43

The headline scrolling across the front of her iPad read: Shootout On Skyway Ends In Crash: Off-Duty Police Officer Charged. Lauren didn’t bother to read the article. She hadn’t bothered to go outside and get the newspaper stuffed in her mailbox; it would just be more of the same.

She and Reese had gotten home from headquarters at ten o’clock in the morning and were due back as soon as possible. They’d both gotten three hours of choppy sleep and had to jump right back into the investigation, which would be rolling along without them in their absence. Lauren’s OCD ways had to put a stop to that. Whatever happened now, she needed to be sure she was a part of it.

Lauren scrambled to get dressed after she finally gave up on getting a decent nap, kicking the black gown under her bed, hopefully never to be seen again. She came downstairs to find Reese already up and showered, his staples glistening with some antibiotic goop the doctor had spread over them, eating a bowl of cereal in her living room with Watson at his side. Ears pricking up, Watson wagged his tail at her appearance, not even flinching when she tossed the tablet on the couch near him.

“Don’t you want to know how it ends?” Reese asked shoveling cereal from the bowl into his mouth. “I was riveted right up to the last paragraph.”

She sat down on the couch next to the Westie, careful not to squash her tablet. “I’ll wait for the movie.”

Watson rolled over onto his back so she could scratch his belly. A Sunday afternoon decorated with the season’s first snowfall should have been cause for hot chocolate and cozy slippers. Instead, Reese’s head was dotted with twelve staples and every detail of what had gone on the night before had been leaked to the press. Including the fact that Sam Schultz was the suspect in the cold case homicide of Gabriel Mohamed. Carl Church was right when he called it a shitshow. Their whole case had been laid out for the media before they had even stepped in a courtroom.

“I can’t believe this.” Lauren repositioned herself on the couch to give Watson more room. Every part of her body hurt from the crash, and her tongue was swollen. She was lucky her stitches had all held. Lucky, too, the brass hadn’t insisted she go to the hospital. Another night at ECMC and she would have lost what was left of her mind. “Talk about showing your opponents all your cards right off the bat.”

“Yeah, well.” A piece of yellow Cap’n Crunch hung from Reese’s lip for a second, then tumbled off onto her hardwood floor. “At least now we know who the leak is.”

“We do?”

Reese nodded, sending another piece of cereal flying. Watson made to jump after it and gobble it up, but Lauren held onto him, not knowing if sugar was bad for dogs.

“I kind of told a lie, accidently on purpose, to someone during my statement last night. Just one detail to just one person. That detail made the paper.”

“What did you say?”

Crunching his way across the living room, he picked the tablet up, awkwardly juggling it while still trying to stuff as much cereal in his mouth as he could. After hitting the touchscreen as best he could, he held it out to Lauren. “Right there,” he said as she rescanned the article. “Four or five paragraphs down. I gave my full name for the statement. Shane Robert Reese.”

Lauren looked up. “Your middle name is Raymond.”

“You know that.” He winked, that big shit-eating grin spreading across his face as he held the bowl close to his mouth. “But the leak didn’t. He only ever saw Shane R. Reese anywhere else. That name in the paper could’ve only come from the leak. I suspected, but now I know. You should thank me for being so damn brilliant.” He then tipped the bowl up to his lips and slurped down the rest of his milk.