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“I’m making up plates to take to the senior center.” That didn’t really answer the question, but I’m sure the older folks at the senior center would appreciate her festiveness.

“Okay,” I replied.

Then she made up a baggie of cookies for me. “You can break yours,” she told me. “Since you break them into pieces when you eat them, anyway.” This was a running thing between me and Mom, and had been since I was a kid. I liked to break off pieces of my cookies when I ate them—rather than putting a whole cookie in my mouth or biting off pieces. So she joked that she’d just save me all the broken pieces, since that’s how I liked them, anyway.

I leaned down carefully and kissed her cheek. “Thanks, Mom.”

“Be careful, Val.” It was the same thing Taavi had said to me only a few minutes earlier. I suppose I’d earned the warning, given the state of my side.

“I will,” I told her. “Promise.”

* * *

Smith stoppedoff at Glas again, although I didn’t actually make him buy me breakfast, particularly since I was getting something for Elliot, too. There was a burrito that was both bacon and sausage that would probably satisfy a shifter’s need for protein, and I got an egg sandwich with tomato and avocado. Smith got himself a sandwich with bacon and some ridiculous blended coffee thing called a Full Monkey. I was tempted, but it was frozen and also winter, so I went with my usual latte—cinnamon this time—and got Elliot one with hazelnut.

Stocked up with food and drink, we headed out on the highway toward the Crane house.

There were lights on inside when we pulled into the driveway next to Elliot’s truck, which meant that Elliot had actually gotten himself out of bed after I’d woken him up.

Smith carried in the crime scene kit, and I brought the all-important breakfast.

Elliot met us at the door wearing pajama pants and a rumpled t-shirt, and it was painfully obvious that he hadn’t brushed his hair.

I held out the tray. “The one on your left.”

He took it, sniffed it, then took a sip. “I get why you like this shit,” was what he said, then turned around and shuffled down the hall, leaving the door open by way of an invitation.

Smith shot me a questioning look, and I gestured with the tray to indicate he should go inside. He remembered the shoe rule, pausing to crouch down to unlace his winter hiking boots. I had on ordinary loafers, so I simply toed them off before padding down the hall into the kitchen, where Elliot was leaning against the counter, sipping his latte.

I dug through the bag and handed him the two burritos I’d ordered for him, then pulled out the two sandwiches and set Smith’s aside for when he joined us.

“So what does this mean?” Elliot asked me. “Whatever you’re doing?”

“It means the FBI is looking into the case,” I answered. I didn’t want to tell him too much—first, because the FBI really doesn’t like it when you give details to civilians, and, second, because I didn’t want to raise his hopes if this went nowhere.

“Which means?”

I shrugged, sipping my own latte. “Maybe nothing, maybe something. I’ll hopefully have a better answer for you when we get back from Green Bay.”

“Hopefully,” he repeated. I’d been hoping he wouldn’t notice that word.

“Yeah, hopefully.”

He sighed, then unwrapped and took a bite of burrito. “This is pretty good. Where’d you go?”

“Glas,” Smith answered from behind me. “Main, on the north side of the outlet.”

“I’ll have to go,” Elliot replied, then took another bite.

“This me?” Smith gestured toward his sandwich, and I nodded, my mouth full of egg, cheese, bread, avocado, and tomato.

“So you need to collect evidence from Dad’s office?”

“That’s right,” Smith answered. “We’re hoping there will be identifiable DNA, and that it belongs to someone other than one of the investigative team or your father.” He paused a moment. “Or anyone else who might have had a legitimate reason to be in there.”

“Will you need a list of people?” Elliot asked him.

“Only if we can’t ID it. We have DNA from our own team, from your father, and from folks with criminal records. If we don’t get a match, it could help to swab other possible people with a reason to be in there.”