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“W hy are you here?”

Noah ignored Fulton as he escorted his guest into the station. She’d fought the cuffs like a wet cat. As she bristled against his lead, he warned, “People get tossed into lockup for fighting custody, sweetheart. I’d calm down if I were you.”

Glenna Colton twitched in indignation. “You’re hurting me!”

“I’m not,” he said firmly, guiding her toward the back of the Sedona station, where the interrogation rooms were located.

“I want my lawyer!”

“You’re entitled to a representative during questioning,” he acknowledged. “You’ll need one when this is all over.”

“I still don’t understand what I’m being charged with,” she said.

“Assaulting a police officer, for one,” Noah said, knocking on the door of Interview Room 1. When no one answered, he opened it and poked his head in. The room was clear. He maneuvered her inside. “Sit down, be a good girl, and we’ll see about getting the cuffs off.”

She sneered at him. “I get a phone call. I want my phone call.”

“In a minute, Veruca,” he said.

No sooner had he shut the door behind him than he heard, “Steele!”

Noah stopped, gritted his teeth, then turned to face his superior office. “Sir.”

Captain Jim Crabtree, a weathered barrel of a man with twenty-plus years on the force, bore down on him. “Aren’t you supposed to be on personal leave?” he asked. “Who is this woman?”

Fulton peered through the blinds of the interview room and cursed a stream. “That’s Glenna Bennett Colton. Wife to Clive Colton. His children own Mariposa Resort & Spa.”

Crabtree spoke in a steely, quiet manner that wasn’t any less threatening than the sound of his yelling. “We went over this. You asked if you could approach Mariposa. You asked me for my permission to investigate your sister’s death and I told you it’s against departmental procedure.”

“Yes, sir,” Noah said.

“You are not about to tell me you picked this woman up on the streets of Sedona,” Crabtree warned.

“No, sir.”

A knowing gleam entered Crabtree’s dark eyes. “How long have you been poking around the resort?”

Noah pressed his lips together. He respected the hell out of Crabtree and couldn’t lie. “Several days.”

Fulton let out a disgruntled noise. It was cut off by Crabtree. “You went against orders. That makes you eligible for administrative leave. I could send you before the review board.”

Hell. He couldn’t lose his badge. Not with Allison’s killer on the loose.

Not when being a homicide detective was the only job that had ever made sense to him. It was the only box he’d ever fit in. “Respectfully, sir, I’m asking you not to do that.”

“Give me one reason I shouldn’t.”

Noah caught Fulton’s fulminating stare and wasn’t cowed in the least. “I’ve been operating at Mariposa on and off for the last week without the primary investigator any the wiser.”

“Jesus, Steele,” Fulton tossed out. “You’re a son of a bitch. You know that?”

“Also,” Noah said, moving on, “with the help and permission of the Colton family, I’ve been operating undercover. People don’t see a cop walking around. They see the man staying in Bungalow Fifteen. Laura Colton’s boyfriend.”

“How the hell did he pull that off?” another detective, Ratliff, muttered behind him. General assent went up through the ranks of watching cops.

“I have a short list of suspects and inside access to guest quarters and staff buildings,” Noah continued. “I’ve built a rapport with regulars and employees alike, and I’m looking at a handful of people who were close to Allison while Fulton fights for crumbs from the table. If you pull me out now, we lose our best chance of tying up this case.”

“You expect me to believe you can think clearly—objectively—when your sister’s the victim?” Crabtree challenged.

“I know how to do my job,” Noah said. “I’ve got the best closure rate in my division.”

“Yes,” Crabtree granted. “But she was your family.”

“I’m going to close this case,” Noah informed him, “just as I’ve closed dozens of cases before hers.”

“I don’t need a loose cannon on my hands,” Crabtree warned. “If you find her killer, how do I know you won’t take matters into your own hands?”

It was a fair question, one Noah had asked himself a dozen times. When he found the man or woman who’d killed Allison...when he looked them in the eye at last...would he be able to follow procedure? Was his belief in due process strong enough when confronted with the person who’d squashed what was most precious to him?

