Thomas could feel the caffeine kicking his brain into overdrive, yet it wasn't quite enough to burn off the fog of the all-nighter. And no amount of coffee would ever mask the truth that he'd behaved like a complete jerk.

He'd been such a jerk to Emma Jenkins.

And she didn't deserve it. That was the hell of it-she didn't deserve to be hurt. In fact, she may have been the first legitimately decent, nice-even special-person Thomas had met in a very long time.

And he'd been an idiot. A jerk. An ass.

Thomas sat at the conference table and watched the rest of the team straggle in. He could hear Stephano out in the hallway, his machine-gun laugh ricocheting down the uncarpeted hallways of the second floor of the Maryland State Police Headquarters. Paulie Fletcher was already at the other end of the table, clutching a cell phone to his cheek, apologizing profusely to his wife.

Thomas knew these Saturday morning get-togethers interfered with ballet recitals, peewee football games, and lawn mowing duties. He grinned to himself with smug satisfaction-as the only unmarried member of the team, he never had to worry about someone else crimping his style, making demands on his time. Not him.

Besides, they only had to suffer through these meetings a few times a year-before quarterly report deadlines and whenever there was a sudden spurt of new cases. September was often one of those times. It made sense, in a sick sort of way. The summer was officially over. People weren't distracted by barbecues, vacations, and weekends down at the ocean. It was a good time to start taking care of those bothersome loose ends they'd been putting off-like murdering friends and family.

Thomas looked up as Regina Massey strolled in, the homicide detective assigned to the Scott Slick case. Regina was a fifty-something grandmother who didn't look-or act-her age. What she looked and acted like was the movie star Pam Grier-all sexy, street-smart, black alpha female. Reg didn't take shit from anybody. That's how she'd made it in a predominantly white-male line of work.

That's why Thomas liked her.

She winked at him. "Hey, hot stuff. Wild date last night? Looks like you need a nap."

Thomas rolled his eyes. She'd been giving him a hard time for more than a decade, first when he was with the Baltimore County State 's Attorney's office and then with the task force. It was part of their routine.

He took a steaming sip from his Styrofoam coffee cup and watched Regina get settled in the chair next to him, smoothing down her silk trousers and adjusting the belt at her trim waist. She sent him a flirty smile, her dark eyes flashing.

Thomas shook his head. "I'm putting the finishing touches on my sexual harassment complaint against you, Reg. I should have it filed this week."

She hooted with laughter. "Oooh, Tommy honey, you know I get all tingly when you use my name and the word sexual in the same sentence."

He glared at her-if anyone else had called him that, they'd be in pain now.

"Watch it, Reg." Chick Abels dropped his stack of files on the table with a thud. "He's got nothing against hitting women-remember the Amelia Pilcher case?"

"Sure do." She was still grinning. "Three years for trying to make sure her church choir director never sang again."

"I elbowed her in self-defense," Thomas growled. "She was going for my eyes with a paper clip."

Regina sighed dreamily. "You've always had a way with the ladies, Tommy."

Within minutes, all members of the Maryland Murder for Hire Task Force were gathered around the conference table, Captain Vince Stephano at the far end. The head of the Maryland State Police special operations division unceremoniously tossed a white bakery bag into the center of the table.

"Help yourself to some bagels," he said, and the grins spread around the table like a contagion. Thomas long ago learned this was how the captain apologized for bringing everyone in on a weekend-by providing a selection of the world's worst bagels-dense, inflexible O-shaped objects not fit for human consumption.

As Paulie often pointed out behind Stephano's back, it wasn't really the captain's fault-God never meant for Italians to shop for bagels.

"All right, people, we've got a lot of territory to cover and it's a beautiful Indian summer day and I know we all want out of here so let's get to it."

"You mean a Native American summer day," Manny Chaudury said.

"My apologies to your motherland," Stephano said. "And as you can see we have the pleasure of Lieutenant Regina Massey's company this morning. The lieutenant will be updating us on the Slick homicide." Stephano abruptly swung his gaze toward Thomas and smiled. "But first I gotta know-how's your special friend this morning, Tobin?"

Regina 's head snapped around. Everyone else began to chuckle.

"Did she recover?" Stephano asked way too nicely. "She sure was a pretty little bald thing."

"The thing is a he and he's fine." Thomas saw Regina 's eyes fly wide in shock. "It's a dog," he muttered.

Regina 's mouth fell open. "You got yourself a bald dog, honey?"

"No. Yes. Sort of." It suddenly occurred to Thomas that this could be the break he was looking for- Regina was good with living things. She'd given birth to two kids and they were still alive, as far as he knew. So maybe she'd take Hairy. "You want it?"

She frowned. "What kind is it?"

"The real ugly kind," Paulie whispered, and the whole table cracked up.

"It's a hairless toy breed," Thomas muttered, dropping his gaze to the fascinating scarred wood of the table. "Scott Slick's dog."

The room went utterly silent. Stephano cleared his throat. "You didn't tell me you took Slick's dog to your place. Why didn't you tell me that thing was Slick's dog?"

"You never asked," Thomas said. "I waited for somebody to claim him, but as we found out, Slick didn't have anybody."

"So how did you end up with it?" Stephano asked, staring at Thomas in disbelief.

Thomas shrugged and nodded to Regina. "Once you guys showed up and the evidence techs got there, you said you wanted him out of the apartment."

Regina nodded. "I sure did-he'd already contaminated the crime scene something fierce."

"He wouldn't leave Slick's side and I kind of felt bad for him. So I took him home with me."

The silence was deafening. All eyes were on Thomas, and he felt like the featured attraction in a circus freak show. He looked from face to face. "What? What's the big deal?"

Stephano cleared his throat. "It's just… well… that was kinda nice of you, Tobin, that's all. It was a nice thing to do."

Regina 's hand brushed his. "I didn't know you kept him, Thomas. That's very sweet."

"Whatever," Thomas muttered, horrified by the compliments.

"Maybe we wouldn't have given you so much shit last night if we'd known the thing was Slick's," Chick said. "I mean, who would have thought Slick would have a dog like that?"

"Who would have thought Slick was gay?" Paulie chimed in.

"True enough," Stephano said. "So, Lieutenant, care to bring us up to speed?"

"My pleasure." She opened up the manila folder in front of her. "At this point, we're thinking Slick had another residence somewhere. We're operating under the assumption that he had an alias we don't yet know about."

Her eyes met Thomas's, giving him a chance to chime in. He did.

"Slick was actively running a bookmaking operation and we all knew it. There-it's on the table." Thomas looked at Stephano, and the captain nodded for him to continue. "As supervisor for this task force, I made the decision to keep working with him even with that knowledge. His information was just too good, and I wanted to keep it coming. I take responsibility for sidestepping regulations on that."