“I was looking for you,” Lou said.

Jack raised his eyebrows. “I’m flattered. What’s up?”

“I’ve got a confession to make,” Lou said.

“This sounds interesting,” Jack said.

“I felt so bad about it, I couldn’t sleep. I was up most of the night.”

“Sounds familiar,” Jack offered.

“I don’t want you to think badly about me or anything.”

“I’ll try not to.” Jack drummed his fingers impatiently.

“Because this is not something I usually do. I want you to know that.”

“For crissake, Lou, confess! How else am I going to give you absolution?”

Lou looked down at his clasped hands and sighed.

“Okay, let me guess,” Jack said. “You masturbated and had unclean thoughts.”

“I’m not joking around!” Lou snapped.

“Then tell me so I don’t have to guess.”

“Okay,” Lou said. “I ran Paul Sutherland’s name through the system.”

“Is that it?” Jack questioned with exaggerated disappointment. “I was hoping you’d done something significantly more salacious.”

“But it’s abusing my law enforcement prerogatives.”

“Maybe so, but I would have done the same thing,” Jack admitted.

“Honest?”

“Absolutely,” Jack said. “So, what did you find?”

Lou leaned forward conspiratorially and lowered his voice. “He’s got a sheet.”

“Something serious?” Jack asked.

“Not really all that serious,” Lou said. “I suppose it depends on your point of view. The charge was cocaine possession.”

“Is that all?”

“It was a sizable amount of cocaine,” Lou said. “Not enough to suggest he was dealing, but enough for quite a party. He pleaded no contest and got probation and community service.”

“Are you going to tell Laurie?” Jack asked.

“I don’t know,” Lou admitted. “That’s what I wanted to ask you.”

“Oh, jeez,” Jack said. He rubbed his forehead. It was a difficult question.

“I’d be asking myself why I was telling her,” Lou said.

Jack nodded. “I understand what you mean. She might ask the same question and then take out any anger the news generates on the messenger.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Lou said. “Yet as a friend, I kinda think she should know. Of course, he may have already told her.”

“My intuition tells me he hasn’t,” Jack said. “He’s too full of himself.”

“I feel the same,” Lou said.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jack saw a figure fill his entire doorway. It was Ted Lynch from the DNA lab.

“I’m sorry,” Ted said. “I didn’t think you’d be busy.”

“It’s okay,” Jack said. He introduced Ted and Lou, but they said they’d already met.

“I couldn’t get your question out of my mind,” Ted said.

“You mean about the degree of contamination of the blue star?”

“Uh huh! And there is a way to do it!” Ted said excitedly. “It’s called TaqMan technology. It’s a new wrinkle on the PCR.”

“What’s PCR again?” Lou asked.