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contacts his personnel file indicated he wore. Nothing wrong with that. But he had a small child at home and a wife nearly twenty years his junior. Why volunteer for extra duty? Especially dangerous duty?
    “What made you decide to give Captain Allen a hand with GTF?”
    Obvious frustration crept into his expression. “My partner, Jack Riley, has been picking up extra shifts with the GTF for months. He believes Captain Allen’s efforts are making a hell of a difference in the mounting wave of gang activities washing over this city. Jack’s conviction made me want to do my part, too. I have a son, Chief. I need to help put these bastards out of business. That’s the only reason I wasn’t home with my wife and child last night,” he said with a notable hint of anger in his tone now. “If that makes me a suspect in your eyes there’s nothing I can do about that except pray you won’t waste valuable time.”
    Jess accepted the lieutenant’s not so subtle rebuke with a nod. “A more than worthy cause, Lieutenant. I hope you understand that every question I ask is essential to getting to the bottom of this awful business. I’m not in the habit of wasting time.”
    He scrubbed his hands over his face, the platinum wedding band glistening on his left ring finger. “It’s hard as hell to sit here and answer your questions” he admitted, “but I recognize we have to do this. Ask your questions so we can move on.”
    “All right. Beyond your recent support of the GTF, have you worked any cases that could have somehow put you on someone’s revenge list? Think carefully, Lieutenant. Sometimes trouble can come from the last place we expect. Could be something that happened in your personal life.”
    Grayson shook his head. “I’ve gone over and over the cases in my head, frontward and backward. Not one comes to mind. My partner and I have been pulling surveillance for GTF, nothing more. Most of the time the field ops are reserved for those trained specifically for drug and gang enforcement. Jack and I have been involved in only one field operation. You might not remember but I was on the scene at your recovery Saturday night.”
    That was where she’d seen him. “I appreciate the backup, Lieutenant.” The reality that his wife had been so gruesomely murdered scarcely more than forty-eight hours after he’d come to Jess’s rescue made keeping her emotions at bay more difficult. She cleared her mind of the sickening images of the scene at his home and steadied her full attention on the man and the case. Even regret was a distraction she couldn’t afford on this case.
    “Nothing in your personal life comes to mind either? No problems between you and your wife? Sometimes the birth of a child can change things. Drive a wedge between a couple.”
    Fury lit in Grayson’s eyes. His jaw hardened as if holding back his initial response took enormous effort. “My wife and I could not be happier. Our marriage is…” His expression turned haunted. “Our marriage was as close to perfect as any couple could hope for.”
    Jess held his gaze when she felt confident he would have looked away. “Even with you away from home so much? Some women might not have been so understanding. There are, after all, husbandly duties around the house and in the bedroom.”
    Burnett sent her a warning look. The attorney shifted in his chair. No one wanted her to go down that path, but the question had to be asked.
    “I took care of my family, Chief. Always,” Grayson promised. “If you can find anyone who’ll say otherwise I’ll be shocked.”
    The man was sure of himself. He’d thrown down that gauntlet without hesitation. Maybe Trenton was wrong about Gabrielle feeling overwhelmed… or maybe Grayson didn’t know his wife as well as he thought.
    “I’m not making any accusations,” Jess reminded him. “Just asking the necessary questions. To your knowledge Gabrielle was having no regrets over giving up her work to be a full-time