The wrong approach? He’d lost a kid in a case, and she’d used that failure to propel her journalism career and write articles and do podcasts about him and the case. She had even guest hosted the nightly news in Portland. “To find out what was happening, all you had to do was ask. Me. Not other experts.” He continued eating his gooey dinner. It was pretty good. Who needed to cook?

“I asked you,” she exploded. “You wouldn’t talk to me.”

His gut started to ache and not from the food. “I lifted a dead kid out of a river. One I did not save.” Although he’d caught the killer, he’d failed that one child. He probably hadn’t been the nicest guy to be around for a while. “I’m sorry if I hurt you.” It was the first time he’d said that.

By her sudden and unusual silence, she agreed. “Um. Well, thank you. I’m sorry for everything I did that hurt you, too.”

A feeling of stress he hadn’t realized he still held wafted away. “We’re good, then.”

“Good.” Her tone brightened. “So dinner?”

“No.” He’d moved on. “That chapter of my life is over. You’re part of that chapter.” It wasn’t kind, but it was honest. It was the best he could do for her. “I left Oregon and am never returning.” He liked it here in the mountains of Washington State, and he was finally feeling whole again.

She cleared her throat.

His instincts started to hum.

“About that. Well, I’ve been transferred to Everett. We’re expanding our streaming news service, and I’m going to head up the Everett division, just a teensy car ride from Genesis Valley and you. I almost got Seattle but missed out to that jackass Larry with the perfect comb-over.”

Huck blinked. Wait a minute. “Rachel?”

“Yeah, I’m working the Witch Creek Murder. Isn’t that the best name for a case?”

His ears rang. Name for a case? He bit his lip to keep from snapping that the case was about a raped and brutally beaten woman, not some catchy name. “No comment.”

“I figured,” she said. “But can you get me an introduction to the lead on the case? Laurel Snow is big news, especially after the two of you closed that Snowblood Peak murder case. I swear, the names of the places around here just ask for a murder, right? That might be a decent lead-in, actually.” Her voice trailed off thoughtfully.

“You’ll have to go through official channels to get a comment on this one,” he said, stabbing his fork into the food.

“What? The petite FBI agent can’t handle the press?” Rachel challenged.

Huck had no doubt Laurel could handle anything, although there was a naïveté to her brilliance that made him want to shield her. “No comment.”