Home and Hearts Aflame
by Kadi
Rated: T
Disclaimer: I do love this sandbox, but sadly it is not mine.
Chapter 9
The approval from the Sheriff's Office for Andy to assist in the investigation was not long in coming. While he had no official jurisdiction in Oregon, the tone of the investigation had obviously changed. He drove, not to the annex in Redmond, but to the main department in Bend. The GPS in his rental, along with Richard's directions got him there without too much fuss. Andy had enough experience in police work, and especially working homicide, that he knew not everyone would be completely receptive to his arrival. He wasn't wrong.
The mistrust of the deputies and state police was evident when he arrived. He wore his badge, and his gun, but as he was led through the outer offices of the department, and down a long narrow hall, he could feel the stares boring into him. The good 'ol boys of the Deschutes County Sheriff's Department were not pleased to have an outsider poking through their investigation, but it seemed all the worse for having him be a Homicide Detective from a much larger city.
Andy tucked his sunglasses into the breast pocket of the blue button down he had changed into before driving into Bend. He wore a dark blazer over it, but he was still in his jeans. He followed Deputy Andrews into a large room at the back of the department. It reminded him a little of the old murder room, back at Parker Center. There were several desks crammed in, and a white board. Andy looked around. Their evidence was laid out on a couple of card tables that had been pushed together. The white board was positioned nearby. He walked over and studied it. Their timeline was sketched out there. They'd have done the same in Los Angeles.
There were also pictures. They had one that would have come from the Matthews family; the others had been taken when Denise Matthews's body was found, and following the autopsy. Andy focused on the picture of the living, smiling girl. His brows drew together. A breath hissed out between his teeth. She was blonde, slender, and blue-eyed.
She was exactly Phillip Stroh's type.
He turned away from the whiteboard and let his gaze sweep the room. He walked over to one of the card tables and studied the evidence bags. Denise Matthews's clothes were in one. He lifted it and turned it over in his hands. Then he picked up one of the photos taken when she was found. His head inclined as he studied it. He could understand why they had leaned so hard on Daniel. She was pretty battered. Her head was turned at an odd angle.
"Her neck was broken," Deputy Andrews said quietly. "The medical examiner can't determine if it happened during the fall, or before that. She was alive when she fell into the ravine, but she had been stabbed, so she died soon after." He pointed to another evidence bag and lifted it. "The knife was laying in the ravine with the body. No prints."
"You didn't find any blood evidence in Daniel Campbell's car or on his clothes," Andy pointed out. "Even if he'd had the truck detailed, there would be some sign. Blood gets into everything."
"Yeah." Andrews sighed. "We're close to signing off on him. It was violent, but it wasn't…" He didn't know what word he was looking for.
"Passionate." Andy put the bag of Denise's clothes down. "Personal. Either of those will work. When a guy kills his girlfriend, it can be pretty violent, but it's usually a crime of passion. Stabbing, breaking her neck, it's impersonal." He moved to the next table and lifted another evidence bag. There were two condoms inside, both still in the wrapper. "Any sign of sexual abuse?"
"No." Andrews placed his hands on his hips. "We thought maybe he got interrupted, or the fight escalated. Different brand than we found in Mr. Campbell's belongings too. You know, when a guy grabs a handful of condoms, he's not going to grab several different brands. He's going to dump whatever was left in the box in his bag. Mr. Campbell had a couple of loose ones in his pack, and a box that hadn't been opened." The deputy shrugged. "Like I said, we're close to ruling him out."
"No prints, no DNA evidence," Deputy Callan stated. He was younger than Andrews, he'd been on the case, but not out to the O'Dwyer residence. "All we have is a couple of footprints near the ravine. Size ten. Campbell is a size eleven."
"Yeah." Andy was sifting through a stack of photographs of the body. "So is Phillip Stroh. So am I." He looked up and frowned at the deputy. "Any specific tread? Something we can tie it to."
"Looked like a Timberline. Hiking boot," Callan clarified. "Campbell was wearing work boots. The treads didn't match."
"Where was the note?" Andy looked around the room. "Where did your M.E. find it?"
"Stuffed into her bra," Andrews said. "There was blood on the original, some splatter. He placed it before he stabbed her."
"Then he either pushed her, or she fell." Callan shrugged. "It's hard to say which. She got pretty beat up in the fall."
"I can see that." Andy put the pictures down. The girl was dead before Daniel ever went looking for her. His family would have a hard time getting him past that. "What about the DNA on the baby? Any idea when your lab will have that back?"
