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how could she not be?—who needs your love and support now. I wish I could be there to see it. Take good care of her. She is the precious gift that keeps on giving.’”
    He’d folded the letter knowing, for the first time, exactly what a butterfly pinned and mounted on a display board felt like.
    After answering more questions and giving him the key to Andrea’s apartment where the rest of Lisa’s belongings and other important documents were stored, Carole left. Due to coercion on his part, she’d given him a number where she could be reached. A work number, but at least it was something.
    He wasn’t good at talking to females under the age of twenty-one but he knew that, barring an eleventh-hour miracle of some sort, he would have to learn. And learn fast.
     
    Sam couldn’t shake the feeling that he was the child and she the adult. When he spoke to her, Lisa seemed to gently humor him, going along with his suggestion for breakfast—only eggs since he didn’t think that a six-year-old drank coffee—and settling on the sofa to watch television when he turned on the set for her.
    When Sam heard the doorbell ring again less than an hour after Carole’s departure, hope suddenly sprang upin his chest. He thought—fervently prayed—that Carole had suddenly changed her mind about turning over the little girl to him and had, instead, decided that it would be best for all to take her in.
    He lost no time hurrying to open the door.
    Hope died a cruel, quick death, crashing to the ground like a falling comet.
    “Oh, it’s you.” As an afterthought, he stepped to the side to allow Riley to enter.
    But Riley remained where she was. He looked really shaken up, light years away from the smooth operator she had been with yesterday.
    “You can cancel the marching brass band, Wyatt. Fanfare would only embarrass me,” Riley quipped, then got down to why she was here. “Lieutenant Barker’s fit to be tied.”
    His lieutenant’s disposition was extremely low on Sam’s list of concerns at the moment. But he needed to work, now more than ever. This little accident of nature would need to be fed and clothed. And sent off to college. If he was lucky, she’d turn out to be a genius, going through grades at an accelerated rate and displaying the kind of intellectual acumen that attracted scholarships.
    He eyed Riley warily. So far his luck had been running rather poorly this morning. “What did you tell him?”
    “That you were following up on a lead and I was meeting you at the possible suspect’s house. He wants us to hand off that case to Rafferty and Kellogg,” she said, mentioning two other robbery detectives. “Seems that another home invasion went down last night. They onlygot the 9-1-1 call an hour ago. Details of the invasion are similar to one that you were already handling. Then Barker grumbled something about loose cannons and mavericks and retreated into his lair. My guess is that he’s been watching too many action movies.”
    Finished, she peered around her partner’s arm into the apartment. Since Wyatt hadn’t actually voiced an invitation, she decided to take matters into her own hands and crossed the threshold.
    “What was all this about you coming down with a case of ‘kid’?” she asked. “Is that short for something?”
    “Yeah.” Sam closed the door behind her and gestured for Riley to follow him to the living room. “It’s short for ‘big trouble.’”
    About to ask him what he was babbling about, the next minute, she caught sight of the little blond girl on the sofa and had her answer.

Chapter 4
    S tanding just a few feet inside the apartment, Riley looked from the child seated on the sofa to Wyatt and then back again. Surprise mingled with disbelief. The little girl, who had a box and a couple of suitcases beside her, was the very last thing she’d expected to find in Wyatt’s apartment.
    She flashed a wide smile at the little girl. As an official Cavanaugh by marriage, Riley was