"You say it, but you don't mean it-not really."
Devin sighed. "I don't know what else to tell you. Just get your mom."
Val frowned but did as he asked.
"Sorry," Devin muttered. "I have told Val it's not her fault a thousand times."
"Probably as many times as everyone in your life has told you, but guilt isn't something that gets talked away."
"That's true."
"Maybe Val cared more for you than you cared for her."
"It's not about that. She's been involved with two different men since Sam died. She broke up with the latest one last week; that's why she's suddenly looking at me again. She doesn't like to be alone. She never did, but now it's worse, because before she had a sister to call when her life got too quiet, too empty. I'm fairly sure she used her mom to get me to come over here-not just for her mom, but also for her. Look at this house. It's like a mausoleum."
"It is depressing." She walked across the room and paused in front of the fireplace. On the mantel were several framed photographs, one a family shot of the Parkers, obviously taken in happier times. Like Val, Samantha had dark brown hair and eyes, but she was more serious in expression than Val. She had a penetrating gaze that was sharp and intelligent. Her face matched that of her dad while her mom seemed to look more like Val, with rounder, softer features. "Good-looking family," she commented as Devin joined her.
"I used to tease Sam about that picture. I told her she looked suspicious, as if she thought the cameraman was there for some other reason than to take a family photograph."
She smiled, happy to hear more nostalgic fondness than pain in Devin's voice. "She does have a wary look about her."
"She was always wary. She was always looking for a hidden agenda, a dark secret. She would try to take people at face value, but she just couldn't do it."
"Suspicion can make a good analyst, but it can also weigh you down."
"It weighed her down," Devin agreed. "I used to tell her to take some time off, go on vacation, not take her work so seriously, but she never listened. When she was on a case, she was a bulldog. She wouldn't eat, wouldn't sleep. I think she had a little obsessive-compulsive in her. But that determination usually got her to the truth. I remember one of the training exercises at the academy. We were supposed to figure out where two kidnappers had hidden three hostages they'd taken during a bank robbery. There were six of us on the team, and five of us went in one direction and Sam went in the other. She was convinced there was a connection between one of the hostages and one of the kidnappers."
"I'm betting she was right."
"Yes, she was. She was always looking for the angle."
"You do that, too, Devin."
"Maybe I learned something from her."
"Maybe she learned something from you. I have a feeling your partnership wasn't one-sided. I've only been working with you a few days, and I already know that you bring a lot to the table."
"I'm surprised you'd say that. I haven't accomplished much the last year and a half."
"You've done a lot, but you're following someone who goes underground for periods of time. You've had to wait, but you've kept the pressure on, and you're still on the case. If you weren't, no one would know that Monday's fire was important and connected to those in the past."
"Well, we still have to catch the person. We're a long way from doing that."
"Maybe not. Maybe we're closer than we think."
He smiled. "And here I thought this house would suck the life out of you."
"It is hard to be here, but in some ways it makes me more determined. It reminds me that there's a real person whose life was lost."
He put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a hug. "Thanks, Kate."
"You're welcome," she said, wishing his hug hadn't ended so fast. As she turned her gaze back on the pictures, she saw one of the family with Devin at a baseball game. "Hey, you made the mantel."
"I told them to take that down, but since Sam is in it, it stays."
"And why shouldn't it? Your friendship with Sam was important to not just the both of you but also the family." She moved on to the next picture of a group of friends: Sam and Val with some other young men and women. "Did Sam have a boyfriend?" she asked curiously.
"She had some off-and-on relationships. She dated a police officer here in the city. When we came back for the arson cases, they reconnected for a while. He was really distraught when she died."
Her gut tightened at that piece of unexpected information. "Sam was dating a cop here in the city?"
"Yes." Devin's gaze narrowed. "Why do you say it like it means something?"
"You said that you didn't know where she'd gotten the information to change her profile ideas. Maybe it was from him. Was he helping you with the case?"
"No, he wasn't involved in that at all. He worked narcotics."
"But he still had access to police records. What was his name?"
"Rob Hamilton. He wasn't involved in the case, Kate. We were working with police and fire arson investigators. Hamilton wasn't talking to Sam about her work. He wanted to sleep with her. That was his interest."
"It just seems a little odd that I never saw that information in any of the files."
"Because it wasn't relevant."
"You don't think there's any way that Rob could have given Sam the clue that led her to that house?"
Devin stared back at her, his jaw firm, his eyes annoyed but reflective. "I can't be a hundred percent sure, but he told me he hadn't talked to Sam for a few days before her death, and he was wrecked after she was killed. I saw him at the fire, at the funeral and at Sam's parents' house. He knew I wanted to find her killer, that I wasn't convinced Baines was it, or that he was working alone. If he'd known something he would have told me. But all he talked about was Sam-how he'd wanted to get back together with her, but Sam was hesitant to start something up with him again. Her heart was still in her job and she wanted the freedom to go where she needed to go, and that's why they'd broken up in the first place. He'd wanted her to put him first, but she couldn't. He was broken up about it. He said he wished he'd spent more time enjoying their relationship instead of wanting more."
"That's sad." She paused, thinking that Sam was sounding a little like her. Would a man expect her to put him first over her job? Probably. It never seemed to be as big a question when it was the man with the big job and not the woman. She turned to Devin. "Would you ever change your life for a woman? If her work was important, would you want her to continue doing it?"
"Why are we talking about me?"
"Because I'm curious. If you loved a woman, and her job took her to another city, and it was something she loved to do, would you go with her?"
He let out a sigh. "I'd go now. I might not have gone before, because I had bigger career goals. Now, not so much."
"That might change once you find Sam's killer."
He shrugged. "Who knows? But why do I feel like we're not really talking about me or Sam? This is about the guy who broke up with you when you left for Quantico."
"Maybe a little. I guess I was just wondering when love trumps career."
"It obviously hasn't been a strong enough factor for either of us to consider."
"But you threw away your career for Sam."
"Not out of romantic love-out of friendship and loyalty."
"But you still did it."
"If something or someone matters enough to you, you won't hesitate; you'll know what to do," Devin said.
As Devin finished speaking, Val came into the room with a thin, dark-haired woman wearing black leggings and an oversized sweater. Her hair was streaked with gray, her face pale, her eyes dull, but a small spark appeared in her gaze when she saw Devin. She crossed the room and took his hands in hers.
"Devin," she said. "It's so good to see you. Is there news?"
"Not yet," he said. "But the Bureau sent someone to help me. This is Special Agent Kate Callaway."
"Mrs. Parker," Kate said, as the woman turned her head to look at her. "I'm very sorry for your loss."
"I don't want any more apologies or condolences. I want answers. I want my daughter's killer to be in jail. It's about time they sent someone to help." She turned back to Devin. "Val told me there was another fire earlier this week. Is it connected?"
"I believe so," he replied.
"You knew he would strike again. You kept telling me we had to be patient. You were right. So what's going to happen next?"
"We're going to catch him," Devin said.
"How?" Val asked.
"We have a couple of new leads," Devin said. "I know that I'm getting your hopes up, and I just want to warn you it's not going to be easy. Whoever is doing this is very good at staying hidden."