“Checking up on us. Want a water?” Colin motioned toward a cooler someone had brought to the scene of what they were beginning to think was a murder/suicide instead of a double homicide.

“Yeah. Thanks.” Brent put the cell to his ear. “Lange.”

“You guys at a stopping point at the scene?”

Typical Sarge. No greeting, just straight to business.

“No. We have two or three more hours of processing—minimum.”

Sarge grunted. “I was afraid of that. I’m sending in replacements. I need you and Colin elsewhere.”

Brent frowned. He might be new to the ranks, but as far as he knew, pulling detectives off a scene not long after they’d been assigned wasn’t standard protocol.

“What’s up?”

“We had a trauma call this morning for Eve Reilly’s neighbor. Apparent stroke. But the responding officers found more than a medical emergency after they started looking for next-of-kin contact information.”

As Sarge filled him in, Brent understood why he was being tapped for this assignment. And by the time the rapid-fire download wound down, his nerves were wound up.

Tight.

“I’m sending Colin with you. He has experience that may be useful. Your replacements should be there in the next few minutes. As soon as you bring them up to speed, head over to Olivia Macie’s. Assess the situation and let me know if I should start the gears grinding for a warrant.”

“Roger.”

Brent slid the phone back onto his belt and joined Colin.

The other detective handed him a water. “What’s up?”

“We’re being reassigned.”

Colin’s eyebrows peaked. “In the middle of a scene investigation?”

“Yeah.”

As he briefed him, his associate’s demeanor grew more and more serious. “I’m not liking the sound of this.”

“Neither am I. The proximity and access are suspicious.” He motioned to the street in front, where another detective was pulling up. “Our first replacement is here. Let’s bring him up to speed and get out of here.”

“I’m with you.”

Before the new arrival was barely out of his car, they’d cornered him.

Ten minutes later, Brent was jogging to his vehicle.

Maybe the equipment and material the officers had found in Olivia’s house wasn’t as serious as the men suspected. Both were recent academy graduates. It was possible they were reading too much into what they’d seen.

That’s why Sarge was sending him and Colin over there to evaluate the situation.

But if the officers weren’t overreacting . . . if there was a darker side to the sweet older woman Eve had risked her life to protect the day of the bomb scare . . . they had to figure out how and why she was involved in the efforts to silence the woman who was fast staking a claim to his heart.