“I know,” Wes said tearfully. “I will. I’ll call you after I see her. Yes, of course. Love you, too.” He ended the call and wiped tears from his face with the sleeve of his T-shirt. “How can this be real?”

“I wish I had an answer to that question,” Sam said. “If you’re able to come with us, we can get this over with.” To Freddie, she said, “Contact Lindsey and let her know we’re bringing him in.”

Freddie nodded and walked out of the apartment, probably glad to have something else to do besides witness Wes’s nightmare.

“Is there someone we can call to be with you for this?” Sam asked Wes.

“My brother lives locally. I could call him.”

“Ask him to meet us at MPD Headquarters.”

He nodded and placed the call.

Sam tried to tune out what he was saying and the fresh wave of grief that came with telling his brother the dreadful news. She stepped out of the apartment to give him a minute and leaned her head back against the wall, drained by the emotional tsunami that came with murder.

She took a second to check both her phones and found a new message from Nick. Landed at the WH. See you when you get home.

That gave her one less thing to worry about. Will be home soon, she responded.

Wes emerged from the apartment, wearing a winter coat, with his keys and phone in hand.

Sam pushed off the wall, led him downstairs to her car and got him settled in the back seat.

Freddie walked toward her, on the phone. “We’ll be there shortly. Will do.” He stashed the phone in his pocket. “She’ll be ready for us.”

“Let’s get this done.”

On the way to HQ, they drove through lighter-than-usual traffic, a sign that a storm was coming and people were most likely in panic mode. If there was so much as an inch of snow in the region, the grocery store shelves were cleared and school canceled. A blizzard would be treated like Armageddon.

Normally, she and Freddie would laugh about the panic surrounding a snowstorm, but they were silent as they drove Wes to HQ.

Sam pulled up outside the morgue entrance and glanced at Freddie.

“Be right back,” he said.

He would make sure Lindsey was ready for them so they didn’t have to drag this out for Wes.

“Who could’ve done this?” Wes asked, breaking the long silence.

Sam looked at him in the rearview mirror. “We don’t know yet, but we’re going to find out.”

“How will you do that?”