Tessa couldn’t tell.It shouldn’t have mattered to her.
It did.
She’d seen partners mistake loyalty for something else and torch good working relationships over it. She’d also seen men hide behind professionalism when they were too scared to want a woman who might outrun them.
She wasn’t about to untangle that now. Not with Sara missing.
“Tell me about the cold case assignments,” she said, steering herself back to solid ground. “Besides Pierce—what else did Burke hand out?”
Scout’s grip eased a fraction.
“He pulled ’em from the old shelves,” he said. “Walked ’em around himself—‘pick one, make it yours.’ Said maybe fresh eyes would see something he and his dad didn’t.” His mouth twisted. “Didn’t think one of ’em would bite back.”
The truck ate up another mile of highway.
Tessa let the road noise and the wipers fill the space between them. She tucked Sara’s photo and the note back into the mental file where she kept things that mattered but didn’t belong on paper yet.
She could pick at the edges of Sara and Scout later—if there was a later.
Right now, the only thing that mattered was the young woman on the stainless table in Asheville.
And the deputy who might still be alive if they moved fast enough to pull her out of someone else’s story.
She sat up a little straighter.
“Alright,” she said. “Tell me everything you remember about the night she went missing. Every call. Every stop. Every look.”
Scout drew in a slow breath and started talking.
The mountains rolled by, gray and waiting.
Ahead, the lab lights burned against the afternoon sky.
Special Agent Tessa Quinn — Asheville Regional Forensics Lab Later That Day
Burke’s truck was already in the lot when Tessa and Scout pulled in, its blue-and-gold shield dull in the gray light.
Tessa climbed out and shut her door, the sound too loud in the empty row. “Burke’s here.”
Scout nodded once. “He beat us.”
Burke stepped away from his tailgate as they approached, coat collar up, face set hard. He didn’t waste time.
“Quinn.” His eyes cut to Scout. “You good?”
Scout didn’t answer. His gaze stayed on Tessa. “What’d you find at her place?”
Tessa reached into her coat and pulled out the evidence sleeve. She held it out.
Burke took it, eyes dropping to the label.
PIERCE, LAUREN — Missing Person
His face didn’t change—but something in his jaw locked.
“Yeah,” he said quietly. “I remember this one. Three years back. Young woman went missing out of Jackson Valley University. No goodbye. No body. Just… gone.”
Scout leaned in enough to see the name. His brow furrowed like the memory was trying to come back in pieces.
