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yet.”
    â€œHoney, you told me it was over with him.”
    â€œYeah, it is. We agreed we wouldn’t try the long-distance thing. So it’s over.”
    â€œWell, start acting like it. You left Matt back in Australia seven months ago. At this rate, you’re heading for the nunnery.”
    I have to admit, celibacy is getting a bit hard to handle.
    Sam doesn’t let up. “You’re single, gorgeous and successful. You can have anyone.”
    But it’s not that simple. Sam could have anyone. And I mean anyone. But me? Besides, how do you let go of seven years of your life?
    I smile and change the subject. “So, will Hunter be happy? Pissed?”
    â€œWe’re all half expecting it at the moment. Who knows who’ll be next.”
    â€œSurely they can’t reassign anyone else.” I can’t take any more cases.
    â€œLet’s hope not. Things are going to get pretty hectic here.”
    â€œThey already are.”
    â€œIt’ll get worse.”
    I bite my lip, guilty. Rivers has put me on a pedestal and I don’t think I deserve to be there. I might get one or two things the other profilers don’t but it takes me a lot longer.
    We arrive at my office and I open the door.
    Sam keeps walking down the corridor and then stops and turns around. “I might actually get your opinion on that D.C. case. Maybe tonight after work?”
    â€œSure.” I find it hard to say no, despite my caseload. Besides, it’s Sam. I’d do anything for Sam. She waves and disappears round the corner.
    In my office I flick through the files on my desk, looking for the girl that’s haunting me. I must have seen her somewhere, but where? Fifteen minutes later I give up. I’ve been through every file and my recently tidied desk is a mess again. I put Hunter’s West Australian case at the top of my pile. Even though I’ve never been to W.A., it still makes me think about home. The past seven months have gone quickly, but I still miss Australia.
    A few hours and a quick lunch break later I hit send on an e-mail to Detective Peter O’Leary, the homicide cop in charge of the W.A. case. One down, forty to go. I move the W.A. file from my “to do” tray to my “follow up” tray. I’ll give O’Leary four weeks before I contact him to see if there’ve been any more murders or any breaks. I print out a copy of the profile and place it in the file. The profile should give O’Leary something.
    I’ve got an hour and a half before I’m due to meet Sam in the gym. I take my phone off divert and check my messages. Nothing that can’t wait until tomorrow. It’s a good time to do some follow-ups. I look through some of the crimes I profiled before I went on the Henley case, and spend the next hour and a half talking to cops about any developments. After each call I add updates to the files. Two cases have been solved, so I request more documentation from the cops so I can close off the files.
    It’s just past six-thirty when I hurry down to the gym and into the locker room. I tie up my sneakers and Sam walks in. She looks stressed.
    â€œHard day at the office?”
    â€œYou bet, honey,” she says, rolling her eyes.
    â€œWhat’s up?”
    â€œThe D.C. case. There’s something not quite right about it.”
    â€œThat’s our dinner-date conversation, remember? Let’s concentrate on exhausting ourselves first.”
    â€œDeal. I’ll see you out there.”
    The gym’s busy, with about twenty guys and only two other women there. One of the women is Dr. Amanda Rosen, the departmental psychologist. She, Sam and I often work out together, and occasionally Amanda joins us if we catch a movie or a bite to eat after the gym. I’m sure she’d socialize with us more if it weren’t for the fact that she has to do our six-monthly psych evaluations. I don’t think she wants to get