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His smile was kind. “Sometimes it is easy. Not every case is like Wren’s. Sometimes we get the bad guy. You know this. You’ve closed more than your share of cases since you joined Homicide.”
She sighed. “You’re right. I’m making this too hard. Let’s call Navarro.”
“We will. But first... what was with the smile at Reeves, Kit? I’m serious.”
“I don’t know,” she murmured once again. “I was... glad. Glad he was telling the truth. Glad he wasn’t a fraud, doing charity work to make himself look less guilty. Glad he was truly sincere and not some fake.”
“You like him,” Baz said quietly.
Her mouth tightened. “I don’t know him.”
“You like the idea of him, then.”
That wasn’t untrue. “I like the idea that someone is good and kind—and who they claim to be. I respect that he risked his career for young women he’d never met.”
The man also engendered loyalty from so many people—from his boss and her husband, from Joel Haley, and even from the shark attorney who’d looked so sad when he’d declined her offer of a ride home.
That piqued Kit’s curiosity. There was a story there, she was certain.
Too bad she’d never know what that story was. She’d have no reason to ever see him again.
“I guess not all shrinks are bad,” Baz allowed, disgruntled.
Kit patted his hand. “I’m sorry, Baz. I’m sure we’ll come across another narcissistic shrink who you can legitimately hate on sight.”
He scowled for a moment, then laughed. “Fine.” Then he sobered, and she braced herself for what he’d say next. “Will you see him again?”
“No. Why would I? Like you keep saying, this case is closed. I might ask Navarro to write him a formal thank-you letter in case his arrest causes him any future trouble.” A psychologist who made his living from clients referred by the courts had to maintain a clean reputation. “But other than that, I’d have no cause to see him again.”
He gave her a knowing look. “You can just call him, you know. Ask him out. It is the twenty-first century. Women do that kind of thing.”
The thought was not an unpleasant one.
Which might have bothered her even more than her doubts about Colton Driscoll’s confession note.
“I won’t,” she said quietly. She might regret not seeing the man again, but that was as far as she’d let it go. “I have a very full life. The life I want. I’m good, Baz.”
He looked like he’d say more, but he only shook his head. “Message received. Ix-nay on the ink-shray.”
“Thank you. Look. It’s been a long twenty-four hours. Let’s check in with Navarro and then I’m going home to give the rest of the treats in my pocket to Snickerdoodle before I take a nap.”
She held a hand out to Baz, pulling him to his feet. He groaned as he stretched his back.
“You’re going to take a nap, and you’re young. Imagine how I feel. I’m too old to go all night long.”
Kit snickered, then let herself laugh. It rolled from her belly, making her shake as Baz shook his head in amusement.
“I didn’t mean it that way,” he said when her laughter had come to a wheezing end.
“I’m so telling Marian you said that. I’m telling everyone you said that.”
He narrowed his eyes. “I’ll tell everyone that you smiled at the shrink and gave him a biscuit for his dog.”
That shut her up. “You’re an asshole.”
He smiled. “And don’t you forget it.”
SDPD, San Diego, California
