Maybe her perception was colored by the fact that she would never willingly go outside in that kind of weather in nothing other than a T-shirt and jeans no matter how many sheets she was to the wind. But it was enough to make her stop, wonder. Doubt. Once that snuck in, it was hard to shake.

“Any defensive injuries?” Izzy asked.

“None that couldn’t be explained by his body hitting up against rocks at the base of the cliffs,” the doc said.

If it had been murder and not suicide, the killer was either smart or lucky. Any marks on the body could be attributed to being in the ocean for a week, and the rest had been cleaned up by the salt water.

“He had no possessions on him?” Mia asked while bending down so that her face was level with the metal table. Izzy mirrored her position on the other side. When Mia tipped Twist’s chin toward Izzy to get a look at the gunshot wound in the back of his head, his eyelids slipped up so that Izzy could see the cloudy blue of his irises. She took a half step back, sucking in air as she did.

Working vice in Dallas hadn’t exactly been an easy gig—there’d been plenty of dead bodies to stumble over. But Izzy had never liked this part: the absent eyes, the pale skin, the lax expression. She was a cop because she liked puzzles; that was why investigating cold cases was so perfect. The reminder of the fragility of life was a nasty side effect she put up with.

“Nothing on him when the guys—that would be Greg Lawson and Brandon Sonder—pulled him out of the water,” Sammy answered from behind them. “Doesn’t mean he didn’t go in with his wallet or phone.”

“Brandon Sonder’s new,” Mia said, and it didn’t seem like a question.

Sammy laughed. “Moved here just after you left. So if you consider being here fifteen years new, then yes.”

Mia’s teeth flashed—a grin that was quick and real. “Don’t you?”

“Of course.” Sammy’s answering smile was one born from a years-long friendship. “Once an outlander, always an outlander.”

That hollow feeling was back, the camaraderie between the two of them unsettling in a way Izzy couldn’t quite pinpoint.

Too close, too close, too close. Izzy got why Murdoch had given Mia the file, she did. It was obvious just seeing the difference in how Sammy acted when he was talking to her. Izzy wouldn’t have gotten anywhere with these people.

But how were they supposed to work the case? They’d both been cops long enough to know that being too close to an investigation amplified all your blind spots.