“Is it weird that I want to go see her mother?”
“It’d probably mean a lot to her.”
“Normally, I’d run from something like that, but I feel this overwhelming need to see her.”
“Because you’re a mother yourself now, and you feel for what she’s lost.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s it. I’ll go after I do the briefing.”
“I’ll come with you,” Malone said.
“You don’t have to.”
“It’s okay. I’ll see it through, and then I’m going home.”
“Will you come back?” Sam asked, going for a moment of levity.
“I’ll let you know.”
“Please do.”
“Sometimes it’s just far too fucking much.”
“Almost all the time, it is.”
“Yeah.”
“You know what’s encouraging?” she asked.
“There’s something encouraging?”
“It’s that you’ve been doing this job for decades, and you still care so much that you’re devasted by the loss of this young girl. At times, I’ve worried about becoming numb to it, but you’re showing me that we never become entirely numb.”
“It’d be nice if we could, right?”
“Definitely. Will you see Dr. Trulo after you get some rest?”
“We’ll see.”
“Will you do it for me?”
He gave her a side-eyed look full of exasperation. “That’s low, Holland. I expect better from you.”
She shrugged. “Friends take care of friends.”
“I’ll talk to him.”
“And you won’t get mad at me if I make sure you do it?” They’d become experts at avoidance of the kind of help Trulo provided. However, after he’d saved her sanity and her career—more than once—Sam had become a fan of his way of helping.
“Who’s the boss around here, anyway?”
“Is that a rhetorical question?”
His grunt of laughter was his only answer. “Let’s get this shit finished so I can get the hell out of here.”
She walked with him into the pit, where they used her office to pound out a statement about finding Luna Ahern’s body. “I’ll update on the Carver case, too.”
When they were ready, they walked to the lobby, where they encountered Chief Farnsworth in a discussion with Deputy Chief Jeannie McBride.