"Preliminary in a few days," Andrews said. "We got a sample from Campbell when we started our search, just in case we found evidence that required it. We sent it off to the lab too. They'll do a cross comparison."
Andy only nodded. That much he knew. He lifted the pictures again and studied them, closer this time. There were bruises covering much of her body, but the marks on her arms were in the distinct shape of a handprint. Andy frowned. "Do you have any of these to scale?" He lifted the photo of the bruises on her arms. "We've got pictures of our guy's hands. I'd like to compare them." He shrugged. "It's not definitive, but hell, better than nothing…" Because what he was seeing, just at a glance, it was Stroh.
He didn't want to go back to Sharon with that. He wanted to tell her something else. It was a hell of a thing, but he would prefer a copycat. That was a thought he never imagined that he would entertain.
"Actually," Callan nodded. He opened a folder on his desk. "We have scaled shots of all the marks on her body." He held out a couple of specific photos. "Are you really liking your guy for this?"
"It's starting to fit. At least at a glance." Andy pulled his cell phone out. "She's his type, and he's a little short-tempered lately. I guess getting caught ruined his mood." Andy dialed a familiar number and waited. When his partner answered, he sighed. "It's me. I need everything we've got on Stroh sent up here. Have Tao inbox it to me, specifically pictures of his dump site, the shots we got of his hands to compare to the last vic, and her autopsy photos."
"Damn." Provenza leaned back in his chair. "I was hoping you were wrong about that." He wanted to think that they were imagining zebras, not horses, at the sound of familiar hoofbeats.
"I'm not saying we're right," Flynn replied. "It just looks a hell of a lot like he was here. She fits his profile. It was a little more violent than he usually gets, but he was locked away for a while, and he's got a beef. Whoever killed this girl was angry."
"The Captain pissed him off." Provenza sighed. "Yeah, alright. I'll get on that. What about Rusty?" He drummed the fingers of his other hand against the arm of his chair. "Do we want to close in on that situation, or let it ride?"
"She doesn't want to tell him until we're sure," Andy said. "Let's just wait. We've still got eyes on him." Outside of himself and Sharon, Provenza was the only one who knew that Rusty had private security. He had balked at the idea that she was just going to allow Rusty to go back to school and continue on as if nothing happened. To ease his mind, Sharon let him in on her plan. If there was one thing that his partner and their Captain agreed on, it was Rusty, and most especially, Rusty's wellbeing. "The kid is okay," he continued, "he's going to class. There's enough on his plate right now."
Provenza grunted in response. "I guess now I don't have to ask how long you're going to be up there," he grumbled. Sick days his foot. They had all known exactly where Flynn was going. He wouldn't admit it out loud, but now he figured it was a good thing that he had. The damned stubborn woman might have gotten extra security for Rusty, but wasn't doing anything for herself. Just like with the letters the previous year. It was almost as if she was baiting him, daring Stroh to come after her as some kind of half-assed way of getting him out in the open. It was driving them all up the wall, and Flynn most especially. There wasn't a lot they could do about it, however. The rules didn't cover having stubborn, protective mothers as bosses. "I'll talk to Mike," he said, "we'll pull what we have and send it. Just remind the Captain, we can only keep a lid on this for so long. Rusty is going to find out."
"She knows." Andy tapped the fingers of one hand against his leg. "Let Sharon handle Rusty. It's what she does. She'll tell him when it's time, and yeah, I'm going to be up here for a while. We need to figure this thing out, and I'm not leaving her alone. She's got enough on her plate right now, too."
His partner snorted. "Sure, you keep telling yourself that." He smirked, despite the fact that it couldn't be seen. "I thought you said you weren't dating."
Andy snorted. "That's old news, keep up old man." He grinned as he disconnected the call. He tucked the phone back into his pocket and looked over the white board. He scratched his thumb against his forehead and sighed. "Okay," he said, "I'm not going to get in your way. I hate that crap. I do want to look over all of this, and your notes. I think we can safely take Daniel Campbell off your suspect list. I get why you liked him for this, but he didn't do it. There's nothing there." Andy shrugged. "It's always easiest to think that it was the boyfriend. What about the guy she hooked up with while they were broke up? That Joey Davis character. Anyone looked into him?"