Noah took a breath. “I won’t let you down, Captain.”

Crabtree stared him down. “When you’re ready to make an arrest, bring Fulton in and let him handle it. Do not approach the suspect. If you so much as touch them, Steele—”

A muscle in Noah’s jaw twitched in protest, but he made himself answer. “Yes, sir.”

“Now explain to me why the Coltons’ stepmother is in interrogation,” Crabtree demanded.

“I believe she’s responsible for the news leak at Mariposa,” Noah said. “When I approached her with evidence, she swung at me. I cuffed her and brought her in for booking.”

“Did anyone see you do this?”

“No. My cover’s still in place.”

Crabtree nodded in Fulton’s direction. “Fulton will take care of it. Either go home and clear your head or go back to Mariposa and find me an actual suspect.”

“Yes, sir.” Noah subsided and let Fulton pass into Interview Room 1 to finish his job.

“It was Glenna?” Laura asked. “She leaked Allison’s homicide?”

Noah nodded. “The timing was right. From there, it was just a matter of pressing the right buttons. Once cornered, she didn’t hold back.”

“She always seemed so even-tempered,” Laura said, struggling to understand. “Why would she do this?”

“You can’t think of any reason?” Adam asked from behind his desk. “We had Security watching the gates for Clive.”

Her lips parted in surprise. “So he snuck Glenna in here under our noses to cause trouble on his behalf?”

“She said something as I was hauling her in,” Noah added. “She said her husband would get what he wants, and Mariposa only exists because he allows it to.”

“That’s inaccurate,” Adam said mildly.

Laura’s brow furrowed. “Roland asked me if he should escort her out when she made a scene in the lobby. I should’ve let him. Valentine’s Day is this weekend. I should’ve thought about the wedding party coming in. Once the families hear about the murder...”

“They signed a contract,” Adam assured her. “If they cancel, they’ll pay the cancellation fee.”

“If that wedding falls through, then who’s saying the next one won’t?”

“How long will Glenna be detained at the SPD?” Adam asked Noah.

“She wasn’t just booked on assaulting an officer,” Noah said. “You and Fulton had an understanding that the investigation would be kept quiet to aid in the search for the killer. By leaking it to the press, Glenna interfered in a police investigation. Her lawyer’s there now, doing his song and dance. She’ll likely be released on bail tomorrow morning. But she won’t get away scot-free. She’s facing charges.”

“And she’s going to be angry,” Laura pointed out.

Adam rolled his pen between his fingers. “We might as well have poked a beehive.”

Laura felt tired just thinking about it. “You have to finish this,” she told Noah. “You have to find who did this and get them away from the resort.”

“I will.”

For once, he didn’t argue. The little ship in a bottle she carried inside her anchored up to his strength. It was a port in this storm. “We’re running out of time.”

“So am I,” he said. “My CO found out what I’m doing. He’s not wild about it.”

“You’re not leaving.”

His eyes didn’t stray from her. “I’m not going anywhere.”

The assertion made her feel lighter, if only for a moment. She thought things over, picking through the cluttered mess in her mind. She sought something...anything they’d overlooked. “The schedule from Allison’s fridge. Do you still have it?”

“It’s at my bungalow. Why?”

She faced Adam. “You said Allison had taken on three people for private lessons?”

“As a test run,” he said, “yes.”

Laura remembered the letters on the piece of paper. “There were three sets of initials written on the schedule. I thought they were repeat students. But what if they’re the names of the guests who requested private lessons?”

Noah’s eyes cleared. “ CJK. Those initials were on there.”

“CJ Knight,” she clarified. “Is that enough evidence to issue a warrant for him?”

Noah shook his head. “I need him to come back to Mariposa. I need him to keep his reservation.”

Laura thought about it. Then, injecting as much promise into her voice as he had at L Bar, she said, “Leave it with me.”