8:00 a.m.

The weatherman on the radio warned that the heat wave would continue through the rest of the week. Birmingham was expected to sizzle.

“Lucky us,” Jess grumbled. People in general grew exceedingly more impatient and short-tempered when the temperature lingered in the triple digits. As it was, drivers turned utterly stupid between the hours of seven and nine every damned morning and then again around four in the afternoon. Dog days did not help.

Maybe she’d take First Avenue and go all the way to Twenty-fourth Street and then double back on side streets to get to the station. She knew better than to leave for work after seven. Some days it just couldn’t be helped. Her hair had totally refused to cooperate this morning. And the outlet in her bathroom wasn’t working, so she’d had to plug in her blow-dryer by the bed and dry her hair there. One of the charms of an older home. Historic, she reminded herself, a historic home. She hated for her first meeting with Mr. Louis to be a complaint about a faulty outlet. Maybe she’d just Google it and see if she could figure out the fix herself.

Why not? She was qualified with numerous weapons; how hard could it be to replace a single electrical outlet?

As she made another turn and discovered her plan had been a good one, Jess relaxed a little. There was no traffic on Twenty-fourth. Thank God. As she reached Marconi Park and the left she wanted to take, a car whipped around her.

She stamped on the brakes. “Idiot!” The sound of revving engines had her checking her mirrors. A black SUV was right on her bumper. Another roared up beside her and the imbecile who had barreled around her had now come to a near stop in front of her. She slammed on her brakes again. Her cell flew off the console onto the passenger side floor board.

“Damn it.” Adrenaline slid through her veins. She reached into her bag for her Glock. She had no choice but to stop. She couldn’t risk ducking down for her phone.

Damn. Damn. Damn.

Stay calm. Her fingers wrapped around the butt of her weapon.

A man approached her window. He leaned down and came face-to-face with the business end of her Glock, which she had leveled on him.

“May I help you, sir?” she said loud enough for him to hear through the glass.

He ignored the gun. “My name is Hector Debarros. I am unarmed, Chief Harris.”

As if to prove his words, he backed up a couple of steps, held his arms up surrender-style, and then turned all the way around. Jess knew the Debarros family from the first case she had worked after returning to Birmingham. Hector had helped Burnett find Jess when Leonardo Lopez’s twisted offspring kidnapped her. So maybe she wasn’t about to get dead.

Which was a really good thing considering she had a little boy to find, a murder case to solve, and her sister needed her.

Jess checked to see if any other traffic had come along. Nope. Just her luck. See if she took the back streets again. She cracked her window a few inches. “Let’s see some ID. Slowly,” she reminded him when he reached for his back pocket.

He removed his wallet and stepped closer to her window, a driver’s license in his hand.

Damn it. Her glasses were in her bag. “Closer,” she ordered. God, how ridiculous was this! She squinted at the photo and then the name. Then she shifted her attention back to the man’s face. “What do you want, Mr. Debarros?”

“Mr. Lopez would like to speak with you.”

“Which Mr. Lopez?” She flicked a glance at each mirror to make sure no one else was approaching her car.

“Leonardo.”

A shot of adrenaline fired through her veins. Looked as if Wesley wasn’t the only West Coaster who had decided to pay the Magic City a visit. Leonardo was the father of Salvadore and his crazy sister. Seemed daddy had come to do some housekeeping. Unfortunately he was a little too late. And he wanted to talk to the wrong cop.

“Tell him to call my secretary and make an appointment,” Jess suggested through the glass, which she had no intention of lowering any farther. Not that it would stop a bullet, but it made her feel better. She didn’t have a secretary but that was irrelevant at the moment.

Hector glanced toward the SUV behind her. “You have my word,” he assured her, but he was obviously growing nervous, there was an urgency in his voice and on his face, “that you will be safe, Chief Harris.”

Well, gee. That made her feel way better. “Tell Mr. Lopez that if he wants to talk he can join me on the bleachers over in the park. You and him. No one else.”