Deputy Nathan Walker raised his hand. "I did." He leaned forward in his seat, let his elbows rest against his desk. "He's got a solid alibis. Joey Davis is a math teacher at Bend High School. He's also one of the assistant coaches for the Junior Varsity boy's baseball team. They had a tournament up in Terrebonne on Saturday. The bus left the school at seven that morning and didn't get back until about eight. I spoke to the other coaches, he was there until almost ten. The coaches have to wait until the last kid leaves, and then lock up the gear." He pointed a pen at the timeline on the white board. "By the time the bus pulled in, Campbell and Matthews had already argued. By the time he left, Miss Matthews was dead, according to our coroner. Davis isn't our guy."
"Who else do we have?" Andy leaned against an empty desk. He didn't want to consider it was Stroh. Not yet. It was looking more likely, but that wasn't a can of worms that he was ready to get into. "What about other friends, boyfriends, family members." He ground his teeth together, and as much as he hated to suggested it, he added, "on both sides. Daniel pissed anyone off lately?"
"We're looking into the Matthews family," Callan said. "So far, all we've got on them is a mother and an aunt over in Portland. The mother has a boyfriend, but his alibi checked out too. So we looked into the O'Dwyer family, which wasn't hard. They own half the county."
"The judge is retired, has been for years," Walker tapped his pen against his desk. "The oldest son owns the ranch now. He's back and forth a lot. The wife is a psychologist. She operates a practice out of Bend. They've got a couple of kids, both of them are away at college. You know the Captain, and her kids, and both of them have alibis too. Daniel's parents, Evelyn and Jacob, he's a doctor and she's got the design firm. They were both away for the weekend, visiting the youngest daughter. She goes to a private school in Portland."
"Some artsy thing," Callan said with a shrug. "Kind of like Juilliard, but for High School. Their oldest girls are at colleges well away from here. Robert would be your girlfriend's youngest brother. He's a lawyer. He's into civil stuff, divorces and real estate. Mostly the real estate. His wife was a stay at home mom, and their kids are still in High School. They go to the Catholic school here in Bend. It's where all the O'Dwyers from around here went to, except the youngest Campbell girl."
"We've looked into their friends," Deputy Andrews said. "Boyfriends, girlfriends, cousins, you name it. Everyone had a solid alibi or doesn't live around here anymore. The family is clean."
Of course they were. That was something that Andy already knew. He shifted his weight against the desk he was leaning on and crossed his legs. He folded his arms across his chest and frowned while he thought about it. "Dammit." That only left one possibility, Stroh or a copy cat. "No finger prints at the scene?"
"Nothing." Andrews sighed. "Not even on the note." He nodded to the bagged original. There was blood splatter on it and the bottom half was soaked.
Andy felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He took it out and swept his thumb across the screen. "I've got the stuff from our guys in LA." He pushed away from the desk and walked over. He leaned over the shoulder of Deputy Walker, the nearest officer, and began forwarding the data to his inbox.
Over the course of the next ten minutes, they transferred the data to every deputy present. Andy took them through their history with the subject, beginning with the first murders that they had attributed to Phillip Stroh and ending with the young woman Rusty had witnessed him burying. He gave them a run down of the incidents in LA, from Stroh's arrest to his escape.
It took a couple of hours, while the Deputies asked questions and likened those crimes to the murder of Denise Matthews, to go through it all. At the end, they still had more questions than answers. It was a violent murder, and only the note really linked it to the others. That was concerning, since Stroh wasn't one for leaving calling cards. He preferred to get in and out as cleanly as possible. If the Matthews murder was an attempt at getting Sharon's attention and luring her, and possibly Rusty, to Oregon, it was sloppy.
That was, ultimately, what bothered Andy the most. Stroh wasn't sloppy. Going after Rusty and Chief Johnson in her home a couple of years ago was not the smartest thing that he had ever done, but as far as killers went, he was one of the toughest that they had dealt with. Primarily because he knew how to work the system. He knew what limits the police could and could not push.
They had mountains of evidence, on the previous killings and now the Matthews case. That didn't do them a hell of a lot of good when they didn't have a viable suspect. The whole damned thing bothered Andy. There was something about all of it that just felt off. He couldn't put his finger on it.
He thought about all of that as he drove back to Redmond, just a few miles north and only twenty minutes away from Bend. He worked all of it over in his mind. When he was only a mile away from Sharon's family's home, he pulled off the road. He called his partner again.
