“Did you file a formal report on him?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  Grace bit her lip, staring directly into Alonzo’s dark eyes. “Because I don’t want to be your poster girl.”

  Alonzo nodded. “Did he have issues because you are a woman or issues because you are gay?”

  “Both, honestly.”

  He wrote something down on his notebook, and not for the first time, did she wish she could see what he was writing. “What do you know about his leaving your unit?”

  “Not much. I was told he left, or was transferred out, I can’t remember. But that he wouldn’t the there any longer. That’s when Detective Delwin joined and transferred in.”

  “Okay. Any other times?”

  “None that I can recall off the top of my head.”

  “All right. If you think of any more, please make sure to tell me.”

  “I will.” Grace rubbed her lips together and sat up a little straighter in her chair. “Am I done?”

  “For now, but I’ll probably be seeing you soon. Here.” He handed her a piece of paper that had his signature on it. “You’ll need that in order to make your appointment with Kissik.”

  “I’m cleared?”

  “You likely will be tomorrow. There were videos of what happened, and your story has not changed once, and it matches everyone else. You did what needed to be done, Detective. Take that to heart.”

  Grace nodded. “When do you think you’ll be done with your other investigation?”

  “These take time. We’ve been investigating already for a while, to put you at ease, now we’re in the final stage of it and gathering all the interviews we need to make our case.”

  “Your case?”

  Alonzo cocked his head at her. “Yes. But that’s all I’ll share. If you think of anything else, please let me know. It will help immensely no matter what it is.”

  “All right.” Grace stood up and stepped out of his office, confused as to what had just happened. That was the easiest and most basic interview she had ever partaken in. Confused as much as she was relieved, Grace went to her office to set up a time with Kissik, praying he had time early the next morning.

  Give Me a Break

  Friday could not have come any sooner, Grace had about enough of the week and really just wanted to get back to her job, which she was still restricted from doing because the final paperwork hadn’t been filed yet. She sat at her desk, toying with a pencil and glaring at anyone who dared try and talk to her.

  She was over it. Over being on desk duty. Over not being able to find Joseph’s family because she wasn’t allowed to do any work. She should have just taken the rest of the week off in paid time off. Heaving another sigh, probably the twenty millionth time that hour, she closed her eyes and hit her forehead against her desk.

  “Don’t do that.”

  “Do what?” Grace narrowed her gaze and looked up to find Paige leaning over her. Paige’s hand touched her back before moving to the desk top.

  “Mope. I’m so sick of seeing you mope.”

  Grace glared. “You try sitting at your desk for a whole week.”

  “Been there. Done that. So have you before too, by the way.”

  “Doesn’t matter.” Grace sighed yet again. “I’m stuck here. I can’t even really work on my case.”

  “Sure you can.”

  “No, I can’t.”

  “Yes, you can.”

  “Paige, quit it. I’m stuck here. I can’t go do interviews or anything. I’m not even allowed to call to do interviews. All I can do is plan. Plan interviews, plan who I’m going to see, research people and add it to the piling amount of papers I already have.”

  Paige chuckled. “What if I told you that I sprung you?”

  “You can’t. It’s against protocol. I haven’t been cleared for duty yet.”

  “You’re as cleared as you can be. What’s a little paperwork?”

  Grace narrowed her eyes with suspicion. “Paige, this is ridiculous. I’m not going out into the field today.”

  “Humbard gave you permission. He just told me when I went to beg him to make you stop sighing and groaning about being stuck here yet another day.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yes, Halling. Now get off your ass and get to work.”

  Still, Grace hesitated to get out of her seat. She wasn’t sure if Paige was telling her the truth or not. Either way, if she were to leave and go into the field it was completely against protocol. Just about everyone knew that.

  Standing, Grace went to Humbard’s office and knocked on the door lightly. He looked up her and shook his head. “Didn’t believe her?”

  “I just…no, sir.”

