“That’s probably why he freaked when Natalie pressured him about getting married. In his own twisted way, he felt like he was already married, even if he was unfaithful to her. I mean, how does he marry someone else when she’s off raising his kid in Siberia?”

Nick came down the stairs, his hair wet from the shower.

“You heard all that?” Sam asked, alarmed by his pale face and flat eyes.

“Enough to get the gist.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, surprised when he shook off her sympathy.

“Don’t protect me. Do your job. Find out who did it.”

“Okay,” she said, understanding that he was absorbing the blow the best way he knew how. Turning back to Freddie, she was interrupted when the front door swung open. In flooded most of the HQ detectives, carrying platters of food, six packs of beer and soda, and armloads of chips. Each of them paused to squeeze Skip’s hand on their way into the kitchen to deposit the food.

“What the hell is this?” she asked Gonzo.

“They take a stab at you, they take one at all of us,” he said, his chocolate brown eyes fierce. “Everyone’s on their own time. Give us something to do.”

Touched and on the verge of choking up, she said, “Thank you.”

“They posted the LT list today. Congratulations.”

“You’ll be there soon enough,” she said with a twinge of guilt over how she’d gotten there. Gonzo made detective a couple of years after her, so at least she hadn’t snagged a spot from him. “For sure.”

He shrugged. “We’ll see.”

“There was someone out there.” She gestured to the door. “Nick saw him watching the house. He went vigilante on me and scared the guy off.”

“I’ll call it in and get someone posted outside.”

“If it was just me, I wouldn’t want it. But my dad’s here and Celia…”

“Say no more. We’re on it.” He glanced over at Nick. “So. You and the witness, huh?”

She winced. “Don’t.”

Gonzo’s handsome face lit up with amusement. “I won’t, but others will. You have to know that.”

“Hopefully, the gossip mill will run its course and the story will die a natural death when someone else fucks up.”

“Not before you take some serious abuse.”

“I can handle it.”

“Sam?” Nick said. “Why don’t you come have something to eat?”

“He likes to feed me,” she whispered to Gonzo.

“Nothing wrong with that.”

Thirty minutes later, after everyone had eaten, Sam called them into the living room. “Let’s get back to work.”

“Before we do that,” Freddie raised his Coke bottle in salute to Sam, “a toast to my partner, soon-to-be Lieutenant Holland.”