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Aidan.
    “I’ll take a roasted beet salad and a lemonade,” Sofia said.
    “Not ordering the peach iced tea?” Aidan asked. “You love it so.”
    That had been what she had drunk too much of on the day of the unfortunate peeing incident at Big Rock Rehab. “Maybe you ought to have some coffee. I hear it makes your sperm swim faster.”
    Brendan stared at her. She couldn’t believe she’d said that out loud. But she was getting pretty sick of Aidan teasing her about that particular topic.
    The waitress turned to Brendan. “And for you?”
    “Chicken pot pie with salad and,” he hesitated, then sighed, “a coffee.”
    “For you, sir?” she asked Aidan.
    “What would you recommend?” he asked.
    She giggled. “The three cheese ravioli is good.”
    “I’ll have whatever you say. And also coffee.”
    “My name’s Taylor, if you need anything else.” She didn’t write anything on her order pad, just sashayed off, getting some good swing on her hips.
    Brendan cleared his throat. “Let’s start with old cases.”
    “I found Mrs. Thanjan’s cat, Lakshmi,” Sofia said.
    “What steps did you take?”
    She began her recitation. “I got a photo and made up some posters, plastered them on every light pole within a three block radius, canvassed house to house with a picture of the cat, but didn’t turn up anything. Then I borrowed a bloodhound from a guy I used to work with, and he trailed her to Mrs. Thanjan’s crawl space. She’d been hit by a car.”
    Brendan sighed. “How’d Mrs. Thanjan take the news? Sometimes they don’t pay if the cat is dead.”
    “She wasn’t dead,” Sofia hurried to say. “She’d been hit by a car and had a broken hip, but I slid a piece of cardboard under her and got her out. We took her to the vet, and she’s going to be fine in a month or so. The vet says she probably won’t even have a limp.”
    “Nice work,” Brendan said.
    She smiled. She was proud of herself, actually. The crawl space had been low and full of spiders, cobwebs, and a nasty dank smell. She’d had to belly crawl with the flashlight in her teeth, but it was all worth it when she got to the wounded cat and knew she had saved her life. “Lakshmi has many happy years ahead of her, the vet said. Years.”
    “Lost cats are hard to find,” Aidan said, grudgingly. “Good idea with the bloodhound.”
    “Next time, I’ll start with that,” Sofia said.
    Taylor came back with Sofia’s lemonade and the coffeepot. She reached across Aidan to pour his coffee, her breasts practically brushing his hair.
    “Thanks for the coffee,” he said. “Taylor.”
    Sofia took a sip of her lemonade. Not as good as the iced tea, but it hadn’t betrayed her yet either.
    “Aidan, any progress on Mrs. Eden?” Brendan asked.
    “She’s not going to like it,” Aidan said.
    “And?” Brendan prompted.
    The drinks arrived, and Aidan waited for the waitress to leave before answering. She flashed him a flirtatious smile, and Sofia noticed she’d written a phone number on the underside of his napkin.
    “You ought to call her,” Sofia said. “She’s pretty, she’s seems nice, and she’s clearly into you.”
    “I could never do that.” Aidan looked shocked. “How can I calculate our compatibility? I don’t know enough about her.”
    “That’s what the call would be for. To find out,” Sofia said.
    “Sofia’s got a good point.” Brendan took a sip of coffee. “But let’s get back to work. The Eden case.”
    “Mr. Eden has definitely left the garden. I have incriminating photos of him with three different women—a stripper, a hooker, and his secretary. At his age, you have to admire the stamina.”
    “He’s not that old,” said Brendan.
    Mr. Eden was about Brendan’s age, if she remembered correctly.
    “Finish up your report, then call Mrs. Eden and have her come in so I can deliver the information to her personally. We don’t want to tell her over the phone,” Brendan continued.
    She was glad he