“Iron?”

“It’s not that,” she said. “But I can’t remember what it is. It’s a nickname, not a real name.”

I dried my hands and had her recite what she had to say and do.

“You’re gonna do great,” I said. “Might even get an award.”

I turned to head out then.

“What’s your name again?” she asked.

“Does it matter?” I said.

“No, I guess not.”

I moved down the steps and out to my truck.

44

Six hours later I pulled my Silverado into valet and handed my keys to a college kid parking cars for the event.

All around me were cops in their formal blues, holding the hands of wives and girlfriends in expensive evening gowns. I wore my blues too, and you could tell a citizen from an officer at a hundred feet.

I tipped the kid who took my car keys and moved into the lobby. On a table outside the large ballroom were two pieces of foam core—each with a photograph on them. The one on the left was of yours truly, a photo from five years ago when I was younger and more photogenic. The other was of a kid from the fire department who’d saved two lives when a bus crashed off 902.

In my head I recounted the number of students in the art room at Falls Magnet. Plus Kelly Borland. I had the firefighter beat by two live citizens. Not that anyone was counting or being competitive. Plus, a fireman? At a police benefit? I hated political correctness.

A photographer caught me with a blast of white, and I moved inside the room.

The ballroom was set up with about thirty circular tables, each with eight or ten chairs around them. Flower centerpieces sat in the middle of the tables like at a wedding, and music was being played by the Bagpipers of Falls West. Which sounded more like noise than music to me.

Around the perimeter of the room were three bars, crowded with people. On a raised stage at the front, a podium was draped in the seal of the city of Mason Falls.

A pair of eyes caught mine. Or maybe it was the curvy and petite body attached to them. Kelly Borland.

“I wondered if you were going to show,” she said, walking closer.

Kelly was in a purple dress. Simple and beautiful.

“You didn’t see the picture outside the room?” I smiled, leaning in and giving her a kiss on the cheek. “I’m kind of a big deal tonight.”

“Yet last night you dodged me,” she said. “Working hard on a case. Not the school shooting again, I hope?”

“A different matter,” I said.

She glanced over my shoulder, and I followed her eyes.

“And here’s another distinguished gentleman I recognize,” Kelly said.

Merle Berry leaned in and gave Kelly a hug. He and Remy had stayed on-site the day of the shooting and interviewed her. Merle was her lead contact.

“You both look so handsome in your formal uniforms.”