  He chuckled. “You’re free to go out today. I got your paperwork in about twenty minutes ago.”

  “Really?” The grin on Grace’s face lit up in her eyes. She hadn’t expected it.

  “Really, really. Now scram. I’m as tired of you moping as Delwin.”

  Laughing, Grace went to her desk and grabbed her keys, but Paige put a hand over hers. “Nope. I’m driving.”

  “You’re coming?”

  “We still have to work in pairs, remember? At least until this whole IAB thing blows over.”

  “Right.” Grace pocketed her keys. Any time she and Paige went out together on a case, Paige insisted on driving. It was rare she forced Paige to sit shot gun. When they got out to the cruiser, Grace let out a breath. A chill was in the air, so she turned the heat on, but Paige turned it off.

  “It’s not warm yet.”

  “Fine,” Grace muttered. “Where are we going?”

  “We’ve got a special stop to make before we go wherever you need to go.”

  “We’re not working your case?”

  “Today’s all about yours, kid. I know you’ve been itching to get some interviews under your belt, so now’s the time.”

  Warmth spread in Grace’s chest. She had been waiting forever and a day to get back into the field, so it was good they were going to spend the rest of the day on her case. They only had about four more hours until it was the end of their shifts, but she could manage to get quite a bit of work done in that time. She’d talk to Amya over the weekend about setting up a time to go see Joseph.

  “What’s this special stop?”

  “You’ll see.” Paige shifted a sly look to Grace, and Grace’s stomach tightened again.

  Something in that look didn’t sit right. Paige was being deceptive for a reason, probably because Grace wasn’t going to like where they were going. She sat in the passenger seat and glanced around, trying to see if she could figure it out before it was too obvious.

  When Paige pulled up outside of Hamilton Elementary school, Grace was about to object. Paige parked and got out before she could say anything. Scrambling to catch up, Grace followed Paige closely behind.

  “What are we doing here?”

  “You’ll see,” Paige answered with a smirk.

  “No, really, because if we’re going to see Crystal, I typically give her a massive heads up before I just show up, and I plan shit for the kids.”

  They walked through the front doors to the building and right toward the administration office. They checked in, signed their names on the visitor logs, and then Paige turned to Grace with hands on her hips.

  “Lead the way, oh faithful one.”

  “Tell me what I’m leading the way to.”

  “No. Just tell me where her classroom is.”

  Grace shook her head vehemently. “Paige, this is a bad idea. She’s going to flip out and not in a good way.”

  “Just shut up and let me do this. You won’t give me her number, she told me she worked here, so yeah, this is my last resort to get her number.”

  Pursing her lips, Grace planted her fists on her hips. “Horrible idea.”

  She led the way up the stairs on the far end of the building then backtracked one classroom. They came up to the room. Both doors were open, which meant they weren’t taking a test or something. Grace breathed out a sigh and knocked on the door as she stepped inside. As soon as she had Crystal’s attention, Crystal’s face went from curiosity to a smile to panic. Grace shrugged and stepped to the side.

  The kids all recognized her and their conversations jumped to a new decibel as they saw her. Shouts of “Detective Grace!” could be heard over each other as they all vied for her attention. Crystal put her hands out to quiet everyone and walked up to Grace.

  Whispering, Crystal eyed Paige over Grace’s shoulder. “Why are you here?”

  “Trust me, this was not my idea. I didn’t know we were coming. She just drove us here, and I don’t think you’re going to like what’s about to happen, but I tried to stop it.”

  “Crystal,” Paige said. “Mind if we talk?”

  “Here? I can’t leave my class.”

  “Grace can watch them.”

  “No, she can’t.” Crystal raised a perturbed eyebrow.

  Paige’s cheeks paled. Grace clenched her jaw. This was the worst idea on the face of the planet. If Paige had asked, she would have told her that a million times over, but she hadn’t asked. She’d railroaded Grace into the entire situation, and she was about to railroad Crystal.