"Tell me something," Andy began, the minute that the other Lieutenant answered. "Why the hell would Stroh give a damn about coming to Oregon? What? Just to stalk Sharon's family and figure out who they know and what they do every day? Why would he do that when he could have already gone to Canada, and from there, any number of countries with a no extradition clause. The son of a bitch could be scott free, sitting on a beach somewhere, planning his next murder. Why the hell hang around here, where there's a chance of getting caught again?"
"He doesn't leave witnesses," Provenza answered. "It's why he went after Rusty the first time. Getting the chief would have been a bonus. It's why he sent Weller after Rusty last year." The older Lieutenant was still seated at his desk. He sighed as he leaned forward. "What's going on?"
"I don't like it." Andy tapped the fingers of his other hand against the steering wheel in front of him. "It doesn't make any sense. Just forget for a minute that psychopaths like him don't really think like real people," he grumbled, "but we've proven time and again that he's not going to get close enough to Rusty to get what he wants. He's smart, a smart person would get the hell out of the country while he could."
"You just hit on the one fact in all of this that ties it together," Provenza pointed out. "He's a psychopath. He's not going to think smart. He's going to think about tying up any loose ends, and then he's going to get out of the country." He shook his head. "You're too close to all of this. You stopped thinking like a detective; you're thinking like a boyfriend, pal." When Sanchez looked up at him and smirked, Provenza waved him off. "You don't want to think that she's in danger, or that the kid is in danger. None of us do, but now, there's a possibility that it's spread to her family, and that's going to bother her. It's going to make her crazy, and she's going to feel guilty, and there's not a thing that you can do about it. This," he said, while rolling his eyes, "is why I told you to stay away from her."
This time it was Amy that snorted. She put a hand over her mouth to muffle the laughter. "That was never going to happen," she muttered quietly.
Sanchez snickered. "Nope."
"Saw it coming a mile away," Tao called from his desk.
Provenza scowled at them. "Don't you all have work to do?"
"We get extra pay just for annoying you," Buzz said, without looking up from the video footage of their last case that he was cataloging for the DA's office.
"One of these days," Provenza said, "I'm going to be in charge, and I'm going to fire him."
"Sure." Andy rolled his eyes. That would never happen. He'd get Buzz a raise first. "I'm not going to say that you're right. I don't think I'm physically capable of that." He smirked when his partner grunted. "I don't like it, that much is true, but nothing is adding up. Not the way it should. It doesn't feel like Stroh, and it's not the nephew, or the girl's ex-boyfriend."
"Give it time," Provenza said. "By now, whoever it is, Stroh or a copycat, they're going to know that they've got her attention. This guy is going to make another move. Tighten up security, keep an eye on the rest of the family." He paused for a minute. "Tell the Captain not to worry about Rusty." He looked across is desk at Sanchez, who nodded. "We've got him covered."
"Yeah." Andy sighed. "She knows. Hell of a thing, but in all of this, Rusty is the one she's the least worried about. She knows that he's protected." Between his security and the team, the kid was more than covered. No one would get near him. His lips pursed for a moment and he nodded. "I need to get back, I'm only a mile or so from the house. We're going to look over the stuff I got from the Deputies here, and I'll send it your way. It won't hurt to have another set of eyes looking at it." Maybe, when they saw the evidence, they'd understand why it wasn't sitting well with him.
"Great." Provenza rolled his eyes. "We've got nothing to do. Let's work the out of state cases too. The more the merrier."
"See," Andy snorted, "I knew you'd understand. You know what they say, idle hands are—"
"The kids have a saying for moments like these," Provenza drawled. "Bite me." He hung up and leaned back in his chair. The others were still laughing. "Go ahead, have fun. When we end up working two cases at the same time, I'm not going to get anyone here any overtime."
"Good thing the Captain took her computer with her," Buzz chirped.
Provenza scowled darkly at him. "One of these days," he promised.
For his part, Andy tossed his phone into the seat beside him and put the SUV back in gear. He pulled back out onto the road and finished the drive back to the ranch. He found Sharon on the porch outside the kitchen. She was leaning against one of the posts, nursing a cup of tea while she stared at the mountains in the distance.
"Hey." He stepped up beside her. Andy kept his hands pushed into his pockets. He leaned against the post opposite her. "Okay?"
"Yes." She added a hum as she looked at him. A smile appeared. Her brows lifted. "What did you find out?" She took a sip of her tea, but kept her gaze on him.
"Daniel's in the clear," Andy said. "The Deputies didn't want to make another trip out here. He's off the suspect list. They never had anything, and they knew it. They were just trying to be sure."
