When they delivered her to the morgue entrance at HQ, she stopped in to see Lindsey. As always, the antiseptic smell of the morgue creeped her out. Lindsey wasn’t in her office, so Sam made the mistake of looking in the lab, which was how she saw her dead brother-in-law laid out on the autopsy table.

As she gasped, Lindsey looked up from what she was doing. She quickly covered Spencer’s face but not before Sam took a good long look at his waxy remains.

Lindsey came to her and directed her out of the lab. “I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have seen that.”

Sam felt the way she had the few times she’d had the breath knocked out of her. She tried to shake it off, but that was easier said than done. “I thought you said the autopsy was finished,” she said when she could speak again.

“It is. The funeral home is coming to get him shortly.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“Can you sit for a minute?”

“I kind of need to.” She took the seat that Lindsey produced for her. “It’s already been a rough morning.”

“How so?”

She told Lindsey about taking Jack to school and the conversation they’d had. By the time she finished the story, Lindsey was dabbing at tears.

“He’s such a sweetie. I hate this for him. For all of them.”

“I do, too. I thought losing my dad was rough at thirty-six, but I had twenty-nine years with Skip that Jack won’t get with Spencer. It’s not even comparable.”

“Of course it is. It was worse for you because you had all that time, and it’s worse for him because he didn’t get that.”

“How can both those things be true?”

Lindsey shrugged. “They just are.”

“Yes, I suppose you’re right.”

“As you would say, I usually am.”

“That’s one of my trademarked lines, but I’ll allow you to use it.”

“Gee, thanks,” Lindsey said with a grin. “I’m sorry you saw what you did. I came in early and lost track of the time.”

“It’s okay. I’ll see him soon enough at the wake.”

“How’s Angela doing?”

“It’s hard to say. She’s in shock. We all are. But she’s sort of functioning for the kids.”

“That’s something, I guess. Did you see the GoFundMe this morning?”

“Not yet.”

“Three million.”

Sam’s mouth fell open in utter shock. “Are you kidding me?”

“Nope.”

And then Sam was crying from the kindness of people she’d never know. “Wow. That’ll fix a lot of problems for Ang and others. She’s already thinking about how she can use some of the money to help other widows.”

“Good for her. That’s a sign she’s looking ahead.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Sam wiped away tears and tried to pull herself together to go to work. “Did you send me your full report?”

“I did.”

“Thanks. I’ll see you later.”

“I’ll be here.”

Sam left the morgue thinking about how much she relied on people like Lindsey to be there every day and how much she’d miss her if she wasn’t there anymore. She’d miss a lot of people if they were no longer part of her life. Once upon a time, that list would’ve been very short, and now…