Dammit, Samuel, we’ve been searching for months! I thought you were this hot-shot private eye?”William Rutledge paced the length of the comfortable inner-city office his younger brother, Samuel, used as his base for his private investigations firm. Running an agitated hand through his long, dark brown hair, he resisted the impulse to start pulling the strands out or to open the window and start baying in frustration out into the street below.It had been six very, very long months since he had woken up alone that first time. Originally, he had been piqued, depressed over how Josephine could have left him without a note or even a simple, “See you around, it’s been fun.” When he had finally confessed his depression and anger to his new sister-in-law, Sophie, after two weeks of angst and anger, he had realized that there might have been more to Josephine’s leaving than he realized.Sophie, his elder brother Artemais’ new wife and mate, had pointed out that Josephine might have been running, or scared, or any number of horrible things he didn’t want to contemplate.
