Mitchell’s entire body goes rigid. He’s about to explode.
I place my hand on his arm. “It’s fine,” I tell him.
He shakes his head. “No, it’s not. I wouldn’t have solved half of these cases without you. You’re more valuable to this station than all the other officers combined.” Mitchell turns to the chief. “You can’t fire her. She’s our best shot at finding this guy. You’ve never seen her in action, Chief. She’s amazing. She’s saved so many people.”
“He thinks I’m giving the station a bad reputation,” I say. “He thinks I made Officer Andrews look bad.” I want him to know what I saw in my vision. Not only to prove what I can do, but so he can hear how ludicrous it actually sounds. “I’m sorry if people have been calling about the last cold case, but that wasn’t a case I failed on. Officer Andrews neglected to solve that kidnapping, which was actually a murder. I wasn’t even working with the WPD at the time. But I offered to work with Officer Andrews so he could clear his own name and reputation. He chose not to take me up on that offer.”
Chief Johansen spins a file on his desk to face me, and I see it’s not O’Neil’s file at all. It’s Mitchell’s. “Detective Brennan, I’ve gotten several complaints since you started working with Ms. Ashwell. You’ve broken protocol for her on numerous occasions. You’ve looked the other way when she’s neglected to follow procedure. I’ve been more than forgiving, but seeing as how I’m a generous man, I’m going to give you two options. You can turn in your badge and serve a suspension, during which time you will review proper protocol, or you can permanently cease working with Ms. Ashwell and be assigned to a partner here at the station.”
There is no choice. He’s already fired me. “He’ll take the partner,” I say.
“Piper.” Mitchell grabs my arm.
I stare him straight in the eye. “Take the partner,” I say. “Trust me on this.”
He lets go of me.
“How long has this been going on?” Chief Johansen asks, motioning between us.
“We’ve been working together since before her father retired,” Mitchell says.
“That’s not what I mean, and you know it.”
Realization dawns on me. “We’re not dating. We’re partners. Mitchell saved my life, so yeah, I call him Mitchell and not Detective Brennan. He’s worked beside me and put his own life on the line for me. That’s what partners do. And you think he’s broken protocol by following my leads, but what am I here for if not to give the department leads? I solve cases for you. Maybe not in the way another police detective would, but I get results. I’ve saved people. And yeah, Officer Andrews hates me, but did you ever consider that the reason he hates me so much is because I’ve forced him to realize the flaws in himself? I’m not perfect, Chief. I’m going to make mistakes just like everyone else. But know that taking me off a case isn’t going to make me stop having visions, and I won’t sit on those visions and do nothing. I’m a licensed private investigator, and I will track down this killer with or without the help of the WPD.”
I nod to Mitchell before turning on my heel and walking out of the office. Officer Andrews is standing right outside the door, and I don’t doubt he heard every word that was said in there. I stare at him. “You chose this war between us. I tried to help you multiple times. You wanted this, and you got exactly what you asked for.”
“I did. You got canned.” He smirks. “I couldn’t be happier.”
“Since I’m no longer working with the WPD, I have no reservations about telling your wife everything I know.”
He grabs my arm, but Officer Wallace marches over to us. “Take your hand off her, Andrews.”
I yank my arm from his grasp and smile at Officer Wallace. “Tell Harry I’m going to miss working with him,” I say before walking out of the station.
Mom pours me another glass of unsweetened iced tea. “I never liked the chief,” she says. “Your father didn’t have trouble with him, but just about everyone else at the station has.”
“It doesn’t seem like Officer Andrews does,” I say, scratching the top of Jezebel’s head, which is in my lap.
“He has in the past. Officer Andrews isn’t well liked, and Chief Johansen has reprimanded him more than once about how he conducts himself around the other officers.
“Then why is he listening to him now?” I know Officer Andrews is behind all of this. I can feel it like a brick in my stomach. A brick I’d like to smash right over Andrews’s head.
“Piper, you’ve always faced people who dislike you solely for what you can do. They don’t understand it, and that scares them.”
“So, Officer Andrews is afraid of me, and, therefore, he found a way to get rid of me?”
“Worse. He made the chief of police fear you.” She’s right. He put enough doubt in the chief’s head for him to give me this impossible case. He set me up to fail so he’d have grounds to dismiss me.
Something else comes to me as an absolute truth. “Chief Johansen is afraid of Dad. That’s why he didn’t try something like this sooner. He knew everyone in town loved Dad when he was on the force, and they wouldn’t support the chief firing me on account that I’m Dad’s daughter. But now that Dad’s been retired for a while and people don’t see him in uniform all the time, the chief thinks it’s safe to get rid of me without getting backlash from the community.”
