific paranoias. The burn scars that covered the right side of her face made her uncomfortable in public, but when she’d bought the paper, she’d been forced outside her walls. It took some getting used to, but she was finding that her new duties suited her personality even better.
    She trudged through the sand and grass on the river side of the island to Cricket’s, the little hole-in-the-wall diner on the dock where she had breakfast each morning. Often her walk had a payoff at the end, when she found Cade sitting at the counter, sipping his coffee as if waiting for her to come in.
    She hoped he would be there today. It had been a month since that first kiss between them, and ever since she’d walked around with butterflies in her stomach, wondering if it had meant as much to him as it had to her. Though he’d been spending a lot more time with her since then, she didn’t want to assume anything. Word had gotten around that she and Cade were a couple, and people on the island were beginning to treat them as one. But in truth, she wasn’t sure what they were. They had never expressed their feelings in words, but Cade’s treatment of her had changed from intense friendship to flirtation. Not having that much experience with that type of relationship, she found herself feeling like a bumbling kid who had a crush on someone out of her league.
    She got to the screen door of the small diner and pushed inside. Cade sat at the counter, wearing his khaki uniform. He swiveled on his stool at the sound of the door and smiled at her. She couldn’t explain the thrill that went through her.
    “Hey there,” she said in a voice that she hoped sounded friendly and cool. She fought the urge to lean over and kiss him, to touch his freshly shaven jaw or run her finger over his ear.
    “I was hoping you’d come in before I had to leave.”
    “Where you going?”
    “Work.” He turned back to the counter as she sat down. “Colonel, get Blair a cup of coffee, will you?”
    She studied Cade as the Colonel got her a cup. He looked as if he hadn’t gotten much sleep last night. Had the pain kept him awake? She’d seen the struggle he encountered going from crutches to that cane, forcing himself to walk on the surgically repaired fractures, his bones held together only by the steel rods the surgeons had inserted. “You look tired.”
    “Yeah, I didn’t get much sleep last night.” He sipped his coffee. “Been working on a missing person case.”
    “Who’s missing?”
    “Lisa Jackson,” the colonel said over the bar.
    Blair looked up and caught her breath. “Ben Jackson’s wife? She’s missing?”
    Cade sipped his coffee and nodded. “Yeah. It’s pretty much common knowledge now, since we’ve been questioning people all over the island.”
    “Ben too,” the proprietor said. “He was in