They were led down a hallway into a large open room. The body of the mother was still on the stretcher it had come in on. Grace bit her cheek as she stared at it, the body bag open so they could see her face. The medical examiner opened it the rest of the way, staring first at Grace and then at Abrams.

  “She new?” he asked.

  “No,” Abrams answered, but he didn’t elaborate, which Grace was thankful for. She wasn’t sure how much Abrams knew anyway.

  Grace waited patiently and quietly for the medical examiner to tell them what had happened—at least, what he knew of what had happened so far. She figured that would change as soon as he was able to really look at the body.

  “She was stabbed to death.”

  “Guessed that one,” Abrams said with a smirk. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “She’s been dead about thirty-six hours.”

  “Damn it,” Grace muttered.

  Abrams shot her a dirty look, so she ground her molars to keep from saying anything else stupid. But Abrams must have had other plans. He put a fist on his hip and stared at her directly. “Did you have something to add?”

  “Thirty-six hours is a bit late to get started on a critical missing case.” She sent him a serious look, daring him to challenge her. When he didn’t, Grace turned back to the medical examiner.

  “Critical missing?” he asked.

  “She had a baby three weeks ago,” Grace supplied when Abrams didn’t speak for her. She wasn’t used to men in charge not railroading her. “Baby is missing. I work with missing persons, paired with Abrams for the deceased.”

  The shocked expression on the medical examiner’s face was near priceless. Grace supposed he hadn’t really looked at the body yet otherwise he probably would have been able to figure out she’d given birth recently. She wondered if he’d even have any more information for them or if they were going in blind for the next few days of their investigation while they waited for his first report.

  “Any idea what she was stabbed with?” Abrams asked.

  “Knife.”

  Abrams rolled his eyes. “I could have sworn it was with a spoon.”

  Grace snorted. If this was Abrams’ norm, then she was fast going to like him. He was snarky like her, but gave her the responsibility of her rank without trying to take it away. Whatever Paige had meant by him, she had been wrong.

  “Serrated knife I think, but I won’t know more until I can really look at it.”

  Tapping her toe on the cement floor, Grace couldn’t figure out why they were there if they had no new information to gain. She had better things she could be doing. A look to Abrams told her he was thinking the same. They made quick chit chat with the medical examiner, told him they’d be back, and left.

  Outside, Grace opened the door to the cruiser, but Abrams stopped her by calling her rank and name. Freezing on the spot, Grace turned to him. “Yes?”

  “What are you thinking?”

  “That I have a list of phone calls to make.” She knew there was too much snark in her tone, but she couldn’t help it. They hadn’t exactly discussed the parameters of what they were doing or how they were going to investigate together and separately, but with the morning she’d had, she just wanted to dive in as deep as she could to the case.

  “Like where?”

  Grace sighed. “Have you worked a missing persons case before?”

  Abrams shook his head. “Nope. Been in homicide since I transferred from warrants ten years ago.”

  “Right. This is a critical missing case. I have to call the FBI, put out the Amber Alert, call hospitals in this county and every neighboring county, put out notices in neighboring counties to look for a kid that I don’t have a picture of.”

  “Didn’t realize you had to talk to the FBI.”

  Grace shrugged. “Did you work with Delwin often?”

  “Yeah.” He grunted, but again, didn’t elaborate.

  She wanted to ask him more questions, but after only knowing him for a few short hours, Grace didn’t think it wise to open that can of worms just yet. With her hand on the door to the cruiser, she moved to get in it, once again, stopped by his voice.

  “We’re working this together, Halling.”

  “I know,” she answered. “Did you have more to the plan than that?”

  “You’re a tough cookie, aren’t you?”

  “Some days,” Grace mumbled. “Did you want to meet up this afternoon and go over notes or something?”

  “Or something. Tomorrow. Doc Mendez should have more information by then.”

  “I should hope.”

  “Notification?”

  Grace’s stomach clenched. “I thought you did it already.”

  “Waited on you, since you have a notification to do too.”

  “Wonderful. Where we going first?”

  “Mom’s.”

  “I’ll follow you. Figure out who baby daddy is?”

  “Not yet.”

  “We’ll have to ask that.”

  Grace did get behind the wheel then. Abrams handed her a card through the open door before stepping away and walking to his cruiser. It had his number on it. She would have to be the one to call him tomorrow to set up the time. Groaning, Grace followed Abrams. It was going to be a long day.

  The first notification went as well as expected. Felicia’s mom had no information for them except a name for the baby daddy, which was a bonus. Though apparently he was only the suspected baby daddy. Grace filed that information away in the back of her mind while she followed Abrams to the next house. They had three more notifications to do before they could go to the station and sit down with all the information they had and dissect it.

  As much as Grace wanted to do that, the idea of going back to the station was not something that appealed to her. Abrams and she seemed to get along well enough, but Grace had avoided updating Paige all morning, and Paige had left numerous messages on her phone and texts, ordering her to call and give an update.

