“Haha, very funny.”

“Speaking of funny, we heard that SNL is releasing their first Cappuano administration sketch this weekend with an interesting theme.”

Sam stopped walking and turned to him, giving him a wary look. “What theme?”

“Don’t shoot the messenger. Promise?”

“What theme, Nick?”

“Um, I believe the words used were ‘dry hump.’”

“What? Dry hump? What the hell is that about?”

“Terry thinks it’s, um, a nod to our rather obvious affection for each other.”

“Stop it.”

“I’m sure it’ll be hilarious.”

“It’ll be mortifying!”

“That, too, but what do we care? We’re madly in love, and we don’t care who knows it.”

“Scotty will kill us for this.”

“It’ll be fine. We’ll find out later.”

“Wait. Today’s Saturday, so it’s tonight? Isn’t the whole world on vacation this week?”

“Apparently, they couldn’t wait for the New Year to air this skit.”

“I love how you wait until the last possible minute to tell me about it.”

“Technically, the last possible minute would’ve been at eleven twenty-nine tonight.”

Chapter Six

Before Sam could form a cutting reply to his outrageous statement, her phone rang with a call from Jeannie McBride, which was a relief. At least her phone worked on the mountaintop. “Please hold,” she said to Nick as she took the call. “What’s up?”

“We’ve located Daniella Brown,” Jeannie said, sounding elated. “It’s definitely her.”

“What’re you thinking?”

“We need to bring in reinforcements on this. How do you feel about me calling Jesse Best?”

“I feel good about it, but before we do that, I need to consult with the captain and chief.”

“Is there a chance the chief will put the kibosh on the whole thing?”

“I honestly don’t know, but I don’t think so. He’ll be pissed, though.”

“Please tell him I take his orders very seriously, but I was already so far down the road with this case when the order came down that I couldn’t, in good conscience, stop when I had a chance of locating Carisma.”

“I’ll pass that along.”

“I’m willing to take the hit on this, Sam. I don’t care if I ever go beyond detective. I have so many other things in my life that matter more than this job. I couldn’t have lived with myself if I didn’t see this through.”

“You’re not in this alone, and I’ll tell him. I’ll call you back.”

“Okay.”

“What now?” Nick asked after Sam slapped the phone closed.

“Jeannie thinks she’s found the woman who took Carisma Deasly, and now I’ve got to call the chief and let him know what’s happening and hopefully get the go-ahead to call in the U.S. Marshals to take it from here. Maybe if they get the credit, he won’t fire us both.”

“Yikes,” Nick said.