"I know." Sharon shifted where she stood, let her gaze wander back to the mountains. "They don't see the kinds of things here that we do. That's the advantage of growing up in a small town near the middle of nowhere. No one place is ever completely immune to the human stain, the darkness that inevitably infects those that take the lives of others, but up here…" There was none of the gang violence, opportunistic killings, or corruption that they saw so much of on a daily basis. "People get jealous, they lose their heads, they get behind the wheel intoxicated. People here don't drive down residential streets with guns poking out of their windows. Hikers don't stumble over the dumping grounds for serial killers. This is not Los Angeles."
His brows drew together as he watched her. Andy tilted his head. She seemed oddly wistful. He shifted where he stood, scuffed his shoe against the wooden planks of the porch. "You sound like you miss it," he said carefully, trying to gauge her mood.
"Maybe." Her head rolled against the porch post. Sharon looked at him again. "The simplicity of it, I think, and the peace." She pushed away from the post and moved to stand in front of him. "I'm a city girl at heart, though." Her hand settled against his chest, and her fingers toyed with the buttons of his shirt, where his tie would have been.
"No you're not." He grinned down at her. Andy reached out and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "You might like the city, but you're not foolin' me anymore." He saw her with the horses, and he saw her up on the mountain. She fit here, just as easily as she did in Los Angeles. It was her home. She couldn't tell him that she didn't carry a little piece of it with her wherever she went. It was like that part of him that was still back East. They couldn't escape their roots. "Country girl," he teased.
"Hm." She rolled her eyes at him. "If you tell anyone, there's a bean bag with your name on it." Sharon leaned in to him when his arm slipped around her. "What else?" There was more that he wasn't telling her.
Andy sighed. "I don't know. It might be Stroh, and it might not be, but we just don't know yet. Tao sent me everything we've got on him. The Deputies here have it now. Deputy Andrews sent me everything they have on this case. We can go over it later. I sent it to our guys too. They're going to put their minds to it. I feel like we're all missing something, and I don't know what."
She studied him closely. The worry was there. Beneath the surface, however, there was also frustration. It was a feeling that she recognized easily. His mind was working over the problem, trying to draw all the pieces together. Sharon reached up and passed her fingers over his hair. "Let's look at what you've got. Maybe I just need to see it."
"We will." Not just yet. Andy had spent hours pouring over the data. His hand stroked up her side. "Let's go tell your nephew that he's in the clear. He might have questions."
"Yes." Sharon leaned in to him for just a moment longer. When she slipped away, she took his hand. They walked back into the house, by way of the kitchen, and traded her tea for cups of coffee. It was shaping up to be another long day.
They located Daniel in the study. He had his tablet in his hand, but didn't appear to be paying it any attention. Instead he was staring at the fireplace. His mother was nearby, and as they appeared, she put away her phone and moved closer. Evelyn looked between the pair. "Any news?"
"Yes, actually." Sharon took a seat on the sofa beside Daniel. She glanced across the room. Ricky was in a chair in the corner, laptop open. They drew his gaze and she saw him close it. "Daniel," she focused her attention solely on him. "The Medical Examiner is ruling Denise's death as a homicide. Her injuries were consistent with such." She lay her hand on his arm. Her jaw clenched when he shuddered. "We still don't know who or why, but you've been cleared."
Her voice wavered. Andy took a step forward. "There was a note found on Denise. We have reason to think that whoever killed her is using one of our cases in Los Angeles to either get attention or divert that attention to someone else."
"Los Angeles?" Evelyn stared at them. "How does one of your cases hundreds of miles away have anything at all to do with Daniel and Denise?"
Sharon closed her eyes. She took a breath and let it out slowly before she looked up at her sister. "The man who tried to kill Rusty; it's possible that he did this to lure me up here. He may have believed that I would bring Rusty with me, away from the city, where he is protected."
"There's also the possibility," Andy said quietly, voice low and rumbling, "that it has nothing to do with that at all. Someone who wanted to emulate that killer could be using this as an opportunity to be noticed."
"We don't have any answers yet," Sharon said quietly. "I'm sorry that I can't give you anymore than that. I'm afraid we have far more questions now than we had before."
"Why Denise?" Daniel shook his head. "That makes no sense. Why would anyone want to hurt her?" He ran a hand through his hair. "She's never done anything bad to anyone."