Before he could respond, Jess cut the wheel of her Audi sharply to the right and bounded over the curb and sidewalk. The frame of the car dragged—at least she hoped that was all that scraped the concrete. She drove straight across the ball field and to the first set of bleachers, ensuring the driver’s side door faced away from her pursuers.

She snatched up her cell and hit Harper’s number, set it for speaker and slid it into the pocket of her new dress jacket. As much as she liked this snazzy tangerine suit she didn’t want to die in it. Moving quickly, she climbed out and turned to face the two black SUVs that roared to a stop on the other side of her Audi, blocking her in. The rear doors opened. Jess prepared to defend herself, feet wide apart, both hands firm on her Glock and ready to swing into a firing position.

Hector and a man who looked to be in his late forties approached her position.

The two walked right past her car and to the bleachers. Jess tracked their movements. When the older man had taken a seat on the bottom row and Hector had climbed to the top so he could see Twenty-fourth, Jess decided it was safe enough to join the man who had gone to so much trouble to have a meeting with her.

Satisfied the others were staying put in their vehicles, Jess strode over to the bleachers. She sat down next to the man who was an older version of Salvadore, but not so much older. Leonardo was younger than she had expected. The surveillance shots she had seen hadn’t done him justice. Good looking. No visible tattoos. The elegant suit would likely pay her salary for a month. She kept her Glock palmed as she settled her hands in her lap.

The man’s dark eyes studied her for a long moment. “Hector tells me that you are a very persuasive and trustworthy woman.”

Jess lifted a skeptical eyebrow. “He tells me you’re Leonardo Lopez.” There was always the chance this could be a body double. Guys like him sometimes had numerous look-alikes for security purposes.

“As much as I would prefer not to be who I am just now, unfortunately that is beyond my power to change.”

Seemed even badass gang leaders weren’t happy when their children misbehaved.

“What would you like to talk about, Mr. Lopez?”

“Straight to the point. I admire that in a woman.”

That was probably intended as a compliment. “I also admire that trait in a man.” Where most things were concerned anyway. There was a time for foreplay but this was not it.

Acknowledging her pointed comment with a dip of his head, he said, “There are many things I can offer in exchange for leniency where my daughter’s charges are concerned.”

Jess would just bet there were. “I’m afraid you’ll need to speak with Supervisory Special Agent Duvall and Chief of Police Burnett about that. I just catch the bad guys. I don’t make deals.”

“I’m certain you can see how speaking with your friends would be quite impossible.”

There was that. “Getting your followers under control might help your case,” Jess offered. “You make that happen and I’ll put in a good word for you.” Sounded fair to her.

“Perhaps that step has already been taken,” he suggested. “My people have squashed the rebel movement. I’m certain you’ve noticed the lack of bodies being thrown in your path. In the past twenty-four hours there have been no reports of violence. Any others you discover will be those who choose to continue on their disobedient paths or incidents that occurred before my edict was issued.”

She couldn’t deny some truth in his words. Maybe this was her chance to confirm once and for all that Gabrielle’s death had nothing to do with his world. “I have a problem with innocent victims being used for making points,” Jess challenged.

“If you’re referring to the unfortunate murder involving the wife of one of your detectives, the jury is still out on that one. I have found no one who wants to claim credit. You can rest assured that you will be the first to know if the culprit is uncovered in my organization. You will also find justice levied.”

Surprised, she openly studied his face. “Why would you do that?” The MS-13 was the most ruthless gang on the planet. Why would the man who held a great many members on the West Coast in the palm of his hand offer to be supportive of local cops here in Alabama? She hoped Harper was hearing this, otherwise no one was ever going to believe her.

“I have a new vision,” he said, clearly pleased that she was so startled by his offer. “I am a businessman, Chief Harris. The savage tactics of the past offer little advantage in the business world. There are many ways to maintain power.”

Jess got it. He had allowed the ruthless tactics to get him where he needed to be and now he was done. Now he wanted to focus on drugs, guns, and such without all the fanfare of mass murders and the like. Well, wasn’t that just the most interesting news? Give the man a medal. A Nobel Peace Prize or something. But his need to extend his business reach would never change the heinous traditions of the Mara Salvatrucha.

