LITMIR.BIZ

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both healthy, growing males. We need our food.”

      She snorted and he grinned back. He and Grace had been partners on and off for a dozen years, first on patrol and then as detectives. They knew each other inside and out and loved each other deeply, just not in a romantic way. She’d always been like an annoying little sister to him, but he couldn’t imagine his life without her.

      “What brings you down here?” Beau asked. “I didn’t think we’d have to see your ugly mug for at least another few months.”

      She made a face with features that were small and delicate and, he had to admit, far from ugly. “Keep it up and you won’t have to see it for longer than that.” She paused. “Actually, Beau, I just talked to Charlie about extending my maternity leave by another six months. I’m going to fill out the paperwork.”

      He stared at her, grim images of spending more time with an eager puppy of a partner like J. J. Griffin. He did a quick mental calculation. “A whole year? You’re taking a whole year off? You were just getting back in the groove!”

      “I’m sorry, Beau. I should have told you before I talked to Charlie and filled out the paperwork.”

      “Why do you need a whole year?” He knew he probably sounded like a spoiled little kid whose best friend was moving away but he couldn’t seem to help it.

      “When you have children, maybe you’ll understand. I didn’t have many choices with Marisa. You know what it was like for us. I was all she had and she was barely a few weeks old when I had to go back to work just to pay the rent. This time everything is different. I’ve discovered I’m not in a big hurry yet to rush back to all this. I just need a little time with Em and the baby. But I’ll be back, I promise.”

      “Not for a whole year!”

      “Come on, Beau. J.J.’s a good cop. You’ll break him in. Besides, you still have to promise to keep me up-to-date on what you’re working on. I’ll still be around so you can bounce cases off me. What put you in such a temper earlier?”

      He held up the Hidalgo file. “This.”

      She read the name on the tab. “Tina Hidalgo. Why does that sound so familiar?”

      “You should know since you’re the one who sicced her friend on me. Elizabeth Quinn, remember? You told her I would look into the closed case for her.”

      She caught on quickly. “You saw Elizabeth? Are you reopening it?”

      He nodded with a glare.

      “She must be so relieved.”

      “I don’t know about that. She’s a hard nut to crack.”

      “She’s just quiet. When you get to know her a little better, you’ll find out she’s a real sweetheart.”

      He wasn’t so sure. He had a feeling sitting in an ice-cold stakeout car in the middle of January would be warmer than spending any more time with Elizabeth Quinn.

      Grace frowned at him as she settled the baby back into the carrier. “You’ve got that look on your face again, Beau. She is a sweetheart. She’s just a little reserved with people she doesn’t know. Be nice to her, okay?”

      “I’m nice to everyone,” he growled.

      Before Grace could answer, the lieutenant’s booming voice carried through the whole squad room.

      “Riley! What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

      Beau sent a quick glance to Emma, still folding what was turning into a whole fleet of paper airplanes. She had stopped working and was looking at him wide-eyed.

      “Uh-oh.” Gracie stood up. “Sounds like you’ve stepped in it again. This looks like a good time for us to run. We have a lunch date, anyway. See you later, Beau. Why don’t you come out for dinner next week? I’ll call you.”

      She kissed him on the cheek, then waited for Emma to do the same before leading her by the hand toward the door, the baby carrier in the other hand, just before Charlie reached his desk.

      Short, thickly built and in his midfifties, Charlie Banks was just about the best cop Beau had ever known. He had sharp instincts and a pit bull’s temperament when it came to investigations. A native of Boston, he still spoke with a hard New England accent and had little patience for stupidity.

      “I just got off the phone with the medical examiner,” he growled. “Imagine my surprise when he informs me you have reopened an investigation two other fine detectives of this department ruled a suicide. You mind telling me when the line-of-command fairy dropped by and granted you a free pass?”

      Beau winced. He supposed he should have told Charlie what he was up to. “I told a friend of Gracie’s I would look into the matter for her. I spotted a red flag or two so I’m just double-checking some things.”

      “Riley, how many damn times do I have to tell you? You can’t just hotshot around here, picking and choosing the cases you want to work on. You’ve got twenty active case files on your desk as we speak. Until you clear a few of those, you don’t have time to run around digging up self-inflicted gunshot cases.”

      “What if it wasn’t self-inflicted? Look at this photograph. Doesn’t that look like a bruise on her wrist?”

      Charlie squinted at the autopsy photo. “It’s a smudge on the film. That’s it. Certainly not enough to warrant any more use of this department’s time and energy.”

      The lieutenant saw a smudge on the print; Beau saw a woman who loved her son and inspired deep loyalty in her friends.

      “Charlie, I’ve got a hunch about this one. You mind if I work it on my own time?”

      His boss looked at him for a moment, then rolled his eyes. “You need a life, Riley.”

      “Yeah, tell me something I don’t know. So are we good on the Hidalgo case?”

      “Your time is none of my business. Do what you want. Just don’t do it when you’re supposed to be working other investigations. You come up with something besides a hunch and a smudge on a photograph and we can talk about reopening the case. Until then, you’re on your own.”

      Beau watched Charlie walk back to his office, then looked once more at the driver’s license photo clipped to the manila folder. Tina Hidalgo had been pretty. He could see the signs of it even in the grainy picture. Underneath the hard, brittle shell of worldliness, her mouth was sweetly curved, like a ship’s bow, and her eyes were the same color as cinnamon sugar.

      Maybe she did kill herself. Maybe he was wasting his time. But everyone deserved somebody to stand up for her, even a junkie stripper like Tina Hidalgo.

      Chapter 3

      Elizabeth Quinn’s house was exactly as he expected—huge, elegant and imposing.

      Later that evening, Beau paused outside immense wrought-iron gates and studied the place. The massive structure was redbrick with rows of black shutters marching across the face. It was set back from the road amid glossy, perfectly manicured lawns on a chunk of waterfront property that must have set dear old Dad back a few bucks.

      He turned down the volume on an old Emmy Lou Harris CD and pressed the buzzer, flashing his badge and a curt wave to the security cam. A few seconds later the gates slid open, and he drove up a smooth-as-black-silk driveway.

      The Quinn estate—Harbor View, according to the sign out front—had probably never seen anything as disreputable as his old pickup, he thought with a small grin. Maybe it was about time they did.

      Old money had never impressed him like it did some cops, although very few people in Seattle except Grace knew why. Beau didn’t want it spread around that he had seen more than enough of it in his lifetime to know how controlling and corrosive too much of it could be.

      He walked to the door and rang the buzzer, listening to the low

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