The holding cell just wasn't comfortable.

The bench was metal. The walls were bare. There were no windows. The bars weren't really necessary; the atmosphere of the room was more imprisoning than anything else.

I could hardly believe that I had ended up here.

Worse, I still couldn't figure out how I had ended up here.

Twelve hours earlier...

"So tell me, Josie–"

"Her name is Jo," my niece insisted, giving my brother a look that said this should be obvious.

He grinned at her. "Sorry, Sarah. Old habits die hard. So tell me, Jo, how's your job going?"

I shrugged. "It's a job." In any other context, I would have elaborated about my co-workers or the sense of satisfaction my work brought me, but I wasn't interested in talking about that with Emilio.

"Auntie Jo catches bad guys," Sarah piped up.

Ellie smiled and ruffled her hair. "That's right, Sarah."

"What about you?" I asked Emilio, taking a bite of spaghetti. "What are you up to these days?"

"Oh, not much. I have the odd job here and there."

"Why are your jobs odd?" Sarah asked.

"Because I'm not always doing the same thing," Emilio explained.

Sarah opened her mouth to ask another question, but Ellie jumped in before she could. "Thanks so much for having us over, Jo," she said, getting to her feet. "We'll have to have another family dinner soon."

"No problem." I pushed back my chair and stood, coming over to give her a hug. "Thanks for coming, Ellie. Drive safe back, all right?"

"Will do. Come on, Sarah!"

Sarah hopped out of her chair, hugged me around the waist, gave Emilio a high-five, and skipped out the door after her mother. I hoped that Emilio would follow them, but when I turned, he was still lounging at the table, sipping from his glass of wine.

"It's been too long, hermana."

I bit back a snarky reply. "Yes, it has."

"Mind if I hang out a bit, so we can catch up?"

I hesitated. "It is a little late..."

"Oh, come on, Josie, you know you want to."

If I hadn't been so tired, I would have protested further, because I certainly did not want to spend any more time with my brother than absolutely necessary. But it had been a long day, and it did seem that Emilio was turning over a new leaf. I supposed there were worse things than spending an evening talking to my brother, even if I was this exhausted.

Emilio talked at me for hours, seeming not to notice that I was dozing off. Eventually, though, he did catch on. Shaking my shoulder gently to wake me, he said, "You obviously need some rest. I'll see you some other time, all right, Josie?"

"All right. Good night, Emilio."

I yawned all the way up the stairs and collapsed into bed. I vaguely remembered seeing the clock flash midnight before sleep overcame me.

Far too soon after that, my phone rang. Grumbling to myself, I sat up and grabbed it from my nightstand. "Martinez."

"Morning, Jo."

"It's not morning."

"You're right, it's four AM, and we've got a homicide. I'll text you the address."

"Thanks, Mike." I hit "end call" and tossed the phone back on the nightstand. We'd just come off of a hard case, and I was not ready, physically or mentally, for a new one. Sometimes I wished the city would catch onto my subconscious signals.

With the ease of long practice, I got dressed with my eyes mostly closed, downed a quick bowl of cereal, and opened the safe to take out my service weapon. I was out the door in fifteen minutes.

The address led me to an apartment building. Hanson was already there, talking to a uniformed officer. When he saw me, he broke off his conversation to join me at the tape line. "Patrol found the body at about three AM," he told me.

"Where?"

"In the alley, this way." He led me behind the apartment building into an alley, where the trash and recycling bins were overflowing. "Our victim is Simon Rodriguez, fifty-three. ID'd him from the driver's license in his wallet. His cash and cards are still there, so it wasn't a robbery."

"All right. Where's–"

"You don't need to look at his wallet to know this wasn't a robbery, Detective Hanson." Henry popped up from behind the dumpster. "Come take a look at this, Jo," he added. "Someone was very angry with this poor man."

I walked around the dumpster and had to agree. Simon Rodriguez was sprawled face-first on the pavement. He had a single bullet wound in his back, and I could tell from a glance that it was precise. "A straight shot through the heart," Henry said. "There aren't many people that could make that shot."

"Detective Martinez?"

I turned to see two men in suits and ties approaching the dumpster. "That's me," I said, holding up a hand.

"I'm Rogers," said the taller of the two. "This is Marshall. We're with Internal Affairs."

A chill ran down my spine. Hearing the words "Internal Affairs" made any cop shiver, whether they were clean or dirty. "How can I help you?"

"I'm afraid you need to come with us," Marshall replied.

I blinked at them. "Why?"

"We received an anonymous tip this morning, and that's all you need to know right now. This way, please, Detective Martinez." Rogers gestured for me to come with them. I looked from him to his partner to the stunned faces of Hanson and Henry.

"I'll call Reece," Hanson promised me.

"No need," Rogers said. "She already knows."

"I'll call her anyway," he persisted. "She'll get this sorted out."

Hello again, Forever fandom! After a brief hiatus into NCIS, I have returned with another story about Jo's family. Probably the hardest part about this one was deciding on a title. Let me know what you think so far!