“You tell Agent Duvall that if he ensures my daughter receives immunity I will give him something immensely important to him. Something to which my wayward son Salvadore has no access.”

“Does that include you?” Jess asked bluntly; might as well clarify his exact intent. “Because I’m under the impression that’s what Agent Duvall and most of the federal, state, and local agencies between here and California really want.”

Leonardo smirked. “I have something much more personal to his beloved bureau than that in mind.”

Jess looked him straight in the eye. His statement could mean only one of two things. He either knew of plans to launch attacks against the bureau or he had someone on the inside. A mole. Anticipation sent a new kind of shiver up her spine. “I’m all ears, Mr. Lopez.”

“I have many powerful and influential people in my operation. Some are deeply imbedded within his circle. This, I believe, will interest him greatly.”

He could be bluffing. Jess ignored the way her pulse skipped a little more swiftly. “I’m afraid he’ll need something more conclusive than innuendoes. Irrefutable evidence is the traditional requirement.”

He leaned close to Jess. The air stalled in her lungs.

“You must trust me, lucerito, I have much evidence.” Lopez stood. “You tell them for me, Chief Harris. Hector will know how to reach me. I will notify you if I find your killer among my people. You have my word.”

Stunned but certain he would do exactly what he said, Jess watched Leonardo Lopez and his posse drive away.

She tugged her cell from her pocket and confirmed that the call to Harper was still connected. “Did you hear any of that, Sergeant?”

“Yes, ma’am. Where the hell are you? We haven’t had time to triangulate your position.”

“Marconi Park but I’ll be at the office in about ten minutes. Let Duvall and Burnett know I need a meeting.”

Jess ended the call and sat there for another couple minutes. Mostly because she still felt a little weak-kneed. She’d just had an up close and personal meeting with the most ruthless man on the West Coast.

Birmingham Police Department, 9:05 a.m.

“That’s what he said,” Jess reiterated. “Sergeant Harper can confirm every word.”

“I can’t believe he approached you out in the open like that,” Wesley argued. “And the suggestion that he has someone inside the bureau is ludicrous.”

Between him and Burnett, they would have the carpet worn out in the chief of police’s office before this meeting concluded.

“You think you’re surprised.” Jess scoffed. Men. The entire species had a way of delivering the most memorable understatements. “I was still in a state of near shock five minutes after he walked away.”

Burnett shook his head. “This is exactly what I was worried about. You’re all over the news, Jess. You need out of the limelight until this Lopez business is resolved.”

Jess shot to her feet. “I have a murder case and a missing child. I will not step back from this case, so don’t even ask me to.”

“I wasn’t planning to ask,” Burnett warned, fury lighting in his eyes.

“Fine.” Jess shrugged. “Take me off the case. You know I’ll just continue to investigate on my own. Either way works for me.”

“Calm down, both of you,” Wesley fairly shouted. “We have to weigh every step. This is far bigger than any one of us or any one case.”

Judging by the outrage on his face, Jess estimated that Burnett was on the verge of having smoke roil out of his ears. She didn’t have time for territorial wars or politics. She had work to do. These two could go at each other without her around.

“Watch yourself, Duvall,” Burnett warned, “you are a part of this meeting and our ongoing investigation at my pleasure. Push me and you’re out of here.”

So much for department-bureau relations.

“I did what Lopez asked me to do.” She gathered her bag and smiled. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m done here. Have a nice morning, gentlemen.”

Before either could demand she stay, she was out the door. Wesley had the details Lopez had given her. That was his problem. The only thing she wanted from Lopez was word about anyone in his organization who might know something about Gabrielle Grayson’s murder.

Thankfully, Sheila, Burnett’s secretary, was on the phone when Jess left his office, which prevented her being derailed for small talk. Jess gave the woman a wave and hurried out. In the lobby she got lucky again when she found Tara away from her desk.

By the time she made it down the corridor and to the stairwell door without being intercepted, Jess felt confident she might even reach her office before being waylaid.