  “All right.” Paige drew in a long breath. “I like you, and I want to know if you’ll go on a proper date with me.”

  Crystal’s jaw dropped. The kids cheered, much to Grace’s surprise. She didn’t want to look at Crystal’s face for her reaction, but she did. Crystal went from shock to livid in two second flat, but she masked it well as she stepped closer to Paige.

  “You should not have done this here.”

  “I know. I tried to get you in the hall.”

  Crystal paused. “I will go on one date with you.”

  Grace knew that tone, and it did not bode well for Paige. Crystal would go on one date, or she would make the date and break it. Paige had thrown out the only chance she had of dating Crystal by messing with her classroom and her kids. Crystal loved those kids like they were each her own, and she did not take kindly to unexpected disruptions especially ones like this and of this magnitude. She wouldn’t be able to calm the kids down for the rest of the day. Not to mention the flack she could get for it from parents which would turn into flak from her administration. Paige had been stupid to think this was remotely a good idea.

  “Thank you!” Paige grinned, her cheeks flushing.

  Grace still couldn’t believe what she had just witnessed, not to mention, she knew it was another stupid idea for either of them to think they’d be good together in a relationship. Neither wanted to settle down, but their personalities were way too different to even be remotely compatible. Grace kept her mouth shut. They were adults and could very well make their own mistakes. She just didn’t want to hear the drama later.

  Giving the newly semi-happy couple a minute, Grace turned to the class and clapped her hands once. Some of them copied her. She did it again, but twice. More kids joined in. She got all the way to five claps before every kid was following her command.

  “All right, since today was a bit impromptu for a visit. How many of you want to ask Detective Delwin here how many bad guys she has tackled in her very long career at the Sheriff’s Office?”

  Hands shot in the air.

  “Ask away then!”

  Grace made them stay in the classroom for another forty-five minutes before she told the kids they had to leave to get some real police work done. She promised candy the next time she came back. Shooting Crystal and apologetic glance, Grace shoved Paige out the door. They checked out with the front office and got into Paige’s cruiser.

  “That was fucking stupid,” Grace said as soon as Paige’s door shut. “Do you realize how you could have just fucked up her job? You didn’t even think about that, did you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Jesus, Paige. You ask Crystal out in front of her class. Now what happens if one of those students goes home to a family who isn’t okay with LGBTQ and more? Huh? That parent goes to the principal who then has to deal with Crystal, and you know what might happen? She could lose her job if it gets bad enough. You can’t just walk in and pull that shit.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize—”

  “Of course you didn’t. But I’m not the one you should be apologizing to. Also, not cool, that is a shitty way to ask someone out. Talk about pressure to say yes. She didn’t even have a chance of saying no.”

  Paige’s responding grin made Grace realize that had been part of the goal from the beginning. Fuck that. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest after she buckled herself in. She stared straight ahead and let out a breath.

  “We’re done here. Let’s go talk to my driver.”

  “Sure thing, boss.” Paige’s chipper tone only added to Grace’s mood.

  ###

  They went to his house, and he wasn’t there. Once they got back into the cruiser, Grace grabbed her phone and dialed the phone number she had inadvertently memorized after staring at the files most of the week. It rang twice before he picked up.

  Grace’s stomach dropped when she heard his slick, “Hello?”

  “Hi, I’m trying to reach Diego Narvaez.”

  “You’ve found him.”

  “I’m Detective Halling with the Sheriff’s Office. I’m looking into a case you were involved with years ago, and I’d like to follow up with you about your interview.” She really wanted to throw her fellow officers under the bus, tell Diego they’d taken shit notes and so now she was having to redo all the work they had done except she didn’t. It would be unprofessional, and at that point it time, there was no benefit to doing it. She would have wanted to interview him again even if the reports had been detailed and there was a video of it.

  “Is this about Joseph?”

  Curiosity piqued, Grace slid a glance to Paige who raised her eyebrows at her. “It is. Where can my partner and I meet you to talk?”

