“We have no interest in arresting you, Mr. Connolly,” Sam said. “We’re looking for information about Lori. Only.”

“What’s she done?” he asked as he raised the cigarette.

“She’s been murdered.”

His hand froze halfway to his mouth. “Murdered? How? When?” He seemed genuinely surprised—and dismayed—to hear the news.

“We don’t have all the details yet, but we’re working on that.”

“I bet your buddy Gonzales knows what happened to her. She was making all sorts of shit for him.”

“We’re not looking at him for this.”

“’Course you aren’t,” he said with a bitter chuckle.

“What can you tell us about her friends, associates, dealers? Anything you can give us would be helpful.”

“She doesn’t associate with the people she knew when she was with me anymore. She’s gone clean.”

“We have reason to believe she was off the wagon when she died.”

“Really? Aw, shit. Kid worked really hard to straighten things out. She loved that little boy. Wanted to be better for him. I thought she was making a go of it.”

“Who were some of her friends, Mr. Connolly?”

“Sara Angelo was her best friend.”

“Do you know where we can find her?”

“She actually lives two blocks that way.” He rattled off the street name. “Don’t know the number though. Saw her at the 7-Eleven a couple weeks ago, otherwise I wouldn’t have known she was so close.”

“Who’s Lori’s dealer?”

He shook his head. “You’re gonna have to find that out for yourselves. I know you’re standing here in my house telling me it ain’t gonna come back to bite me in the ass, but you’ll have to excuse me if I’m not buyin’ that. Been burned too many times already by your kind.”

“How about the names of any friends from her partying days?”

Rex shook his head. “Can’t help you there, either. I start sending cops to those guys, and I’ll be in the morgue next to Lori.”

“We could take you downtown until you feel more compelled to cooperate.”

“And I’d be sprung before your tour ends, and you know it. I’m not giving you those names.” He crossed his arms over his broad chest. “Arrest me if you want to. Won’t get you anywhere.”

Sam tried to stare him down, but he never blinked.

“I’d like to help you get whoever did this to her,” Rex said. “She was a nice girl and we had good times together, but I’m not risking my own neck for someone who’s dead. Not happening.”

Sam handed him her card. “If you think of anything that might help and you’re willing to share, my number’s on there.”

He nodded.

She tipped her head to tell Freddie to move toward the door. As they went out, he was busy on his phone.

“Got the address for Sara Angelo.”

Perhaps there was something to be said for owning a smartphone, Sam thought, but as long as he had one at work and Nick had one at home, she didn’t need one of her own.

They got back in the car, and Freddie directed her for several blocks until they arrived at another nondescript row of townhouses.

“Every one of them exactly the same,” Sam said as she took in the community. “How many times do you think I’d try to get into the wrong door if I lived here?”

“Daily?”

“Perhaps even hourly.” Sam glanced at him as she rang the doorbell. “Why don’t you take the lead here?”

“Oh, um, okay.” After a pause, he said, “Is this punishment? For busting your chops?”

“That would make me vindictive and mean, and I’m neither of those things. It’s about training, about bringing you along, about—” Her string of bullshit was interrupted when the door was opened by a flushed-looking woman with dark hair and eyes.

“Sorry,” she said, “I was working out.”

Sam and Freddie showed their badges.

“Detective Cruz and Lieutenant Holland, Metro PD,” Freddie said. “Could we have a few minutes of your time?”

“Oh, um, sure.” She stepped back to allow them to enter her well-kept home. After the last two they’d visited, hers was a refreshing breath of fresh air—literally. “What’s this about?”

“You’re friends with Lori Phillips?” Freddie asked.

“Yes,” she said hesitantly. “What about her?”

“When was the last time you saw or talked to her?”

“We were at a Christmas party together in early December. We text pretty regularly, though. Why? Is she in trouble? She’s worked so hard to turn her life around. So hard.”

“I’m sorry to have to tell you that she was found murdered this morning.”

Sara’s mouth opened and then closed when nothing came out. Her eyes filled with tears. “Murdered?” Her voice was barely more than a whisper. “Who would want to hurt her? She was the sweetest person.” And then her expression hardened. “The baby’s father. She was making trouble for him. I bet it was him.”

Freddie maintained his composure when he said, “It wasn’t him.”

“You have to say that! He’s a cop! Of course he didn’t do it. But who else could it be?”

“That’s what we’d like to know too.”

She swiped angrily at the tears on her cheeks. “Have you even considered that it might be him?”

“He has an alibi.”

“Right. Whatever. People like Lori, they don’t matter to you as much as another cop does. I get it.”

“That’s not true,” Sam said. “We want justice for her as much as you do.”

“Somehow I doubt that. She’s been my best friend since we were in high school. I bet I want justice for her more than you do.”

“Fair enough,” Sam conceded. “All I’m saying is that we care about every murder victim equally. We want justice for all of them. Can you tell us who else might’ve had a beef with Lori? Was she dating anyone that you know of?”

Sara was quiet for several minutes while she continued to wipe away tears. “There was this one guy she talked about a couple of times.”

“Do you know his name?” Freddie asked.

“Liam Hughes.”

“How did they meet?”

“Online a couple of months ago. She really liked him.”

“Do you know which online service she went through?” Freddie asked.

“I think she met him through a site called DateFinder.”

“Where does he live?”

“In Baltimore, I think.”

Sam wanted to moan at the thought of going all the way to Baltimore. “Do you know if she was with him yesterday or last night?” Sam asked.

“I really don’t know. I was away for much of the last week skiing with some friends in Colorado. I hadn’t talked to her since I got home. I was planning to call her today to check in.” Her shoulders sagged as the realization seemed to hit her all at once that she’d never speak to her friend again. “What happened to her?”

“She was manually strangled,” Freddie said. They’d learned from experience that it was better to just say it than to sugarcoat the truth.

“God,” Sara said with a sigh. “I don’t know anything about murder, but that sounds rather personal. You’re sure the baby’s father didn’t do it? It’d be awfully convenient for him to have her out of the picture, especially when she was making trouble for him.”

“It wasn’t him,” Freddie said bluntly.

Heartbreak turned to anger in a flash. “How do you know that?”

“We know him,” Freddie said. “We’ve known him for years. We know what’s inside of him and what’s not. He loves that baby, and he’d never do anything to cause him harm, including murdering his mother.”

Sam wanted to tell her partner he’d said that well, but she held her tongue. No need to pile on the platitudes. They weren’t going to convince this woman who’d never met Gonzo that he wasn’t capable of murder.

“Ms. Angelo,” Sam said in the softest tone she possessed, “one thing I’ve learned after many years on this job is to refrain from leaping to obvious conclusions until we have all the facts. That’s what we’re doing now—collecting the facts. And you’ve been very helpful. You’ve given us a direction we didn’t have before, and we appreciate that.” She handed over her card. “If you think of anything else that might be helpful to our investigation, please give me a call.”