The door opened before Jess could reach for it. Lori, purse hanging over her shoulder and keys in hand, skidded to a stop to prevent running into her.

“I got a call from the administrator at the New Life Rehabilitation Center. She wants to talk to us about Gabrielle Grayson. I was just coming to look for you.”

This could be the break they needed. “Where’s Harper?” Jess followed Lori back into the stairwell and down the first set of steps.

“He’s in a meeting with the search team leader. Nothing new on Devon Chambers as of five minutes ago.”

Renewed worry twisted in Jess’s stomach. “And Cook?”

“He’s following up with a guy who was partnered with Lieutenant Grayson while Sergeant Riley was out of commission after his accident.”

Anticipation zinged Jess. The more leads they uncovered the more likely they were to find answers about who killed Gabrielle Grayson and who might have taken Devon Chambers. The faster they got to the truth the higher the odds of finding that child alive.

Jess was glad to let Lori drive. After this morning’s unexpected encounter with Lopez she was still a little shaky. She didn’t like admitting anything scared her but she couldn’t claim those few minutes hadn’t rattled her just a little.

“I have a personal issue we need to talk about at some point,” Lori announced as she guided her Mustang from the city parking garage and pointed it in the direction of New Life Rehabilitation Center.

“We have twenty minutes or so.” Jess shifted in her seat until she was facing Lori. “What’s going on?”

“I’m considering moving into Harper’s place. Is that going to be an issue?”

Technically, yes, but Jess didn’t want to lose either one. And she couldn’t point to a single reason as far as their work record went to indicate their personal relationship was causing any difficulty.

“You need to keep it low key. The fewer who know, the better. As far as I’m concerned, as long as your private affairs don’t impact your work, I’m fine with wherever you take your relationship.”

How hypocritical would she be if she felt otherwise? She and Burnett had a thing. She wouldn’t quite call it a relationship, but it was some undefined connection. Friends with benefits… sort of. A mental eye roll accompanied the idea. She still couldn’t get used to thinking in those terms. But for now, there wasn’t a better definition of what they shared.

“Tread carefully,” Jess warned. “What you went through two weeks ago is still coloring your perception on life.”

“Harper said the same thing.”

At least one of them was keeping that in mind. “Just take it slow and you’ll be fine.” Both Lori and Harper were smart and levelheaded. They could make this work if that was what they really wanted. And if their relationship continued to progress, Jess would deal with the changes in her unit that progression would require.

A minute or two of silence followed. She and Lori were both at milestones in their lives. Lori with decisions about moving into her first serious relationship and Jess with the decision as to how she wanted to proceed with almost every aspect of her life. Her career was getting back on track. But the rest, well that was a whole other ball of wax.

At forty-two it was time to take a step back and seriously consider where she went from here. Though she was pretty damned happy with where her career had landed, what about marriage and children? A person could marry almost anytime but the decision as to whether or not she would have children in her life fell within a swiftly closing window.

She didn’t want to ignore any one option and wake up one morning to realize it was too late.

God, had she just thought that?

“Can I ask you a question, Jess?”

Jess gladly dismissed the nagging doubts about her own life and turned back to Lori. “Why not?” She didn’t need a preview to know it would be about Burnett. Certainly it would be personal, since Lori had chosen to use her first name.

“I’ve asked you this before,” she hedged, “but do you think you and the chief will ever be able to be together as a couple again? I mean, really together? Like married?”

Married? “I honestly don’t know.” Jess hadn’t even considered the possibility. “I’ve been married once and it wasn’t anything like I thought it would be.” That, however, had been as much her fault as Wesley’s. “And Burnett’s taken vows three times and failed. Maybe we’re not the marrying kind.”

“But you’ve never been married to each other. That could be the issue. Maybe the two of you belong together and nothing is ever going to be right until that happens.”

Lori had been thinking on the subject way too much. “To be honest, I’m not sure we could live together without killing each other or ending up hating each other.” And his mother would never accept her only son marrying Jess.

The idea of having Katherine Burnett to dinner on a regular basis was terrifying.

