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the look of a question mark on his face. I gave him a nod to let him know I was okay.
    Thirty more minutes passed. Triggers finally looked calm. Perhaps, since he saw the volume of records I handed him, he finally believed that I couldn’t store all those documents from nineteen sixty in this small office. I chuckled at the thought of how clueless he was—he actually thought there were only going to be few pages. Another person who didn’t have any idea about how much work we do around here.
    He remained at the counter for about five hours straight. A different police officer took a walk through the building every thirty minutes or so. This made me feel more at ease. I’m not exactly sure when Triggers finally left, sometime around two fifteen in the afternoon. After all that time, he didn’t take copies of anything, but I saw him periodically making notes for himself. I didn’t know if he was coming back for the day or what was going on. I ordered the other files from storage and went about my day.
    When four thirty rolled around, I realized that Triggers had not returned and I was thankful for that. My stomach was growling. I hadn’t been able to leave the office for lunch since that nut was at my office window for such a long time. My dad was making pot roast. The thought of a yummy meal and a nice weekend waiting was enough to make me bounce out of the door as fast as I could.
    As I headed out to my car, I could see Officer Williams across the parking lot. He waved. My knees went weak. I waved back. Oh, he’s so dreamy. “Stop it Chelsey, stop it,” I said to myself, “I do not like him, I do not like him.”
    My train of thought was cut short by the mayor’s voice. “Hi, Chelsey! How’s the baby?” She was always so thoughtful.
    “She’s great; thanks for asking. Do you need my help with anything?”
    “No, I’m fine. I have a meeting to get to at the police station.”
    “Oh, I wanted to ask you, how did everything turn out with the FBI? I missed a lot; I was out for so long.”
    “Case of mistaken identity. Nothing to be concerned with.”
    “Okay, well, I hope your meeting doesn’t last too long. Take care!” I said and I waved as I drove off to my parents’ house.
     

 
     
    Chapter 4
     
    My alarm clock went off at five-o-three a.m. Perhaps alarm clock wasn’t a nice nickname, but that was my little Mandy—an early riser. I shuffled into her bedroom and lifted her out of the crib. I changed her and dressed her in her turquoise elephant shirt and skirt. I put a little turquoise clip bow in her blonde curls, then took her picture with my cell phone. She looked so cute, I had to upload it to Facebook.
    I carried her into the kitchen and fed her breakfast. The doctor let me start feeding her cereal recently and she loved it. I left her in her swing to take a nap while I got showered and dressed for work. I reminded myself to leave early, since it was only two days before the Fourth of July and there would be a lot of visitors on the island this week. I dressed in a beige A-line skirt and black short-sleeved top with my black slingbacks.
    Traffic was heavy, as I predicted, but I still made it to work on time. I turned off the ignition and threw my purse over my shoulder. The sun was shining and it wasn’t too humid for a July morning. I falsely predicted it would be a good day. I walked into the lobby and saw Bonnie standing in the doorway to our office with Detective Jose Texidoro.
    Detective Texidoro, or as I called him, “Tex,” was a veteran on our police force. He had started as a dispatcher when he was twenty years old. He was now forty-six and could retire with a nice pension and full medical benefits whenever he wanted. He was five feet, eight inches tall, Spanish, and had a little beer belly. Tex had a sarcastic personality, in a “trying to be funny” sense. We joked around a lot and he often had me in stitches.
    Tex and his wife Stephanie had been close friends of my family for