  He sighed, and Grace couldn’t tell if it was a sigh of frustration or something else entirely. “I’m at work.”

  “Are you still driving?”

  “Yes, but I have my own company now, and I’m very busy.”

  “Diego, you need to make time for this today. Otherwise it’ll only drag out even longer.”

  Silence echoed on the other end of the phone, and she was worried he had hung up on her, but when his smooth voice finally reached her ears, she was pleasantly surprised. “You can come now.”

  “Where is your office?”

  “My house.”

  Grace furrowed her brow and turned to face the house they had just gone up to and knocked on the door of. Rubbing her lips together, she shook her head at Paige. “And where is your house?”

  “I live near Old Lion’s Park, off Jasmine Lane and Fir Street. 1211 Jasmine.”

  Grace did a quick mental map of the area but didn’t garner any information. Paige would either know where it was or they would look it up on a phone. She jotted down the address in her notebook and shifted it over so Paige could see. “Okay. We’ll be there in five minutes.” Hanging up, Grace slid her phone into its holder at her waist before strapping herself in with a seatbelt. “Apparently, he doesn’t live here.”

  “Then why is it his registered address?”

  “Maybe he moved recently? Who knows. That’s his address. Know where it’s at?”

  “It’s like three blocks from here.”

  “No shit, really?”

  “Yes.” Paige’s gaze roved over Grace’s form. “I’m sorry about Crystal.”

  Grace froze. “Sorry about what?”

  “You were right. I shouldn’t have done it that way, but I was afraid if I didn’t do it today that I never would.”

  Drawing in a short breath, Grace kept her eyes on Paige. She wanted to ask, wanted to probe, but she wasn’t sure she was going to like the answer. “Why did you want to do it to begin with? It’s been weeks since you two hooked up, and it’s not exactly like you were hitting it off before that happened. In fact, you’d never met her before.”

  Paige pulled away from the curb of the house and drove slowly down the street. Grace didn’t take her eyes off Paige’s profile. They hadn’t spent much time together lately because Grace purposely put distance between them. Paige had pushed the boundaries of their relationship one too many times, and Grace had worked hard to keep their conversations neutral.

  “Honestly?” Paige’s voice was quiet, demure, which was so unlike her. “If I can’t have you, at least I can have her.”

  Grace’s stomach sank. Her heart sped up then slowed down. She was struck speechless. She had no idea how to respond, but she could think of two ways off the top of her head she wanted to. However, having a pissed off Paige in the car with her while driving did not seem like the grandest idea out there.

  “That’s a stupid reason to be with someone.” Grace turned to look out the front windshield and pushed back into her seat. “If you want to be with her for her, then do that, but don’t do it because you want to be someone else.”

  Paige didn’t answer. Silence filtered through the car for the rest of the two blocks until they arrived at Diego’s house. He had a clearly marked taxi cab out front of his house, and then he had some simpler vehicles parked in his driveway.

  After Paige parked, Grace got out of the vehicle and shifted into detective mode. She couldn’t think about Paige and Crystal while she was interviewing Diego. She had to run through the questions she had spent the better part of the week thinking to ask. Something Alonzo had said in her interview with him had struck her, and she had changed up some of her questions to try it out and see if it garnered any information she wouldn’t normally get. It might do well for her to be vague for a reason.

  Grace marched right up to the front door, formed a fist with her hand, and pounded on it four times. It took Diego another minute before he answered, and he looked disheveled to say the least. He wasn’t the tallest man around, but he had deep caramel eyes and dark hair that was clearly an uncombed mop on the top of his head.

  His clothes were ragged as well. His gray T-shirt looked to be five times too big, stretched out, especially right around the neckline, his pants were barely hanging on to his hips, and his plaid over-shirt looked oddly out of place, like he was trying to be a punk and a prep at the same time. Grace narrowed her gaze at him.