She kissed her grandmother on the cheek and left.

11

Spokane
4:25 p.m.

Andy Knolls had told her the feds were briefing SPD this afternoon, and Kara needed to get to Agent Costa before he started stirring the shit down in LA. Lex was right about one thing: if Costa and his people started making inquiries about her with the local FBI office, it would disturb the hornets’ nest. Kara was damn good at being whoever she needed to be and most everyone either completely forgot about her or respected her. But she’d pissed off one person in the FBI, and he’d unfortunately moved up through the ranks.

It had been her one big interpersonal screwup early on in her career. She’d learned her lesson, but she was still paying for her mistake.

She arrived before shift change and asked the desk sergeant where Andy Knolls was, fibbing just a bit that he’d asked her to be here for the federal briefing.

“If he’s here, he’s in the main briefing room down the hall, to the right. But it hasn’t started yet.” He checked her ID and badge, then handed her a visitor’s pass.

She started down the hall when she saw Brian Maddox talking to two officers. He spotted her at the same time and grinned.

“Well I’ll be damned, Quinn. Took you long enough to come see me.”

She walked over to Maddox and he pulled her into a brief hug, which surprised the young cops.

“Maddox. I planned on calling.”

“Bullshit.” But he didn’t sound angry. He introduced her to his officers. “Kara Quinn here is from Liberty Lake, left us for Los Angeles. Made detective young.”

They exchanged pleasantries, then Maddox said, “I’ll see you two in the briefing in—” he looked at his watch “—damn, it’s about to start. Five minutes.”

Maddox steered Kara down the hall to his small office. He left his door open—par for the course. He liked to hear the sounds and see the sights from his office. He’d always been a hands-on cop, and it didn’t surprise Kara that he was a hands-on chief.

“You didn’t come here to see me, did you?” Maddox said.

“Partly,” she fibbed. She wasn’t good with personal relationships—which made working undercover much better for her. But she liked Maddox. If it weren’t for him, she might have landed on the opposite side of the law. He was the father she wished she had. “I’m here mostly for the briefing—I found the body.”

“I read Andy’s report. You’ve been here nearly a week and didn’t call—Julie’s going to blame me, you know. Dinner? Sunday night. You can’t say no.”

“Going to issue a warrant for my arrest if I don’t show?”

“Absolutely.”

“Blackmail works. I’ll be there.” It would be fun to catch up with Maddox and see how the other half lived—meaning, cops with family and friends.

Maddox typed on his phone. “There, now you can’t back out because I texted Julie that you’re coming.”