Lori sent her a sideways look. “It just seems like you belong together. Harper says the same thing.”

Jess laughed. “You two don’t have better things to do when you’re together than to talk about Burnett and me?”

“We have lots of deep conversations these days.”

“You should never stop doing that.” That was the most important advice Jess could give. “Communication is so damned important.” Jess wasn’t sure she had realized just how important until very recently. “When all else fails, if you can talk about things then you always have a way to work out the worst of the problems that come your way.”

The conversation died a natural death as Lori made the turn into the rehab center’s parking lot. That hopeful anticipation of finding a new lead had Jess’s heart pumping.

“The administrator’s name is Pauline Allison. She replaced the one who retired last year. She’s mid-forties,” Lori went on, “and seems sharp. I’m hoping she’s learned new information from her personnel interviews.”

“We can also assume that one or more of those employees said something that Allison felt might assist in our investigation.”

Jess and Lori exchanged a look before getting out of the car. “We could sure use a break about now,” Lori suggested.

“No question,” Jess agreed.

There were cases, like this one, where there was no place to go in the investigation. There was no one piece of evidence that gave them a definitive direction. No witness—that they could find—who could provide details that might point toward a suspect.

They basically had nothing that jumped out and said here you go.

This was the kind of case where a good cop had to shake the apple trees until the fruit started to fall. Otherwise they were going to be in for a long wait. Because apples rarely just fell at one’s feet unless they were too ripe or full of worms and already half rotten.

11:00 a.m.

Pauline Allison had an office not much larger than a closet and enough files and paperwork to fill the National Archives. There were manila folders stacked from the floor to the ceiling in three of the four corners.

The administrator, a petite, pleasant woman, made quick work of emptying out the two chairs in front of her desk and ushering Jess and Lori into them. Then she collapsed into her own as if the task had taken the last of the energy she had on reserve.

“You’ll have to forgive the mess. We’re in the midst of an unexpected State audit and I’ve been working twenty-hour days.”

“I appreciate your taking the time out of your hectic schedule to help us with this investigation, Ms. Allison,” Jess said.

“No problem.” Allison unearthed a legal pad and then scrounged for her reading glasses. “What I have here is a list of three nurses who worked with Gabrielle”—she glanced over the rim of her glasses—“before my time here. Two of the three were reluctant to talk but one couldn’t spill her guts fast enough. Bear in mind,” she pointed out, “that she was written up twice by Mrs. Grayson while she served as the charge nurse on the drug side.”

Needing clarification, Jess asked, “Drug side?”

“Our facility is divided into the drug side and the alcohol side.”

Made sense. “Will we be able to interview this nurse today?” Jess broached, hopeful. “I know the request is short notice but this is a murder investigation and time is our enemy.”

“I thought you might want to do that, so I asked her to come in this morning. She’s waiting for you in the employee lounge.” Allison pushed back her chair. “I’ll show you the way.”

The center was quite large and immaculate. Allison explained that the facility was both privately and state funded. Their services ranged from long-term inpatient care to twice-weekly counseling sessions for ongoing maintenance. They ranked in the top ten in the nation.

Beyond two layers of security, the employee lounge, like the rest of the facility, was state-of-the-art, clean, and welcoming.

“Netty Winters,” Allison announced, “this is Deputy Chief Jess Harris and Detective Lori Wells. They’ll be speaking with you about Mrs. Grayson.” She turned to Jess. “Let me know if you need anything else. I’ll be in my office.”

When Ms. Allison had left the room, Jess and Lori joined the off-duty nurse at her table. “Ms. Winters,” Jess began, “Detective Wells is going to read you your rights. Not because you’re in any kind of trouble,” she hastened to add, “but because we have an obligation to ensure you’re informed before we begin this interview.”

Winters couldn’t be much over thirty. Tall and thin, she wore her black hair in a tight bun and apparently attempted to disguise her pale coloring with an extra helping of blush and eye shadow.

“Whatever you need to do,” she said agreeably.

While Lori took care of the Miranda rights, Jess readied to take notes. She settled her eyeglasses in place and waited until Ms. Winters had indicated that she understood her rights and still wanted to speak with them.

