She turned her face toward the sound of his voice. “I’ll have to make hay, as the saying goes, while the sun shines. If my vision doesn’t come back, this will be my last case.”

“Then we better solve it.” He slowed, took a sharp right and then a left.

She shifted her line of sight to the windshield, searching the perpetual fog for anything that might tell her what the place looked like. There was nothing but gray haze and what looked like a blinking light. “Is there a marked car here?”

“There is. At two o’clock.”

“I’ve been here before, but it’s been several years. Still gray with a faded terra-cotta roof?” she asked.

“That’s correct. Two stories, rooms face outward.”

“Rents by the week if my memory serves.”

“Correct.”

He shut off the engine. “I’ll come around.”

“Let me get out of the car. If the uniforms see a ranger opening my door, I’ll never hear the end of it.”

“Sure.”

He exited his side as her fingertips fumbled for the door handle, and the door swung open. She got out, taking note of the wind on her face, the growing warmth of the sun, and the asphalt under her feet. Carefully, she closed the door as Spencer came up beside her.

“Arm?” he asked.

“People are going to talk.”

He chuckled. “It won’t do either of our reputations any good if you fall.”

“True.” She could endure these indignities and frustrations because they were temporary. Hurricane winds that swept over the Gulf Coast left behind destruction, but after the storm passed, people rebuilt. So would she.

“Do you have gloves?” she asked.

He handed her a set. The latex felt familiar in her hands, and she pulled them on as she had so many over her career.

She laid her hand on his arm, and they walked ten paces forward before he noted a curb and then indicated they would be climbing ten steps to a landing. His precise navigation made the journey palatable, and as his pace slowed, she surmised they had arrived.

“Officer Ruiz, any word from the apartment manager?” Spencer asked.

“He just went down to get the master key,” Officer Ruiz said. “Should be back in a few minutes.”

“Good,” Jordan said.

A silence settled over the officer, and she felt him staring.

“Excuse me for asking, Detective Poe, but I heard you had been hurt pretty badly,” Officer Ruiz said.

“That so?” she asked.

“They said you were blind.”

“You mean low vision? Who said?” she asked.

“Everyone.”

She grinned. “And yet here I am.”

Keys jangled behind her, and she turned toward who she assumed was the apartment manager. As he reached around her, she noted he smelled of breakfast sausage and stale cigarettes. He unlocked the door.

“Let Ruiz and me go in first,” Spencer said.