"I don't know, Danny." Sharon rubbed his arm. "That's the one question that we can never answer. We live in a world where bad things happen to good people, and it sounds so trite, and not nearly good enough, but it's all that I've got."
"It's why we do it." Andy said. He shrugged. "My ex-wife used to ask me all the time, why? What was the point in it, every case was always the same. Someone was dead, and some dirtbag was going to jail for it. Why did I keep going back. What made me want to keep looking at all that?"
Sharon smiled affectionately up at him. Her gaze moved back to Daniel, but not without glancing at her son too. It was a question that her older children had asked of her, time and again, especially since her transfer to Major Crimes. "While we can't make anything better for the families left behind, or bring back a life unnecessarily ended, we can stop it from happening again. That doesn't help you right now," she said, "but we will figure this out, Danny."
"I know, Aunt Sharon." His gaze dropped to hands. "I believe you. It doesn't change anything, though. She's still gone." His eyes closed. Daniel concentrated on just breathing for a moment. "So, if I'm not a suspect anymore, can I call her mom now?" He felt badly that he hadn't been able to reach out to Denise's family.
"By now the family has been updated," Andy said. "Do what you need to."
"I'll do you one better." Ricky put his computer aside and stood up. "I'll drive you out there. You can say what you need to in person."
Daniel nodded slowly. "Thanks cuz." He rubbed his hands against his sweats. He stood up slowly. "I think I'd like to do that. It didn't feel right, not being able to say… something."
"Danny are you sure?" Evelyn reached for his arm as he passed her. "You can give it a few more hours, maybe go over there in the morning." The news he'd just heard was hard to take in. She wanted him to be able to think on it for a little while.
"Mom," he sighed. "It's been long enough. They wouldn't let me talk to her family for days because they thought that I hurt her. I don't want her mom to think that I didn't care. That just because she's dead now, this family is going to forget about her."
"Okay." Evelyn's hand moved to his shoulder. "You're right. I'll go with you. We'll make sure that they don't need anything. Just let me get my purse."
"Yeah," Daniel nodded. "Sure." He knew better than to try and change her mind, and didn't have the energy at the moment to even attempt it. "I'm just going to throw on something a little more appropriate than sweats and a t-shirt."
"I'll go get my rental and pull it around," Ricky told them. "Take your time." He pushed his hands into his pockets and hung back, even as his cousin and aunt left the room. He looked at his mother. "This is the Stroh thing, isn't it? You think he's doing this to get to you?"
"It's a possibility." She stood up, cupped her coffee mug in her hands. "We really don't know yet, but the note was meant to indicate as much. It was signed Phillip Stroh, but he has no history of that kind of behavior."
Ricky nodded slowly. "Just… you know, be careful okay? Whatever the reason for it, having some nut job focused on you can't be good." It was the one thing about her job that they would never get used to.
Sharon hummed. She pulled him to her in a one-armed hug. "I'm always careful, honey." At his snort, she smiled. "I promise. I'm an administrator. I give orders, I sign time sheets. There is nothing to worry about."
This time it was Andy's turn to snort. He looked down while shaking his head. "Don't worry," he told Ricky. "We've got her covered."
"You, I believe." Ricky made a face at his mother. "Her, not so much."
Her nose wrinkled. "Rotten child." She tried to ruffle his hair, but he ducked away before she could. Sharon smiled. "Go, keep an eye on your cousin."
"I'm going." Ricky pointed at Andy. "Keep an eye on her."
"Definitely." He rocked back on his heels, suppressed the urge to smirk. Instead, he waited for Ricky to leave. His brows rose when they were alone. "Ready to go to work?"
Sharon sighed. "Not especially." She walked toward him. "But let's do it anyway. Looks like we have a murder to solve."
He shrugged. "Must be Monday."
She rolled her eyes at him as they walked toward the exit. "I must be working you too hard, it's actually Thursday. Remind me to tell your boss that you need a vacation."
"Can she get me a vacation buddy while she's at it?" He lay a hand against her back as they walked toward the stairs. They would get her computer and begin working through the evidence.
"If you ask nicely, I'm sure that she will do her best." She wrapped an arm around his middle and leaned in to his side.
"Now see, that's the part that always gets me in trouble." Andy glanced down at her with a small smile. "Remind me to practice."
She returned his smile, for just a moment, before she let her attention drift back to the situation that was surrounding them. They knew now what had happened on that mountain. It was a matter of figuring out why, and more importantly, who was behind it.
-TBC-