“Ma’am, you worked with Gabrielle Grayson for how long?”

“Two years. She’s probably the only reason I still have a job. And in today’s economy that’s saying something.”

“She was your supervisor?”

“She was.”

“Why do you say she’s probably the only reason you still have a job?”

“I was fairly new to nursing back then. I was too busy trying to keep my social life up to par to do my job the way it needed to be done. She wrote me up twice for not paying attention and making dumb mistakes. That last time she sat me down and we had a come-to-Jesus talk. She made a believer out of me for sure. And she was right. I’ve had three raises since then and I’m real grateful to her for the way she set me on the right course.”

Jess had actually expected the woman to have negative things to say about Gabrielle Grayson. She hoped this interview wasn’t going to be a waste of time.

“Did you ever know Gabrielle to use any sort of prescription drugs?” Jess ventured.

“No way. That’s one thing that made her so good at her job. She really hated drugs, even prescription ones that are so easily abused.”

“During Gabrielle’s time here were you aware of any trouble between her and any of the patients or the other staff members?”

“That’s why I told Ms. Allison I wanted to talk to y’all,” Winters explained. “There was one patient who gave her a real hard time. Made a lot of threats about what he would do to her when he had the chance.”

“Do you remember this patient’s name?” Tension rippled through Jess. More than forty-eight hours into the investigation, they needed a break. This could be it.

“Yeah, I do, ’cause he was a big flirt. His name was Johnny Trenton. He was real cute and cocky but he treated us all like we were worthless. I think maybe he has a thing against women.”

Somehow Jess had expected she’d be hearing his name again. “Thank you, Ms. Winters. If you think of anything else at all, please call me.” Jess passed her a card. “And please talk to the other nurses who knew Gabrielle. We need all the help we can get finding the person responsible for her murder.”

Winters accepted Jess’s card. “I’ll do that. You know, Gabrielle had the biggest heart of any person I’ve ever met. Her work hadn’t changed that.”

“What do you mean?” Didn’t it take people with really big hearts to be a part of the medical field? Sure as heck took a strong sense of justice to keep cops pounding the pavement every day.

“Most of us start out with a touch of the Florence Nightingale complex,” Winters explained. “We love all our patients and we’d do anything in the world to save them. But time and dealing with illness and death kind of hardens us. It’s not that we stop caring, but we learn to maintain some level of detachment to keep our sanity. Gabrielle didn’t do that. She loved, in a chaste way of course, every patient. Even the ones who were mean spirited. She never gave up on anyone. Like I said, she changed my life. She was a saint.”

There it was again. That word. It wasn’t that Jess doubted the goodness of either Gabrielle or her husband, who was also touted by his colleagues as a saint. But somehow, somewhere, one or both of these good folks had encountered the exact opposite of goodness. Someone truly evil. Someone who knew Gabrielle Grayson well enough to want to stab her over and over.

Someone who took the time to write dozens of words in her blood while it was still warm.

Someone full of raging emotion.

They were scarcely out of the building when Jess’s cell clanged.

Lily.

Jess couldn’t risk ignoring the call. Her sister could have gotten test results and as terrified as Jess was to hear them… her sister needed her.

“Is everything okay?” Jess asked instead of bothering with a greeting.

“No,” her sister sobbed, “everything’s wrong.”

Blood running cold, Jess braced herself. “What’s happened? Did the doctor call?”

“He called Blake and me in to discuss my test results.”

Dear God, she just needed to spit it out. “And?” Jess prompted.

More sobbing. Jess’s heart thumped harder and harder. “Just tell me, Lil.” Tears burned her eyes. Please don’t let it be that bad.

“He said I’m depressed,” Lil wailed. “That I’m just losing my mind, that’s all. Getting old and probably about to go through the change.” Lil groaned an agonizing sound. “How can I be forty-four years old and feel a hundred? How can I hurt all over? Forget every damned thing? And just be depressed?”

