Selena took it.
His grip was warm.Familiar in a way that cut through the morning, the case, the distance she had been carefully maintaining since last night.A handshake should have been simple.This one wasn’t.Connor’s eyes held on hers, and the moment stretched a beat longer than it needed to.
“Connor,” Selena said.
“Yeah?”
“Can I have my hand back?”
His gaze dropped, and he released her at once.“Right.Sorry.I was just surprised to see you like this.”
Selena tilted her head.“Why?Didn’t you request me?”
“Well, kind of.”Connor shifted his hat under his arm.“I called your office and spoke to Meg.I told her we needed help and that we’d be happy to see you assigned.She didn’t tell me if you were coming or it’d be another agent.”
“Meg likes to keep her cards close to her chest.”
“She seems good at it.”
"She's world-class."Selena glanced past him into the department."Well.It's good to be back."
The words came out easier than expected.
Connor heard it, too.His expression changed by a fraction, but he didn’t press.
“Good to have you back.”
A silence rose between them; awkward, familiar, almost welcome.Selena adjusted the strap of her bag and stepped into business before the silence could become something else.
“Can we debrief on the case?”
Connor looked toward the parking lot.“I was just heading up to the scene.We had a report someone tried to break into it last night.”
Selena’s attention sharpened.“Break in?”
“Looks that way.A man walking his dog along Ridge Creek Road heard glass shattering around midnight and called it in this morning after hearing about Warren.”
“That’s unusual.”
“Yeah.I need to make sure the place is secure in case you want more forensics or whatever else the Bureau throws at us.”
“Let’s go,” Selena said.“I’ll follow you.It’d be good to see the scene anyway and get a feel for it.”
Connor nodded toward his SUV.“This way.”
As he walked ahead, Selena secured her ponytail properly and crossed back toward her car.
The day had begun.
And already the crime scene had changed.
Connor’s SUV led the way out of Elmsview, past the last brick storefronts, past a church with a peeling notice board, then onto county roads that narrowed with each turn.
Selena followed at a measured distance.The road lifted toward the woodland north of town, where fences gave way to tree lines, and roads became gravel, then dirt.Sunlight came through the canopy in broken strips, flashing over Connor's rear window and across her windshield.
The landscape looked greener than it had the evening before.More alive.More leafy shadows to hide things.
A weathered sign for a campground appeared on the right.
