Free So This Is Love by Barbara Freethy Page B

Halstead, who was also the son of a former San Francisco Supervisor. That couldn't have helped Spencer's case. She could only imagine the kind of influence the Halstead family might have had on the investigation.
    Further searching led Emma to a video shot outside the courthouse the day of Spencer's conviction. A tearful Susan Harrison, Max's mother, spoke about her wonderful son and the miscarriage of justice. Susan wore her brown hair pulled back in a knot, and had on a navy blue suit. She was very thin and quite distraught. Her voice shook with every word, and tears streamed down her face as she looked into the camera and pleaded for someone to help her right a terrible wrong.
    Emma's stomach clenched at the raw pain in her voice. It was obvious she believed completely in Spencer's innocence.
    What had Max thought?
    There was no sign of Max in the video. And he'd told her enough to know that there had been some break in his family. Had that break come with Spencer's arrest? Had Max doubted his brother's story?
    He would have been a young cop at the time of Spencer's arrest, and Max had told her that he'd started at the LAPD, so he'd been a long way from the scene of the crime. But he must have gotten involved. It wasn't his personality to stay on the sidelines. He would have contacted the detectives in San Francisco. He would have used whatever connections he had to make sure that his brother got justice.
    She really wanted to talk to Max, to ask him what had happened and how he'd felt about it all, but she doubted he'd be interested in answering her questions.
    Her fingers hovered over the keyboard and then she gave into an impulse and typed Max's name into the search box. The Internet might reveal some secrets about the man of mystery. Maybe if she knew more about him, she'd find new energy to dislike him, because at some point in the last two days she'd found herself softening towards him. She'd seen another side to the cocky cop, a side she liked way too much.
    Unfortunately, when his picture appeared on the screen, she liked him even more. Even in a formal police department headshot, he looked handsome, with his brown hair, penetrating green eyes, and very sexy mouth. She felt a tingle run down her spine. How could one man's kiss be so good?
    Shaking that question out of her head, she skimmed through several news articles. Max had made a name for himself in the Los Angeles Police Department. He'd put away a lot of criminals and he'd also saved the life of his partner during a drug bust. As she read about his exploits, she realized how courageous and brave he was. She'd seen him mostly in a suit, working an investigation, not throwing himself in front of a bullet, but it was clear he was comfortable doing that, too.
    So her Internet research experiment was a dismal failure. Now Max was not only sexy but also a real live hero.
    "Emma?"
    The voice made her jump. Startled she looked to the door, meeting Sara's questioning gaze.
    "Did I scare you?" Sara asked.
    "I didn't hear you come down the hall."
    Sara moved over to the bed. "You were pretty engrossed in what you were doing." She glanced at the screen. "Ah, so now I know why you were lost in thought."
    Emma quickly closed the computer. "I was doing some research."
    "On the cop who has you hot and bothered," Sara said with a knowing glint in her eyes.
    "I was actually doing some research on Max's brother," Emma said. "Max told me earlier that his brother got out of prison today, and that was all he would say."
    "Which, of course, made you curious."
    "How could I not be? I like to know who I'm working with."
    "So what did you find out?" Sara asked, as she sat down on the bed.
    "There were conflicting reports, but it appears that Spencer, Max's brother, got into a fight with a guy Spencer thought was stalking his girlfriend. As a result of that fight, the other man died, and Spencer was eventually convicted of manslaughter."
    "Was Max involved in the case?"
    "Not