The Quickie

It wasn't a home invasion after all. Not bad news or tragedy.

It was my baby shower!

And judging by the number of hands that shot up over open-mouthed, blood-drained faces, I guessed it had been a real surprise all around.

I lowered my sights from between my elderly Aunt Lucy's eyes. She started breathing again.

"Look, Mommy," my sister Michele's four-year-old daughter said in the dead silence. "Auntie Lauren has a gun."

"It's all right, ladies," Paul said, smiling as he hurried forward and helped me to reholster my weapon. He gave me a hug to help me recover.

"Why did you plan the shower for now? I'm only eleven weeks," I whispered as he kissed me on the cheek.

"I wanted to make sure you got a shower before the move," Paul said, turning back toward the crowd. "Now, smile. Big smile. Enjoy your party.

"It's all right," Paul repeated. "Just another day in the life of a hero cop. Thank God we have a fresh supply of diapers, huh? Who needs a drink?"

Chapter 95

THE SHOWER WAS A BIG SUCCESS – happy times for all, but especially for me. I had such good friends, and even my relatives were mostly nice. Life was finally starting to make some sense again. And then -

"Hey, stranger!" Bo

I looked around at the overly bright restaurant. There were cloudy-looking fish tanks everywhere. When my old CSU sergeant friend Bo

I blinked as I picked up the menu and saw the picture of a turtle and a frog. Wow. Sunday brunch in Chinatown. I guess Bo

"I can't believe I missed your retirement party and your shower," Bo

"Save the regrets, Bo

"So," Bo

Gee, Bo

Suddenly, Bo

"Before I forget," she said. "I have a gift."

Bo

"Just what I've always wanted," I said, looking at the pages and then staring at my friend quizzically. "A computer printout."

What was going on now?

"I received that on Friday from the FBI lab," Bo

The world whited out for a second as a sudden heat flash sizzled through me.

Our goddamned Neat Sheet! I actually remembered the picnic where Paul had provided his DNA sample!

It was our first a

I glanced at the pages, then back at my friend.

"What are you talking about?" I asked Bo

"After I scraped it off, I noticed that there was another, older stain. It turns out it was dried semen. Just enough to get a DNA signature."

I squinted at the pages. What would it take for Scott's case to stay closed? I wondered. Holy water? Pounding a stake through its heart? Shooting it with a silver bullet?

And what the hell was I supposed to say now? Bo

"Why didn't you tell me about this before?" I finally got up the courage to ask.

"I tried to," Bo

"So what's the problem?" I said.

Bo

"What can I tell you, kid? The DNA isn't from Ordonez. And yeah, I'm sure."

I ran through the implications at the speed of light. They had Paul's DNA! That would be devastating for him, for both of us. And baby makes three.

"Whose is it?" I said carefully.

"We don't know," Bo

Thank God for small mercies, I thought.

But unfortunately Bo

"But we did get a cold hit from another crime scene," she said. "How about that?"

What?! How about I shoot myself here in the Dragon Flower?

A vague and sickening dread hit the center of my chest like a punch.

"Run that by me again," I said to Bo

"The Feds' CODIS database collects DNA samples from crime scenes across the country in order to ID perpetrators. It turns out, the same DNA from the semen on the blanket in your case was found at another crime scene – an armed robbery in Washington, DC. Happened nearly five years ago. The case was never closed."

The dread that had been operating in my stomach suddenly shifted its strategy for attack and caught me in a hammerlock around the throat. I was having trouble thinking, even sitting in an upright position.

No. It couldn't be. What Bo

Paul had been involved in another crime? An armed robbery?

Chapter 96

THE WAITER CAME and Bo

"I didn't mean to drop all of this on you at once, Lauren," Bo

Want to bet? I thought, dropping my eyes to the table.

"An armed robbery in DC?" I whispered through the cotton that had suddenly materialized in my mouth. "You're sure about it, Bo

"The brief abstract they sent with the positive match said the DNA came from a blood sample found at an armed robbery in a DC hotel. But the case wasn't solved, and it's still open. The match means that we have anonymous secretions at two different crime scenes. Semen on the blanket used to cover Thayer. And blood in some DC hotel room."

What did that mean? Obviously, they still didn't know it was Paul's. As if that mattered, I thought, dropping my pulverized head into my hands. As if anything did at this point.

Bo

Almost five years ago Paul had committed some kind of armed robbery in a hotel room? My brain labored over that thought, then promptly went on strike.

Because that was impossible.

But DNA doesn't lie.

When I looked up, I found Bo

"So what does this mean?" I said, as if I didn't know the answer. "Victor Ordonez didn't kill Scott Thayer?"