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I’m going to cook for you.”
    “You’re the only person who does that,” Hal said. “And I love you for it, by the way. My world has become a better place since you entered, Sadie. Raisin?”
    “Wrinkled fruit makes me sad,” Sadie said, refusing the raisin with a grimace.
    “If this private investigator thing doesn’t work out, you should start thinking up slogans for t-shirts. That could be your first. What else have you got?”
    “My dad wants me to be a cop.”
    “That doesn’t have the same ring to it.”
    “No, I mean my dad really wants me to be a cop,” Sadie said.
    “What’s wrong with being exactly what and who you are now?” Hal asked.
    “Everything, according to my dad. I stopped living up to his expectations sometime around my thirteenth birthday. I think that was about the time he realized I wasn’t a boy.”
    “Slow learner, your dad.”
    “I had him fooled for a while, but my body decided to betray us both.”
    “Remind me to send your body a thank you card,” Hal said. “I know you know this, but if your dad can’t appreciate your awesomeness in its current package, then it’s his problem, not yours.”
    She grinned at him. “I do know. A lack of confidence has never been one of my foibles, but thank you. I wish things could be different with my dad, but I do realize that it’s his issue and not mine.”
    “My Sadie is sad, and that should never be. I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, but maybe you should leave this place. If your dad and the L-person are getting you down this much, maybe it’s time to move on.”
    “Moving on has always been my go-to in the past. The sadness goes away for a while, but it always finds me again. I need to make things right once and for all, to fix everything that’s my fault. It’s time to put on my big girl panties and deal.”
    “If you need any help with those panties, you know where to find me, Sadie. Day or night. Seriously. And if I’m not there, could you take a picture?”
    “Hal, you make me laugh.”
    “That time I was serious,” Hal said, his tone petulant.
    Sadie was laughing when they pulled up the long lane to Fiona Tomkins’ house. But when the door of her car was ripped open and a shotgun was shoved against her temple, her laughter quickly went away.

Chapter 4
     
     
    They were frog marched into a small house. The man holding a gun on Sadie was wiry, leathery, and probably younger than he looked. The man holding a gun on Hal could have looked like anything—it was difficult to tell under a massive beard that hung below his chin.
    “Fiona,” the smaller man called. “Fiona, come out here.”
    Fiona came from the back of the house, wiping her hands on a towel. “What the world are you doing, you dang fool?” She walked forward and snatched the guns away from the men, giving the smaller one a shove that sent him flailing into the wall.
    “I’m trying to figure out what these strangers are doing here on my land,” he said, quickly righting himself and glaring up at her.
    “It’s our land, and don’t you forget it,” Fiona said. She looked in danger of clunking him over the head with one of the guns. They glared at each other, the tension palpable between them.
    “I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this is your ex-husband,” Hal said. Reluctantly, they tore they gazes off each other and fastened them on him.
    “Who’s he?” the presumable Mr. Tomkins asked.
    “I hired security,” Fiona said. She fisted her hands on her hips. Sadie turned her attention to the unknown man to their right. Was he their son? It was difficult to tell who he looked like under so much facial hair. He regarded her with a solemn, unflinching expression that left her vaguely unsettled. It was as if instead of her trying to figure him, he was figuring her. If the blankness in his eyes was any indication, he wasn’t impressed by what he found.
    “What do you mean you hired security?” Mr. Tomkins