He waved to Wes.

“Hey, Michael!”

Donnie too turned. The boy exhibited the fascination youngsters always did with the armament on the hip of a law officer. He whispered something to Wes, who nodded with a smile, and they turned their attention to the game. O’Neil asked to say hello to Maggie but apparently the girl had vanished into her room.

O’Neil took the plate, ate some. “Thanks. Okay, this is excellent.”

They tapped bottle and glasses. Dance wasn’t hungry but gave in to a few bits of pita with tzatziki.

She said, “I didn’t know if you could make it tonight. With the kids.” O’Neil had two children from a prior marriage, Amanda and Tyler, nine and ten. They were good friends with Dance’s youngsters—though Maggie more, because of the age proximity.

“Somebody’s watching them,” he said.

“New sitter?”

“Sort of.”

Footsteps approached. It was Donnie Verso. He nodded to O’Neil and said to Dance, “Um, I really better be getting home. I didn’t know it was this late.”

Boling said, “I’ll drive you.”

“The thing is I’ve got my bike. I can’t leave it, you know.”

“I’ve got a rack on the back.”

“Excellent!” He looked relieved. Dance believed the bike was new, probably a present for his birthday a few weeks ago. “Thanks, Mr. Boling. ’Night, Mrs. Dance.”

“Anytime, Donnie.”

Boling got his jacket and kissed Dance. She leaned into him, ever so slightly.

The boys bumped fists. “Later,” Wes called and headed for his room.

Boling shook O’Neil’s hand. “’Night.”

“Take care.”

The door closed. Dance watched Boling and Donnie walk to the car. She believed Jon Boling looked back to see her wave but she couldn’t tell for certain.

Chapter 18

After checking on the kids (“Teeth!” “No texting!”) Dance joined O’Neil on the Deck. He was finishing up the food. He glanced at her and said, “All right. Solitude Creek. You’re sure you want to handle it this way?”

She sat beside him. “How do you mean?”

“You’re Civ-Div?”

“Right.”

“No weapon?”

“Nope. Busted down to rookie. I’ll be, quote, ‘briefing’ on the roadhouse case. I boosted that up to ‘advising’ then did an end run and—”

“And blustered your way into running it.”

She’d been smiling at her joke but, at his interruption, it faded. “Well, with you.”

“Look, I’m happy to handle it solo.” O’Neil shrugged.

“No, I want it.”

A pause. O’Neil said, “This unsub. I profile he’s armed. Or could be. You think?”

It was fairly easy to do a preliminary profiling of an unknown subject. One of the easiest determinations was an affinity to commit a crime with a weapon.

“Probably. He’s not going into a situation like this clean.”

He shrugged.

She said, “You’ll look out for me.”

O’Neil grimaced. He almost said something, which she suspected was, I can’t babysit.

Her level gaze told him, though, she wasn’t going to be a spectator. She was going to run the case shoulder to shoulder with him. He nodded. “Okay, then that’s the way it is.”