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Georgia rolled her eyes, but her smile was affectionate. “Leave him alone, Eloise. Officer Stern’s got a wife and a new baby.”
“Pics or it didn’t happen!” Eloise demanded.
With a smile, the cop took out his wallet and proudly showed them a photo of a woman with curly red hair. The child she held had hair just as red and just as curly. “My wife, Savannah, and our daughter, Kristen.”
“They’re lovely,” Georgia said quietly. “I hope guarding us isn’t keeping you from them for too long.”
“They’re out of town at the moment,” Stern said. “Visiting family in Chicago. So I’m all yours, ladies.”
“But you’re married,” Eloise said with a dramatic sigh. “Too bad for us. I don’t poach.”
“Anymore,” Georgia added under her breath, earning her a scalding glare from Eloise.
“For that unwarranted dig, I get to pick the first movie,” Eloise declared.
“Oh God,” Georgia moaned. “Not Magic Mike again.”
Officer Stern coughed to hide a laugh. Sam opened his mouth to challenge Eloise’s movie choice, then shrugged. It wasn’t worth it.
Stern cleared his throat, crouching to pet Siggy. “Nice dog.”
“He’s Sigmund,” Sam said. “Siggy for short.”
“You’re a good boy.” Stern straightened. “Why does he have two collars?”
“One is a GPS collar,” Eloise told him, because they’d had this discussion before. “Siggy escapes.”
“Only if someone doesn’t close the front door all the way,” Sam explained. “But he got out a few months ago and went exploring. Made it all the way to the lobby of my apartment building. So I got the tracking collar.”
“I’ve got a dog like that,” Stern said. “Good to know about the collar. I’ll have to get one for Mugsy. Enjoy the movie,” he added, coughing again to hide another laugh.
It’s going to be a long night.
Sam got the ladies into Georgia’s apartment, then unpacked the snacks while they got themselves comfortable. “Can I get you ladies anything to drink?”
Eloise pulled a hip flask from the pocket of her walker. “I’m good. You want some, Sammy?”
Sam wasn’t even shocked. “You ladies are going to corrupt me.”
Eloise cackled. “We’ll leave that to Detective McKittrick.”
Sam blushed. “Miss Eloise.”
“Leave him alone, El,” Georgia said. “I’ll take a soda, Sam.” She patted the sofa, next to where Marmaduke snoozed. “Up here, Siggy.”
Siggy climbed onto the sofa and made himself at home. Sam took the other chair and gave Georgia the remote. “If you can manage not to find Magic Mike, I will owe you dinner.”
“Frankie liked it,” Eloise said slyly.
Sam laughed. “I’ll bet he did.” He sobered, thinking of the other reason he was with them tonight. “Eloise, you said that Frankie was stressed the past few weeks. Did he tell you why? I’m sorry to ask, but it could be important.”
Eloise shook her head, becoming very serious. “No, Sammy, he didn’t, and I asked him. So did Georgia.”
“Did you know he went somewhere on Wednesday?”
Both women looked surprised. “No,” Georgia said immediately. “Where did he go?”
Sam studied Eloise, because her surprise had quickly morphed to something else. It looked like guilt. “We don’t know yet. Miss Eloise? What’s wrong?”
