“Flattery won’t deflect our questions,” she said, but a blush of rose lit the flesh under her chin for a moment.

“Come on, you ol’ smoothie,” I said. “Tell me how good I look.”

“You look like shit, dear boy. Still cutting your own hair, I see.”

I laughed. I’d always liked Everett Hamlyn. Everyone did. The same couldn’t be said of his partner, Adam Kohl, but Everett had an effortless ease with people that belied his military past, his stiff bearing and uncompromising sense of right and wrong.

“Mine’s all real, though, Everett.”

He touched the hard stubble atop his head. “You think I’d pay to have this on my head?”

“Everett,” Angie said, “if you’d please tell us why Hamlyn and Kohl dropped Trevor Stone as a client we’ll be out of what little hair you have left. I promise.”

He made the smallest movement with his head, one that I knew from experience was a negative motion.

“We need some help here,” I said. “We’re trying to find two people now—Desiree Stone and Jay.”

He came around to his chair, seemed to study it before he sat in it. He turned it so that he was facing us directly and placed his arms on his desk.

“Patrick,” he said, his voice soft and almost paternal, “do you know why Hamlyn and Kohl offered you a job seven years after you’d turned down our first offer?”

“Envy of our client base?”

“Hardly.” He smiled. “Actually, Adam was dead set against it at first.”

“I’m not surprised. No love lost there.”

“I’m sure of that.” He sat back, the brandy snifter warming in his palm. “I convinced Adam that you were both seasoned investigators with an admirable—some would say astonishing—case clearance rate. But that wasn’t all there was to it, and, Angela, please don’t take any offense at what I’m about to say, because none is intended.”

“I’m sure I won’t, Everett.”

He leaned forward, held my eyes with his own. “I wanted you, Patrick, specifically. You, my boy, because you reminded me of Jay and Jay reminded me of myself at a young age. You both had smarts, you both had energy, but there was more to it than that. What you both had that is so rare these days is passion. You were like little boys. You’d take any job, no matter how small, and treat it like a big job. You see, you loved the work, not just the job. You loved everything about it, and it was a joy to come to work those three months the two of you worked together here. Your excitement filled these rooms—your bad jokes, and your sophomoric high jinks, your sense of fun, and your absolute determination to close every case.” He leaned back in his chair and sniffed the air above him. “It was a tonic.”