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Jack, but you look like you’ve already gone several rounds.”
    Grinning now, he stroked a thumb over his bruised jaw. “I’ve got a few more rounds in me.”
    â€œI don’t doubt it. But, sad to say, the cop’s right.” She pushed her hair to her back and turned that smile, several degrees cooler now, on Seth. “Tactless, but right. He needs some answers. I need to go back.”
    â€œYou’re not going back to your house alone,” Bailey insisted. “Not tonight, Grace.”
    â€œI’ll be fine. But if it’s all right with your Cade, I’ll deal with this, pick up a few things and come back.” She glanced over at Cade as he came back into the room. “Got a spare bed, darling?”
    â€œYou bet. Why don’t I go with you, help you pick up your things and bring you back?”
    â€œYou stay here with Bailey.” She kissed him, as well—a casual and already affectionate brush of lips. “I’m sure Lieutenant Buchanan and I will manage.” She picked up her purse, turned and embraced both M.J. and Bailey again. “Don’t worry about me. After all, I’m in the arms of the law.”
    She eased back, shot Seth one of those full candlepower smiles. “Isn’t that right, Lieutenant?”
    â€œIn a manner of speaking.” He stepped back and waited for her to walk to the door ahead of him.
    She waited until they were in his car and pulling out of the drive. “I need to see the body.” She didn’t look at him, but lifted a hand to the four people crowded at the front door, watching them drive away. “You need— She’ll have to be identified, won’t she?”
    It surprised him that she’d take the duty on. “Yes.”
    â€œThen let’s get it over with. After—afterwards,I’ll answer your questions. I’d prefer we handle that in your office,” she added, using that smile again. “My house isn’t ready for company.”
    â€œFine.”
    Â 
    She’d known it would be hard. She’d known it would be horrible. Grace had prepared herself for it—or she’d thought she had. Nothing, she realized as she stared down at what remained of the woman in the morgue, could have prepared her.
    It was hardly surprising that they’d mistaken Melissa for her. The face Melissa had been so proud of was utterly ruined. Death had been cruel here, and, through her involvement with the hospital, Grace had reason to know it often was.
    â€œIt’s Melissa.” Her voice echoed flatly in the chilly white room. “My cousin, Melissa Fontaine.”
    â€œYou’re sure?”
    â€œYes. We shared the same health club, among other things. I know her body as well as I know mine. She has a sickle-shaped birthmark at the small of her back, just left of center. And there’s a scar on the bottom of her left foot, small, crescent-shaped, in the ball of her foot, where she stepped on a broken shell in the Hamptons when we were twelve.”
    Seth shifted, found the scar, then nodded to the M.E.’s assistant. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
    â€œYes, I’m sure you are.” With muscles that felt like glass, she turned, her dimming vision passing over him. “Excuse me.”
    She made it nearly to the door before she swayed. Swearing under his breath, Seth caught her, pulled her out into the corridor and put her in a chair. With one hand, he shoved her head between her knees.
    â€œI’m not going to faint.” She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, battling fiercely against the twin foes of dizziness and nausea.
    â€œCould have fooled me.”
    â€œI’m much too sophisticated for something as maudlin as a swoon.” But her voice broke, her shoulders sagged, and for a moment she kept her head down. “Oh, God, she’s dead. And all because she hated me.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œDoesn’t matter.