The front door opens, and Dad comes storming right into the kitchen. “I just got off the phone with Mitchell.”
“Tell me he didn’t do something stupid and get himself fired.” It would be just like him to do so.
“No. But he told me all about your conversation with Johansen. I knew I should have gone to the station with you. I just knew it.” He slaps his hand against the side of his leg, and Jez rushes to his side. I’m not sure if she’s sensing his anger or if she thinks he was giving a command with his hand gesture. Dad bends down and kisses the top of her head.
“What happens now?” Mom asks.
“I have a case to solve,” I say. “I don’t need the WPD to employ me.”
“Piper, the only way you can look into this is if O’Neil hires you.” His mouth curves into a smirk. “Or if someone can get Mrs. Spencer to hire the Ashwell Agency to solve her husband’s murder.”
I smile at Dad. “You got Hugo’s wife to hire us.”
He shrugs. “If Johansen wants a fight, he’s got himself one. He’ll be sorry he fired you when we make the entire station look bad by solving this case for them.”
“What about Mitchell?” I ask.
Mom gives me a knowing look. “What about him, Piper?”
“I don’t want him to get fired because of me,” I say, not about to reveal that Chief Johansen thought we were dating. Mom would start thinking up baby names for all her grandchildren, and then I’d have to break her heart by telling her kids are not in my future.
“Mitchell said he’s been temporarily assigned to a new partner.” Dad lowers his gaze.
Oh no. “Don’t say it. Please don’t say it, Dad.”
“I’m sorry, pumpkin, but Chief Johansen felt the only way to be sure Mitchell didn’t work with you on this case was if his new partner is Andrews.”
It’s a nightmare. I place my head in my hands, elbows on the kitchen table. “That means I have to solve this case without Mitchell.”
“I think you mean we have to,” Dad says. “And it wasn’t so long ago you were begging me not to become Mitchell’s partner.”
“A lot has changed since then.” I went from hating the man, to mildly disliking him, to tolerating him, to being his friend, to…I don’t know what.
“There is another solution,” Mom says, and I detect a hint of a smile in her voice, so I raise my head to look at her.
“What are you scheming?” I ask.
“Well, the chief can stop you two from working together, but he has no jurisdiction when it comes to Mitchell’s personal life.”
“I’m not following.”
Dad starts laughing. “Bonnie, I do think you’re going to give Piper her first gray hair.”
“What am I missing here, you two?” I look back and forth between them.
Mom places her hand on top of mine. “You tell me, Ms. Psychic P.I.”
I stare at her, trying to figure out what crazy plan she’s concocted in that pretty head of hers. And then it hits me. “No. That’s crazy.”
“Is it, though?” Mom asks before taking a sip of her iced tea.
The doorbell rings, and Dad motions that he’ll get it.
“Mom, I fail to see what purpose pretending to date Mitchell will serve in this case.”
“Actually, that’s not a bad plan,” Mitchell says.
I look up to see him standing beside Dad.
“How are you here? Dad said Andrews is your new partner.”
“Lunch break. I ditched him.”
I get up and look out the small window above the kitchen sink. “And you don’t think he’d stoop so low as to follow you?” Across the street, I spot the patrol car. “He’s out there right now,” I say, whirling around on Mitchell.
“Well then, I guess the solution is obvious,” Mom says, getting up to bring her glass to the sink. “If you two were dating, it would be perfectly normal for Mitchell to stop by to see you on his lunch break.” She’s enjoying this far too much.
“You know, pumpkin, I have to agree with your mother.”
“Great. Thanks, Dad.”
Mitchell gently takes me by my elbow. “Can I talk to you outside?”
I roll my eyes, but I allow him to lead me to the front porch. We sit down, and I wave to Officer Andrews. I’m really tempted to give him the middle finger, but Mitchell suspects as much and takes my hand in his to stop me. “I hate that man so much.”
“You’re in good company there.” Mitchell turns my face so I’m looking at him. “Piper, I know you hate this idea, but it could be the solution we’re looking for. If we go along with this, we’d have a reason to be together that has nothing to do with the case. Of course, we’ll be discussing the case and working on leads, but only we’ll know that. Then when we solve the case together, we can come clean, and Chief Johansen will have to see the value you bring to the WPD.”
“I see your point, but I’m not sure I could pull it off. I mean, I’m awful with physical contact, and who is going to believe we’re dating when I can’t even—”
“Hold my hand?” He raises my hand, which is still in his, between us. “It’s like I told you. When you don’t realize you’re letting your wall down, you can control your visions.” He tilts his head in the direction of the patrol car. “And right now, I’m pretty sure we’re convincing Andrews that we’re more than just partners on these cases.”