  Abrams caught Grace ignoring Paige’s calls on more than one occasion, but he hadn’t commented on it, thankfully. As Grace got into her cruiser after the last notification, she pulled out her phone and flipped through the messages. Three more from Paige and one from Amya—who was apparently mad they hadn’t asked for her assistance on the notifications since it was a sensitive case. Grace cringed. They probably should have called in the Chaplain, but it had been easier and less time consuming not to. And so far, the family had handled it well enough. They could have always called Amya in after the fact if need be.

  At the station, Grace got out of her cruiser and dragged her feet inside. Her first call would be to start the Amber Alert—assuming the hospital had sent the necessary information over and Paige hadn’t started it already. Her second call would be to the FBI, which would start the time limit on her case. She’d only have so much time to find Andrew before the FBI would step in to help out and even then only so much time before they took over the investigation completely. With the added pressure, Grace couldn’t afford to let anything slip this time.

  Collaboration

  Grace’s head ached already. Walking into her unit, she knew that it was going to be a trial just to be there for the rest of the day, and she had to talk to Paige because Paige still tried to play the role of her partner even though she was also running the unit and didn’t really have the time for both.

  Plopping down at her desk, Grace turned on her computer and pulled out her notebook that was littered with scribbles from everything she had done that day. She’d be at the office late for sure trying to type it all up and get everything straight. At least Amya was aware of what was going on. She got up while her computer booted on and poured herself another coffee. It had been her lifeline lately, and she was drinking as much of it as Amya normally would if not more. It was a sure sign that something was not going quite right.

  Back in her seat, Detective Kline came over, sitting go the edge of the desk. “She talk to you yet?”

  “No. I’m hoping she hasn’t noticed I’m back.”

  “She’s mad.”

  “I’m sure. I’ve avoided my hourly check-ins with her. I bet she’s wanting a full update on the case.”

  “Hourly?”

  “Yeah.” Grace stared up into Kline’s open face. They had become better friends over the past summer and fall, but they weren’t best friends yet. Grace had held back on it seeing as the last person she’d made friends with in her unit struggled to keep boundaries in check. Grace didn’t want to have to deal with more than one person who wanted a piece of her in some form or fashion.

  Kline scoffed. “That’s absolutely ridiculous.”

  “Well, we know from experience that she likes to keep close tabs on me.”

  “Yeah, but you’re a seasoned detective at this point. You know what you’re doing.”

  Grace didn’t respond because she knew it wasn’t because of her experience that Paige was insisting on keeping an eye on her. The motive behind it was entirely different. What Grace didn’t know was how to handle it without running from it, and the thought had occurred to her more than once. She had never hated coming in to work as much as she did now that Paige was in charge of the unit. She just kept holding out hope that they would hire someone else to fill the empty permanent captain’s position and that everything would go back to the way it was before, which wasn’t great, but it was at least tolerable.

  “I’ve got to call the FBI.”

  “Critical missing?”

  “Mom dead, stabbed. Baby missing three days.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  “Well, the mom’s been dead three days, so that’s our best guess.”

  “Any clues where the baby is at.”

  “Nope. Baby daddy didn’t have him at all, and in fact, I’m not sure he’s ever met the baby.”

  “Sad. How old is the kid?”

  “Three weeks.”

  “Damn.”

  Grace tightened her jaw as she opened a new file to begin her reporting. Kline remained next to her, leaning against her desk, which had become somewhat normal since Paige had moved into the big office, and Grace didn’t mind it. Kline was older, a parent to grown adults, but she was sweet and definitely able to connect with Grace on a basic level. They had common interests and shared a job together. Beyond that, they likely wouldn’t become best friends or fast friends, but they could at least be work friends.

  “Halling!” Paige’s voice boomed through the room, and once again, everyone stilled in response.

  Grace hated it when Paige did that. Bolstering herself, Grace turned in her chair to look over at Paige standing just outside the door to her office. “Yeah?”

  “My office. Now.” The angry tone in Paige’s voice wasn’t missed by anyone. Paige spun around and walked into her office out of sight from most everyone else.

  Grace shot Kline a look and shuffled her feet as she stood up and made her way to Paige. Tensing as she entered the office, Grace moved in.

  “Shut the door.”

  Fuck, Grace thought as she closed the door behind her. She hated closed doors where it involved Paige. “What do you need?”

  “I needed an update, on the hour.”

  Sitting in the chair on the opposite side of Paige’s desk while Paige leaned against the front of it, towering over her, Grace stared at her shoes. “Not much to update.”

  “What were you doing for hours then?”

  “Went to the apartment, the morgue, did three notifications, talked to Abrams to figure out how we’re going to be doing this exchange of information and joint investigation.”

  “He behave?”

  “Yup.” Grace pressed her lips together tightly. There had been no signs that Sergeant Link Abrams was going to misbehave, then again, there’d been no sign Paige was going to go down that road until last year either. Holding her own, Grace waited for the next question and answer game they were going to play.

  “How long?”

  “Felicia Erikson was killed about three days ago. From what we can tell, the baby has been missing that long. No one even knew she was gone. We were able to get a photo from the maternal grandmother, so I will alert the news media in a minute so they can run a special on it tonight.”

