When someone knocked on the door, they turned to find their new deputy chief, Jeannie McBride, in the doorway. “Is this a private party, or can anyone come?”

“Come in, Chief,” Sam said, smiling at her friend.

“I saw the alert about the Oxy and figured you guys would be hard on it. I’m having a bit of FOMO.”

“Fear of missing out,” Freddie translated for Sam.

“We’re dividing up the work for the day,” Sam said. “You’re welcome to join us.”

Matt O’Brien pushed the box of doughnuts he’d brought in toward Jeannie, who chose one from the box and sat next to Gonzo.

“What’ve you got?” Jeannie asked, eyeing the murder board.

As they brought her up to speed, she listened intently as she ate her doughnut and sipped from the bottle of water she’d brought with her. “Do we know whether there might be others?”

“That’s on the list,” Sam said. “O’Brien, go through all the autopsy reports from the last month and look for morphine in the brain, suspected opioid overdose or anyone who is especially young and died for no apparent reason.”

“I thought you might want to check in with Roberto,” Gonzo said of her longtime informant and friend. “He’s often in the know about this stuff.”

“Good idea. Cruz and I will stop at City Hall to see him. Any questions?” Sam’s gaze took in each of the detectives and Jeannie. “Before we go, I want to let you know I’ve asked Officer Neveah Charles to join our squad to attempt to fill the very large shoes left by Deputy Chief McBride. As you know, I was deeply impressed with Officer Charles’s attention to detail when she planned my dad’s funeral, and I think she’ll be an awesome addition to our team.”

“That’s a wonderful choice,” Jeannie said. “I’ll do what I can to expedite the paperwork.”

“It’s nice having friends in high places,” Sam said, smiling at her.

“I do what I can for the people,” Jeannie said with a grin.

“Hey! That’s trademarked.”

The others cracked up laughing.

“She outranks you, Lieutenant,” Cruz said with a smirk. “You might have to let her use your lines.”

“I suppose I can make an exception for you, Chief,” Sam said. “But the rest of you have to ask first. Cruz, let’s roll. Everyone else, keep me posted on any developments.”

She went into her office to grab her coat and locked the door, since Ramsey would probably be back before long and might be tempted to ransack it again.

They walked out to the SUV, where Vernon waited to open the door for her. How did he know when she was coming? Did he have some sort of bug attached to her? She got in and slid over to make room for Freddie and then gave the Glover Park address for Morgan Newell’s parents that had been listed in the incident report.

“I hate going to bother people who are grieving,” Sam said when they were on the way.