Dani could hear the slamming of a car door in the background. “Where are you?”

He hesitated, then sighed. “You’ll read about it online soon enough. A young man was killed last night outside a convenience store in Miamitown.”

Dani closed her eyes. “How old?”

“Eighteen. He’d bought some baby formula, diapers, a bottle of Advil, rubbing alcohol, Epsom salts, and antibiotic cream. He was found this morning when the shift changed.”

She felt a frisson of relief, followed by immediate guilt. “Evelyn and Jimmy are still alive, then.” But a young man was dead.

“I think we can assume that,” Deacon said. “And we’re hoping that the antibiotic cream is because our bullets did some damage to Kaiser’s leg.”

“I hope it goes gangrenous and falls off,” Dani said viciously, then reined her anger in when Joshua looked up from the picture he was coloring at the kitchen table. His little face had grown abruptly tense, and she made herself smile. “It’s okay, Joshua. I’m not mad at you or Michael. Just the bad guy who started the fire at our house.”

Joshua nodded warily, then pushed the coloring book aside. “I wanna go outside and play. This is boring.”

Dani knew the feeling. “I need to go, Deacon. Will you update me later, please? Even if it’s to tell me there’s no change. We’re going a little stir-crazy here.”

“I’ll try,” Deacon said and she could hear the exhaustion in his voice. “We’ve been a little busy, though.”

Guilt reared its head again because Deacon had been burning the candle from both ends between this case and the hours he’d spent at the hospital. “I’m sorry. Go, do what you need to do. We’re fine.”

“Thanks, Dani. Talk to you later.”

She ended the call and sat at the table with Joshua. “I want to go outside, too. But we can’t. Not until the bad guy is caught.”

Joshua’s lower lip trembled. “I wanna go home.”

Me, too, baby. Me, too. But Joshua wasn’t going home, not ever again. “Sweetie,” she started, then sighed. “Your mom’s not coming back, Joshua. She’s dead. So you can’t go home.”

He blinked up at her, his expression very serious. “I meant our house, Dani. With Hawkeye and Coach and Michael.”

“Oh.” She pulled him onto her lap and hugged him hard. “That we can do. Just not today. Wanna see a movie?”

“No.” His lip came out and his voice grew cross. “Tired of movies. I wanna play.”

Dani was spared a response by the appearance of Meredith and Maria, the interpreter who’d helped during Michael’s exam that first day in the clinic. Meredith appeared serene. Maria looked shaken.