  “You think that’s wise?”

  “Yes.” Grace shifted her gaze to Paige’s green eyes. “We’re already three days out on this case. We need all the help we can get to find Andrew.”

  “Makes sense. I did put out the Amber Alert when the medical file came in.” Paige reached to her desk and pulled out a small stack of papers, handing it over to Grace.

  Skimming the file, Grace noted everything she already knew, but also found out something she didn’t. Andrew had a birthmark on his chest on the bottom side of his left chest. That would definitely be helping in identifying him when she found him, although, it wouldn’t readily be seen without him being naked, which wasn’t too much of a help unless she knew where to look.

  “Thanks,” Grace muttered. “I’ll contact the FBI here in a minute.”

  “I can do that.”

  Shaking her head, Grace tensed. “I don’t mind.”

  “Oh, I forget you have a connection there.”

  “Yeah.” Grace swallowed. She’d never met her sister-in-law, and they’d only spoken once or twice on the phone, but between Amya and her mother-in-law, Patti, she knew a lot about Special Agent to the FBI Morgan Stone. “She probably won’t handle the case, but I can also ask her for a profile, too.”

  “Good thinking.” Paige eyed Grace. “We need to get ahead on this case. We’re already days behind where we should be.”

  “Not of our own fault,” Grace muttered.

  “Still. Three days missing already means we’re outside the first three windows.”

  “I’m well aware, Paige. I’ve been in Missing Persons for three years at this point. I know how to run an investigation.” Grace hadn’t meant to be so forward, but she was tired of holding back. Paige had gone from walking to her like an equal in the beginning to babying every move she made. Most detectives transferred units every three to five years, so she was already one of the more senior officers with all her current experience. Technically, she’d been in missing persons longer than Paige, but she didn’t have the ranking to fill in as Captain since she hadn’t been on the force as long.

  “I’m going to approve any over time you need.”

  And there it was. Grace’s stomach clenched. Paige was going to expect her to work night and day to solve this case, which she would have already wanted to do anyway, but the expectation of it made it worse, especially because Paige insisted on being in the unit any time Grace stayed late, so they’d have a bunch of interactions Grace would have to navigate instead of putting all her focus on Andrew like she should.

  “Great. I’ve got some calls to make, reports to enter, and investigation to line up for tomorrow.” Grace moved her thumb over her shoulder, indicating she wanted to leave the office.

  Paige stepped forward, standing right next to Grace’s shoulder and touched her softly. Grace shivered at the contact, but it wasn’t a good shiver. Paige smiled down at her, those green eyes unwavering in their desire, and Grace tried her best to ignore it. Paige’s voice was clear but quiet when she spoke. “Let me know if you need help on anything, Grace. I’m always here for you. You know that.”

  “Uh…thanks.” Awkwardly standing, Grace made sure Paige had to move her hand as she stepped away and on the other side of the chair to separate them. Grace eyed Paige carefully, trying to show her dislike of everything going on in that room, but she wasn’t sure Paige even picked up on it. They had gone from working so well together to barely being able to communicate the necessities. It was probably a good thing Paige wasn’t really working cases with her anymore.

  “I mean it, Grace.”

  “I hear you.” Grace walked to the door and let herself out. Paige’s gaze followed her to her desk only ten feet away, her eyes burning a hole in Grace’s back. She wondered what people thought of Paige babying all of Grace’s cases but also always giving her the big cases. It definitely could be seen as favoritism, but it wasn’t like Paige hid the fact she was a lesbian, and since Grace was in a relationship with the Police Chaplain, everyone knew which way she swung.

  Cursing under her breath, Grace hunched over her desk as she focused on the work in front of her. People probably thought she and Paige was doing the nasty in the interview rooms when no one was looking or something. There was no way to escape the chaos Paige had rained down on her.

  ###

  Grace got to work on time the next morning. She managed to avoid Paige, somehow, she wasn’t quite sure how. With her notebook in hand and some of her research from the night before, she trekked down the hall toward homicide. Their unit was much larger than hers, at least double the size.

  It took her a moment to spy Abrams at his desk on the far wall by one of the three windows in the room. He caught sight of her and waved her over. Grace stepped into the large room, glancing every which way as people moved and worked. She’d been in homicide’s room before but never as a visiting detective and never because she had a case she needed to still work.

  Abrams was on the phone, so Grace stood by his desk and waited for him to finish. He glanced up at her as he hung up and gave her a wan smile. “I figure we can work in one of the interview rooms for now.”

  “Sounds good.” Grace bit the inside of her cheek.

  After her conversation with Paige the day before, her defenses were up where it involved Abrams. She couldn’t figure out why she let Paige affect her so much. At one point they had been good partners, and then everything had gone to absolute shit.

  Grace walked slowly behind Abrams after he gathered up his papers. They went into an interview room, the door left open, which made Grace feel safer, and she was glad he did that. Not that anything Abrams had done made her feel unsafe, but having the added layer of protection was always welcome, especially considering her issues with Paige.