There were nods and agreements. Not a bad idea on the surface, but practically it would be a nightmare. Managing the work and private lives of hundreds of cops for days? A week? Kara didn’t see how that was going to work smoothly at all. The riding with a partner—that was smart. But off-duty? Talk about creating a bureaucracy.

Costa looked like he wanted to say something, but didn’t. He answered a few more questions and kept looking over toward Kara, so she left the room. She didn’t want anyone to talk to her, and she was good at being a chameleon. She’d even dressed like a real detective, as Lex would sometimes say. “Quinn, would you try and at least look like a real detective?” Dark jeans, button-down shirt, blazer over her shoulder holster. She preferred wearing a belt holster, but she’d noted years ago that most of the detectives here wore shoulder holsters. It was all about blending in.

Kara waited for Agent Costa by his rental car. It was overcast and she thought it might snow tonight—probably not for long, and probably wouldn’t stick unless the temperature plummeted. She should have stayed inside—the years in Los Angeles had made her soft.

But she’d wait right here.

The first thing Matt did when the briefing broke up was to find Maddox. “You said—” he began.

Maddox stopped him. “I thought I took care of it. It’s my problem. I’ll fix it.”

Matt didn’t want to know what was going on, but he asked anyway. “What’s with your chief?”

“He’s a lame-duck chief but doesn’t want to leave. He’s out at the end of the year. I’m in. So yeah, it a prickly situation, but I’ll take care of it.”

Matt was about to ask about Kara, when Maddox excused himself and approached the chief down the hall. He turned the other way and started to look for her himself. He didn’t know if he was more irritated or curious that she’d shown up at his briefing as if she were just another cop. Finally, when he realized she’d bailed, he got angry.

The briefing was productive, but unnecessary, though making the connection with the men and women in uniform had been a plus. But he wished he’d known the LA cop would be there. He called Andy Knolls.

“Kara Quinn showed up at my briefing,” he said.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Is that a problem?”

“Did you tell her about the briefing?”

Andy didn’t say anything for a moment, then, “I told her I’d be there.”

“She’s a witness.”

“I know. She’s also friends with Maddox. He’s the one who convinced her to be a cop, from what I heard.”

What? She was buddies with Maddox? Matt was thinking about bringing her into the investigation anyway, so what was his problem?

Because she’s putting herself in the investigation before you asked. That’s the problem.

He shook his head. “Never mind. What’d you find up there?”

“Manners’ car has been cleaned and bleached. We’re securing it and taking it to the lab—they can go over it thoroughly. We haven’t found the ATV. There are a lot of vacation homes up here and I’ve put together a team to inspect each one—but it’s going to take time. Covering the area between Newman Lake and Liberty Lake is going to take days, even if I call in everyone.”