I still haven’t removed my hand from his, and even though it’s my right hand, I haven’t read him either. “What if I can’t keep this up? I mean, right now, it’s just you and me here. But if we have to do this in front of other people, I could easily freak out and start reading you.”
“We’re in front of three people right now.”
“Three?” I turn to the kitchen window and see Mom’s and Dad’s faces practically pressed up against the glass. I laugh. “They’re impossible. I swear. Sometimes I feel like I’m the parent and they’re two rebellious teenagers.”
“Well, in this situation, you’re more like the rebellious teenager. We are concocting a plan to trick the entire police department, after all.”
“Point taken.” I look out at Officer Andrews again. “I really do want to go to his wife and tell her everything. I don’t know her at all, but she has to deserve better than him.”
He brushes my hair behind my shoulder. “You can’t save everyone. She knows he’s cheated. You’ve seen that. What she chooses to do with that knowledge is up to her.”
“You’re right, but I think you can stop touching my hair and holding my hand now. Officer Andrews is pulling away.”
Mitchell lets go of my hand and places his palms flat on his thighs. “Right. Sorry.”
“Dad got Mrs. Spencer to hire the Ashwell Agency to find out who murdered her husband. So, I’m thinking he and I need to get to the morgue so I can read one of his personal effects.”
“Good thinking. I have to get back to the station anyway. Lunch is over, which is why Andrews left.” Mitchell stands up. “Hey, are you staying at my condo again tonight?”
“Yes, she is,” Mom says through the kitchen window.
“Good Lord, this couldn’t be more embarrassing.”
Mitchell laughs. “Hey, it plays into the whole dating thing.”
“Does it?” I ask. “I mean, I doubt anyone at the station has any trouble believing you’d engage in premarital sex, but I’m a completely different story.”
“I promise not to smear your good name too much,” he jokes. “Besides, we know the truth.”
The problem is he’s right. We both do know the truth: I have real feelings for Mitchell.
“I’ll check in with you later to see what you found out from Mrs. Spencer and to let you know what Andrews and I uncover.” He rolls his eyes at the mention of his new partner.
I nod and watch him get into his patrol car.
Dad comes out onto the porch as Mitchell’s taillights disappear down the street. “So…”
“Don’t even say it.” I hold up my hand for emphasis.
“Say what?” Dad smirks and pulls his car keys from his pants pocket. “I was merely going to say it’s time to head to Mrs. Spencer’s house.”
“Sure you were.” I get in the passenger seat of Dad’s BMW.
Mom waves from the front door, a huge smile on her face.
“She does know this is fake, right? Mitchell and I are only pretending.”
Dad gives me a look as he pulls out of the driveway. “Pumpkin, you are far too perceptive to believe that.”
“Mitchell and I are not really dating.”
“Call it what you want, or don’t label it at all. It doesn’t change the truth.”
“I am not having this conversation with you.” I cross my arms in my seat.
“So you keep saying, yet here we are.”
I refuse to talk for the rest of the drive to Mrs. Spencer’s house. She greets us with puffy, red eyes and a tissue in hand.
“Please come in,” she says in a shaky voice. Her eyes are trained on me. “You were here when it happened, weren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“How is it that there were two witnesses yet no one saw anything?” she asks, motioning for us to go into the living room.
I walk over to the photograph on the mantel. “I was looking at this when it happened,” I tell her.
“That was taken on our anniversary last year.” She walks up alongside me. “Do you have any idea who did this?”
“That’s a difficult question to answer. I know this person has killed someone before, but I don’t know his identity.”
“But you will find him. Your father said you’re psychic.”
“I am, and I’ll do my best to find the person responsible for Hugo’s death.”
She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a watch. “This was Hugo’s. I bought it for him.” She places it in my hand, eager to have me get right to work. It’s nice not to have to explain myself, but she wants answers right this very second, which puts a whole lot of pressure on me.
Dad gives me a small nod. “Mrs. Spencer, why don’t we sit down and give Piper a little space? She works better that way.”
“Yes, of course.” She follows him to the couch.
I take one more look at the image of Hugo in the photograph before wrapping my fingers around the watch and closing my eyes.
“She’s here,” Hugo says into his phone.
“Very good. Now keep an eye on her, and tell me what she finds out.”
“No. That wasn’t the deal. I’m getting out of here. She’s psychic. If she sees me, she’ll figure out I’m spying on her.” He glances at the watch on his wrist. “I have to go now.”
“Do not cross me, Spencer.”
Hugo hangs up.
I open my eyes and look at Dad. “Hugo knew who the killer was. He was communicating with him.”