Page 52 of Breathe Me In

I fought to hold my temper back. “I’m a consultant with the SPD.”

He smirked. “Cute.”

Brad went to move, but I put a hand on his chest and shook my head. “We have more important things to deal with than this small-minded officer who clearly doesn’t have respect for females.”

“Whoa.” He held up his hands when another officer shot him a nasty look. “Don’t make this a thing.” He spoke over my head to Brad, “I was just asking if anyone stood out since she was on the dance floor, and over there”—he pointed—“toward the bar. I mean, maybe she saw something.”

Brad pressed his lips together, trying to hold back his words, then looked at me.

“I thought I saw his fingers, but maybe I didn’t.”

Poor Maria sounded confused as she tried to get through her statement to Kennedy.

“What a fucking nightmare.” Cap’s tired expression spoke volumes. “I’ve got the bureau so far up my ass I can taste what they had for dinner.” He looked at me. “Sophia was strangled.”

“What!” That completely blew me out of the water.

“I need to get all the details, but I don’t get why the killer would change his method. Maybe she caught him off guard, and he panicked.”

“Holy shit.” Brad ran a hand through his wet hair. “Do you think this could be the work of someone new?”

“Look, Bree.” Captain’s chest rose and fell. “I appreciate what you were doing here. I also applaud the way you let everyone know what was happening.”

I eyed Brad. “Thanks, Cap.”

“I disagree.”

“Well that’s your opinion.” I rolled my eyes. I understood it was a big risk, but I saw what I saw. “Cap, I do think I spotted the green-thumb guy.”

“Really?” That seemed to perk him up. “All right, fill me in, and then let’s get through all these people as fast as possible.”

After I filled him in, I gladly accepted the coffees that were offered to us as Cap moved away a few steps with his phone in his hand.

“Do me a favor”—Brad puffed out a breath—“wear this for me.” He held up his jacket. “It’s distracting.” He looked around as I slipped it on without argument. “All right, let’s do this.”

We worked well into the next day. People’s faces started blurring together, which might have been due to my lack of sleep. Kennedy made sure we all got fed around midafternoon, but it wasn’t until six o’clock that night that we were officially finished with the interviews, fingerprints, DNA swabs—the list went on. In the end, though, we got nothing. No one saw anything out of the ordinary. We still had a little more footage to go through, but it seemed highly improbable that we would get anything useful. After all that, we had a dead young woman and a heartbroken best friend.

“Don’t carry Sophia’s death on your shoulders.” Kennedy gave me a pat and looked at me. I felt he mistook my exhaustion for sadness. “Sadly, leaning on a potential witness is a risk we take to solve a case. It’s not the first time someone tried to help and got caught in the crosshairs.”

“I know.” I nodded. I really was tired, but there was a little piece of me that wondered if I had played a role in what had happened. I wished I hadn’t asked her to try to get a photo of his face.

“Good.” He gave my shoulder a light squeeze and flagged down his partner, Ellis. The great thing about Kennedy was that he said his piece and that was that.

Lainey: Just know I’m here if you need me.

Lainey and Charley must have called me twenty times. She needed to be sure I was all right, and I’d assured her I was fine. She hadn’t been happy, but I’d explained I had a few more things to deal with before I could go home.

I leaned against the wall and fought to keep my eyes open while Brad spoke to Mr. Longboard, the owner of the nightclub, to try to convince him to keep it closed until the killer was caught. There was no way he was going for that.

“Prick,” Brad hissed as he sat down next to me. “He refuses to close. Profit is more important than people’s lives.”

“Then the next death is on him.” I yawned.

“How was your coffee date with Hayne?”

My mouth dropped. How did he know?

“Oh, he made sure I knew about it.” He looked down at me and was about to say something else when his phone rang. “Damn, one second.” He stepped away, and I guessed it was Sherry. I was sure she’d gotten wind of what had happened and knew I’d be with him.