She climbed into a toweling robe and wrapped her wet hair into a towel, quickly throwing on her favorite yoga pants and a sweatshirt, foregoing a bra because life was too goddamn short and her boobs weren’t that big.

She toed on her slippers, grabbed her laptop off the side table and headed downstairs.

“Aiden, did you check on dinner?”

The big eyes and sorry expression on his face had her exhaling in frustration and hunger.

“Sorry, Mom. I’ll do it now.” He went to stand up.

“Forget it. We eat in ten minutes and if you’re not at the table your video games will be in the trash come morning. Understood?”

“Yes, Mom. Thanks, Mom.” He shot her a grin and Signy headed to the kitchen wondering why she let another man wrap her around his little finger. Except Aiden was the sort of kid who often made both their lunches and never complained she was neglecting him even when some days she really was.

She stirred the curry, programming the microwave for another couple of minutes.

Then she opened her laptop and began searching up Darby O’Roarke, finding a slew of articles about her escapades last summer.

She’d scanned them quickly earlier, but now Signy read them more carefully. Although she’d used the term “alleged” to prompt a reaction out of the young woman, it was obvious Darby had been kidnapped and endured a terrible ordeal. Didn’t mean she wasn’t a killer.

Signy found a short video of when Darby had first returned to the States and the press had been hungry for her story. And there, in the grainy footage, Signy spotted the man who had shadowed her every move today.

It seemed SSA Eban Winters had been part of the Crisis Negotiation Unit that had rescued Darby O’Roarke. Signy narrowed her eyes at the screen. Things suddenly started to make sense.

Was his interest personal or professional? She was about to pick up the phone and call a friend who might know when her cell rang.

“Torgerson,” she answered.

“I left a message on your cell earlier, but you didn’t return my call.” It was Sergeant Allan Robertson again.

Sure enough when she checked her phone there was a little red message button. “Sorry, I was in the shower and didn’t notice.”

“No problem. I wanted you to know SSA Winters found more footprints at one of the neighbors’ houses. Looks like someone was watching Carstairs through the living room window. Apparently, the neighbors’ dog started barking not long after midnight, but they ignored it, figuring it was a deer.”

It could have been a deer or a moose or caribou or a bear or the wind. Signy resented the fact SSA Winters had been the person to find these footprints especially as they were outside the designated crime scene. “Are you there now?”

“Yes.”

She subdued a groan. The guy was eager. Funny, she hadn’t noticed that about him before. Signy eyed the microwave and her mouth watered at the fragrant smell of the curry. She wasn’t getting any in the foreseeable future.