Sam walked out of the conference room feeling oddly elated by the conversation with Jeannie. Like Jeannie said—with so much time spent at work, there wasn’t much time for outside relationships except with her husband, son, dad, stepmother, sisters and their families.

When she was younger, Sam had a lot of girlfriends but she’d fallen out of touch with most of them because of the endless demands of her job. Jeannie, Lindsey, Charity, Faith and Hope were all colleagues, but they filled the void in some ways. Anytime she needed a female perspective, there was always one to be found at work, and they were all women she admired and respected. She supposed she should count Shelby among her new friends too. Despite the fact that she was their paid assistant, she had been a friend first.

Anxious to get home to her guys, she gathered up the stack of restraining orders and jammed the huge pile of paper into a tote bag that she unearthed from under her desk.

Cruz came in and handed her a slip of paper. “Nathan’s home number. Parents are Patty and Dave.”

“Thanks.”

“Are you going to call now?”

“I suppose there’s no time like the present. Close the door, will you?”

He pushed the door closed and took a seat in one of her visitor chairs.

Sam pressed the speaker button on her desk phone and waited for a dial tone before she punched in the numbers. As it rang, she glanced at Freddie and saw him watching the phone intently. He was such a good friend that he was as mad as she was about what had happened to Scotty at school.

“Hello?” a female voice said. She sounded like she’d run for the phone.

“Is this Mrs. Cleary?”

“It is. Who’s this?”

“Lieutenant Sam Holland with the Metro Police.”

“Oh, sure. I recognize your name. What can I do for you?”

“I’m not sure if you’re aware of the fact that your son Nathan punched my son Scotty in the stomach at school today.”

“He did what? I didn’t hear anything about that. The school never called me.”

“Only because Scotty chose not to make it an issue at school. Since it was important to him that we not involve the school, I thought perhaps you and I might work this out between us.”

“What’s there to work out? They’re boys. Boys scuffle. It’s what they do.”

Sam glanced at Freddie, who was now frowning. “It’s also assault, and in my world, that’s a criminal offense.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Not at all. I’m simply telling you to tell your kid to stay far, far, far away from mine. And you could also mention that Scotty’s mother the cop won’t overlook it next time.”

“That sounds an awful lot like a threat to me.”