Jess waited through the tears. Mostly she waited for her own emotions to stabilize. She’d just zoomed from terrified and ready to cry to furious and ready to kick the crap out of something.

“Dr. Collins told you this?” she confirmed. It took every ounce of control she had to speak calmly. “The same Dr. Collins I used to see? Downtown?”

“Yes,” came the pitiful response. “He prescribed an antidepressant and wants me to get counseling. I don’t understand. I’ve never been depressed in my life. This is so humiliating. I put my family through all this worry for nothing. I’m just pathetic!”

“Lil, you stop that, do you hear me?” Jess demanded. “You’re going to be fine and we’ll get this sorted out.”

“I’m falling apart,” Lil muttered.

“Sweetie, I have to go right now, but I’ll call you tonight. Okay?”

It took another minute to get Lil reassured enough that Jess felt comfortable ending the call. She turned to her detective. “I need to see Dr. Carl Collins,” Jess said. “His office is downtown.” She gave Lori the address.

“Are you feeling ill?” Lori asked, visibly concerned.

“Oh yes,” Jess assured her as she headed for the car. “I’m ill, all right. Ill as a hornet.”

Twentieth Street South, 1:30 p.m.

One flash of her shield and the receptionist ushered Jess to Dr. Collins’s private office. He was with a patient, so she had no choice but to wait a few minutes.

The last doctor’s appointment she’d had in this office had been about twenty-four years ago. She’d just turned eighteen and she wanted to get on birth control. Things had been too crazy between her and Dan to continue to risk their self-control. Condoms were necessary but not one hundred percent reliable.

“Mercy.” Jess sighed. Where had the time gone?

The door opened and she sat up a little straighter. Dr. Collins was short and pleasantly plump. Time had broadened his waist as well as the hairless path across the top of his head. The black-rimmed glasses looked exactly the same as the last time Jess saw him.

“I apologize for keeping you waiting.” He hurried around his desk, his lab coat swishing. “Give me a minute,” Collins said without looking at her. “I haven’t had time for lunch.” He dragged two protein bars from a desk drawer and offered one to Jess.

“No thank you, Doctor.”

He ripped the wrapper off and bit into a bar. “Lordy me, there aren’t enough hours in the day.” He savored a swig from the bottle of flavored water on his desk. When he’d gotten down another bite of fortification he beamed a smile at her. “What can I do for the Birmingham PD and their newest deputy chief?”

“Actually, Dr. Collins, I’m here on a personal matter.”

A frown claimed his face. “The last time I saw you as a patient, you were…”

Jess held her breath.

“… about to graduate high school and go off to Boston.”

Relieved, Jess smiled again. “That’s right.”

“I’ve been watching you on the news!” He shook a finger in the air. “You’ve gone places, young lady. Built quite the career for yourself. Turned into a sophisticated lady. My, my.” He gave her a nod of approval.

Before Jess could thank him, he launched into another sermon. “I was awfully proud to hear that you’d turned out so well.” He laughed, the kind that shook his belly. “I had my doubts when you were young. I swear, you were the sassiest thing. Told anybody and everybody just what you thought.”

“Well, Doctor,” her face hurt with the effort of keeping her smile in place, “some things never change.”

The frown was back. “I beg your pardon?”

“You talked to my sister, Lily, about her test results today.”

He riffled through the files and notes on his desk. “Yes, yes, that’s right, but I won’t be able to discuss those results with you unless—”

“No need, Doctor,” Jess assured him. “Lily has already passed along your professional opinion.”

“I see.” Collins gave her a knowing look. “You and Lily have put your heads together and decided that an old man like me doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Well, let me tell you a thing or two, missy”—he was shaking his finger again, this time at her—“your sister has the classic symptoms of what I like to call over-the-hill or empty-nest syndrome. She’s hit that age, and you’re right on her heels,” he warned, “where this sort of thing is to be expected. You look in the mirror one day and realize you’re getting older or, like your sister, the kids are suddenly gone and she doesn’t know what to do with herself. Being a mother defined her and she’s lost. There’s no need to be embarrassed or in denial. It’s part of being a woman.”

