She was holding a mock news conference in her head, thinking about how she might approach the press without igniting another riot, when she smacked into a hard wall of white chest that sported a gold badge. Shit.

“In my office, Lieutenant. Right now.”

Sam let out a huff of aggravation as she followed the chief to his suite, which was located behind the dispatch area.

The chief’s receptionist gave Sam a sympathetic smile when she passed the desk, which only made Sam more anxious about the reaming she was in for.

He stood at the door, stone-faced as she walked past him.

The slam of the door behind her made her startle.

“What part of ‘don’t step foot outside this building without me knowing about it’ did you not understand, Lieutenant?”

“I looked for you. I couldn’t find you.”

“Since I was here all night, I’d say you didn’t look very hard.”

“I didn’t want to bother you with something I could easily handle.”

“Which is how you ended up in a Dumpster with a dead body.”

“Yes. It’s Willie Vasquez. The body, that is.”

His face went blank for a second before he recovered his mojo. “You’re kidding me.”

“Wish I was.”

“Ah, God.” All at once he looked exhausted and every bit his sixty-plus years. “We just got things under control, and now this.”

“My first stop will be his home, followed by the ballpark to speak to the team leadership.”

“I don’t want you on this one, Sam. Assign it to one of your people.”

“Sir, with all due respect—”

“I said assign it to someone else.”

“And what am I supposed to do? Sit in the office and twiddle my thumbs?”

“There’s plenty you can do without being on the street.”

“You know that’s not true. There’s no way I can run an investigation of this magnitude without being out there doing what I do.”

He went around his desk and sat down, seeming as if the weight of the world rested on his formidable shoulders.

“You know I can take care of myself, Uncle Joe,” she said this softly, using her old name for him for the first time since she’d been under his command.

“Something’s always happening to you.”

“And yet here I am, still providing a daily pain in your ass.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way. You know that.”

Their rare foray into sentiment was no doubt due to the long night they’d both put in, but Sam wasn’t above using it to her advantage. “I also know you care about me, and I appreciate that. But you’ve got to let me do my job. I’m the most qualified detective to handle a case like this. You know that as well as I do.”