“How long will they keep her?” Daria knelt and put an arm around the dog’s neck. Sweet Thing’s pink tongue unfurled like a small flag and licked the side of Daria’s face. “When will we be able to get her back?”

“I guess it will depend on when the vet has time to do the impression. They might have to sedate her to do that.”

“But she’ll be okay, right?”

“I’m sure she’ll be fine.” Seeing that Daria still appeared uneasy, Connor added, “Hey, she’s the star witness. They’re going to take good care of her.”

“All right. Give me five minutes to change, and I’ll be ready to go.”

“Listen, if you don’t need me for the rest of the day, I think I’d like to head back to St. Dennis,” Mia said after Daria left the room. “The weekends are so busy there, with all the tourists, and I promised Vanessa I’d help her out in her shop. The girl who usually works for her is on vacation.”

“Vanessa?” Connor asked absently.

“Beck’s sister. She owns a boutique there on the main street, and does a lot of business this time of the year. The weekends are especially busy.”

“I think I can handle things from here.” Connor took a glass from the cupboard and filled it at the sink. “How is Beck, by the way? That working out for you?”

“Couldn’t be better, actually. I’m trying to take things slow, but you know how these things are.” Mia smiled.

“Yeah, I guess I do.”

Mia’s smile widened. “I guess you’re learning, anyway.”

His cell phone rang just as he opened his mouth to reply.

“Answer your phone, Con.” Mia laughed. “I’m going to go upstairs and pack.”

“Shields. Yes, Detective, thanks for calling me back…”

“Maybe we should go with her to the vet,” Daria said to Vince Coliani in the parking lot at the New Castle County police station. “She might get upset. Maybe she’ll think we’ve abandoned her.”

“She’s going to be just fine,” the detective assured her. “Dr. Price is great with dogs. We take our K9s to her.”

“We can come back and pick her up later today if she’s finished?” Daria asked.

“The vet didn’t think she’d get around to the impression until pretty late in the day. She has two surgeries this afternoon,” he told her. “But don’t worry. We’ll take good care of her, and you’ll have her back by tomorrow, no later.”

“Okay. Sweet Thing, you behave yourself.” Daria gave the dog a parting hug and got into Connor’s car. “We’ll see you in the morning.”

Connor handed the fur he’d cut from Sweet Thing’s neck over to the detective. “Here’s the dog hair I told you about. Get your lab guys to compare the blood on it to the blood on the door.”

“Great. Hey, I owe you one,” Coliani said.

“Get me a match and we’ll both be happy,” Connor said as he got into the car.

Daria looked out the window as Connor turned the car around.

“She’ll be fine, Daria. I promise.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything.”

“You’ve really become attached to her.”

Daria nodded. “I really have. I hope I can keep her.”

“Coliani said no one’s even stepped forward to ask about the dog. Cross had one nephew; he made arrangements for the body to be transferred to a funeral parlor in Virginia when the medical examiner releases it, which will probably happen today. But there wasn’t a word said about the dog.”

“Maybe the detective can tell me who I have to talk to to adopt her.”

“I’m thinking possession is good enough at this point. I doubt anyone’s going to challenge you.”

“Good. That would be good.” Daria rested her head against the back of the seat. “Tell me again where Mr. Cavanaugh lives.”

“Outside of West Chester. It’s not far from here. He said to come up Route 202. Which according to that sign, is right here.”

Connor followed the signs that led them onto a heavily commercial stretch of road that ran several miles through Delaware and into Pennsylvania.

“Did you ever get that package of material from your mother? The one with the PI reports about your brother?”

“What made you think of that?” she asked.

“I don’t know.” Connor waited for a moment, and when she didn’t answer the question, he said, “Well, did you?”

“It came yesterday or the day before. Vita dropped it off right after Mia and I got home yesterday. The mailman evidently left it at the administration building.”

“When were you going to give it to me?”

“When things slowed down a bit. I figured you have your hands full. I didn’t want to bother you.”

“It’s no bother. Did you look through it?”

“I started to yesterday, but to tell you the truth, reading gave me a headache.”

“How’s your head now?”

“Much better. I took some of the pain meds after breakfast and the throbbing is pretty much gone.”

“Good.” He maneuvered the Porsche around a tractor trailer and settled back into the right lane. Traffic was heavy and the road wasn’t particularly smooth, so he did what he could to keep Daria’s head from bouncing around too much.

“Connor, can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“What happened to your brother?”

“Dylan?” Connor slowed for the light. “He died.”

“I know that. How did he die?”

“What brought this up?”

“Just something Mia said.”

“What did she say?”

“That I’d have to ask you about him. As if she didn’t want to talk about it.”

“I imagine she didn’t.” Connor took a deep breath. “Dylan was murdered by Mia’s brother, Brendan.”

Daria’s jaw dropped. She tried in vain for several seconds to close it.

“But they were-”

“Yeah, cousins. Yes, they were.” Connor’s jaw tightened and she wished she could see his eyes behind those dark glasses. “You know how every family has a black sheep? Brendan was ours.”

He pulled in front of a green pickup and gunned the engine. “The thing is, Brendan hadn’t wanted to kill Dylan. That was a mistake. The person he’d wanted to kill-the person he thought he was shooting-was me.”

“God, Connor.” She tried not to gasp. “But why?”

“Long story short, I saw something he didn’t want me to see. I was in Central America on a job, and ran into him while something very bad was going down. He told me he was on the case for the Bureau, that he was shutting down the local operation. I believed him. Later, he and his partner realized it was only a matter of time before I found out that there was no FBI operation. He set me up when I was supposed to be working a drug bust, but there was a change of plans, and Dylan worked that job in my place.”

“What was the bad thing he was into?”

“Selling children on the black market.”

“My God…”

Connor fell silent then. They drove for several miles without speaking.

Finally, Daria said, “Why do you feel responsible for your brother’s death?”

It was a question he had heard before. He’d heard it more times than he’d like to think about, and had never bothered to reply. Not to his brother, Aidan, or his cousin Andrew, or to Mia. Nor to Annie, the woman Dylan had been engaged to when he died. He’d tried to blow off the others, but Annie was a psychologist and wouldn’t permit him to bully her.

He was trying to decide if he wanted to bully Daria into shutting up when she reached over and grasped the hand that was resting on the gear shift.

Neither of them spoke until they arrived at Cavanaugh’s.

“This is it here, I think,” Connor said. “Number 438 Broad Run Road.”

He turned into the drive and followed it up a slight incline until he reached the house, set well back from the road. It was gray stucco and stone, three stories high, and surrounded by tall trees.

Connor parked near the walk that ran next to the drive and before he could say anything, Daria was out of the car.

“It’s beautiful here, isn’t it? Did you notice that pretty stream when we pulled in?” She gazed around admiringly. “Like a painting.”