Jess nodded. “I see,” she echoed. So that was the way he intended to roll, was it? She loved it when a doctor decided what a woman was feeling was simply because she was a woman before eliminating any medical issues. Jess stood. “I’m sorry I wasted your time, Dr. Collins.”

Smug in his assessment, he waved her off. “That’s what I’m here for. My patients are my number-one priority.”

Wasn’t that reassuring? “How’s your son doing these days? Kurt was, what, a year ahead of me in school?”

Understanding wiped that self-satisfied look off his face. “He’s fine, fine. Four kids. His wife is still teaching school and he’s established one of Birmingham’s top medical equipment providers. He’s matured into quite the businessman.”

Most likely because he flunked out of medical school. “I did a little checking on my way over here. Seems his love of hanging out at the bars downtown has matured into spending time at the country club on Saturday nights.” Three times in the past two months he’d been pulled over and his wife called because he wasn’t feeling well.

“What’re you trying to say, Jessie Lee?” The doctor’s friendly tone and nonchalant expression was long gone now.

“I’m saying I want you to run every test you can think of on my sister until you have exhausted your vast medical knowledge. And if you haven’t figured out what the problem is by then, I want you to send her to someone who doesn’t lump all women together and who doesn’t assume that fatigue and achiness automatically means she’s depressed.”

Collins held up his hands. “Now you know I can’t just run all sorts of tests. The insurance companies require justification for every test we run.”

She flattened her palms on his desk and looked him dead in the eyes. “I’m sure you’ll figure out that part. I expect you to call her and tell her that you’ve been thinking about her all afternoon and you want to do some other testing. Meanwhile, I’ll talk to the manager at the country club and make sure he knows to call your daughter-in-law before Kurt gets behind the wheel. That way none of us have to go through any unpleasant business.”

“I’ll call her right now.”

“Thank you, Dr. Collins. We’ll just keep this little chat between us.”

As Jess left his office she could hear him grumbling under his breath. Crusty old fart.

Lori was pacing the sidewalk outside when Jess exited the building. She quickly ended her call.

“Did you get things worked out?”

Jess grinned. “The doctor and I reached a mutually beneficial understanding.”

Lori went for a smile but it fell short of her usual dazzler.

“Is something wrong?” Jess asked.

“Kids can be a pain in the ass.”

“Sounds like you’re speaking from experience.” Jess headed for their parking spot. “And I happen to know you don’t have any children. Something up with your sister?”

Lori exhaled a big breath. “We’re picking up Chester after work tonight.”

“Is that typically a problem?” Jess didn’t need to tell Lori that her relationship with Harper was a package deal.

She threw her hands up. “I don’t know. I’ve never spent any time with him.”

Sounded like Lori and Harper had gotten the cart before the horse on this moving in together thing. “Take it slow,” Jess advised. Before she could say more her cell clanged. She checked the screen. Burnett. Her instincts went on alert. Could be news on Devon. “Hold on, it’s Burnett,” she said to Lori. “Harris.”

“I need you in my office now,” Burnett announced.

Jess tried to analyze his tone. Not angry or annoyed. Worried, she decided. “What’s up?” She consciously attempted to slow her heart rate, but that wasn’t happening this side of the grave.

“You with Wells?”

“Yes, why?” The thump, thump, thump in her chest got louder, echoing in her ears.

“The reason the Taurus wouldn’t start, Jess, was because someone had rigged an explosive to detonate upon ignition.”

His words quaked through her. A bomb?

“Luckily,” he went on, his voice a little high pitched, “whoever planted it got in a hurry or just didn’t know what they were doing and screwed up the wiring. When you tried to start the engine, everything shorted out. Hell.” He made a sound of frustration. “Just get here. Now, Jess. I don’t want you on the street.”

“Yeah… okay.” Jess ended the call, a kind of fog draping over her.

“Did the chief have news?”

Jess nodded, or at least she thought she did. Her stomach felt a little queasy. “Someone tried to kill me, Lori.” Her gaze collided with her friend’s. “And the part that scares me is that I think it’s one of us… a cop.”