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good about with this case,” she said.
    Tain looked up at the window as well. “No, I don’t suppose we will.” He reached for his ringing cell phone. After a few one-word responses he hung up and paused as he looked her in the eye.
    Ashlyn groaned. “Don’t tell me.”
    Tain nodded. “Sergeant Zidani wants to see us in his office.” “May as well get this over with,” Ashlyn muttered as she followed him to their car.
    Craig felt the knots in his shoulders loosen when he saw the familiar figure leaning over his desk. He bent over her shoulder and glanced at the note she was writing.
    “I know you can’t make lunch. That’s why we’re eating out.”
    She turned and gave him a look. “Very funny.”
    He held up his hands as he sat down. “It wasn’t a shot at your culinary skills.” He smiled. “Or lack thereof.”
    Ashlyn’s eyes pinched as she leaned back against his desk and glared at him. “My peanut butter sandwiches are as good as anyone’s.”
    Said with jest, but there was something in her eyes. A weight. “You guys catch something bad?” he asked.
    “A murder. Four-year-old boy.”
    “Domestic?”
    She opened her mouth to answer, but said nothing. Craig was used to the vacuous look she got when she was deep in thought. In as much time as it took to snap your fingers the look was gone. She glanced at Luke and shook her head. “It’s…messy.”
    Craig looked at Luke, who was again avoiding eye contact. He seemed to have an endless supply of fascinating paperwork to read. Couldn’t the guy take a hint and go find himself a cup of coffee or a window to stare out of?
    “And you haven’t got time to eat?”
    A thin smile. “We’ve been summoned to the sergeant’s office.”
    “Lucky you.”
    Her eyebrow rose and the hint of a real smile tugged at her mouth for a few seconds, then faded. “It’ll probably go further than that. This one’s bad.”
    Children always were, for a variety of reasons, but something about the way she said it made him suspect this one was more complicated than usual. “You know where to find me.”
    She nodded. “What about you? Working on something interesting?”
    He surveyed the thin pile of paperwork on his desk. “More annoying than anything.” Craig made the mistake of looking up in time to see the softening around her eyes. The longer he was kept on the sidelines at work the more she worried about him.
    Tain approached them and Craig offered a quick nod. “Tough case, I hear.”
    No hint of emotion on Tain’s face, just a one-word reply. “Yeah.” Tain had a way of packing so much meaning into one single syllable. When Craig, Ashlyn and Tain had first worked together Craig and Tain had barely moved from open hostility to thinly veiled loathing.
    In the end, they’d both earned a grudging respect for each other. Then, when they’d all been transferred to the Tri-Cities they’d ended up working together. Ashlyn and Tain had been partnered, and when the case was finished they continued working together.
    Once Ashlyn had been cleared to return to active duty.
    “Zidani’s waiting for us,” Tain said as he glanced at his partner.
    “Lambs to the slaughter.” She straightened up and followed Tain out the doorway.
    Craig rolled his chair toward his desk and picked up the note she’d started to write. She’d only written that she couldn’t make lunch, nothing more. He’d interrupted her before she’d even had a chance to sign it.
    She’d never leave anything too personal for him at work anyway. It wasn’t her style.
    He crunched up the slip of paper and tossed the ball in the garbage can beside his desk and was about to pick up the phone when he took a second glance.
    Other than the note he’d just thrown in, the garbage can was empty.
    A quick glance at the can sitting beside Luke’s desk confirmed it was half-full.
    He looked up. For once, Luke had made himself scarce and disappeared so quietly Craig couldn’t even be sure if he’d left