Page 7 of Long Way Down

“…Dixon.”

With a start, Melissa realized Contreras had said her name multiple times. She shook her head to clear the cobwebs – metaphorical though they were, they looked eerily like the ones from the old crawfish cabin of her childhood – and said, “Sorry?”

At the neighboring desk, Contreras wore a patient expression. “I just talked to Larry. He said we could come by around eleven in the morning if that works.”

She nodded. “Right.” Gestured to her computer screen. “I’ve been looking at the Osborn files to put together a list of questions. There’s…” Glancing at the files again threatened to kick her straight back to Memory Land. “A lot.”

Contreras rolled his chair over so he could see the screen, and let out a whistle. “Damn,” he murmured as she scrolled through page after page. “I knew some of this stuff…but I never went for a deep-dive, you know? And Larry never talked about it. He didn’t even sound like he wanted to now, on the phone.”

Melissa blinked so her eyes didn’t glaze over. “This is the sort of case that would give you nightmares for the rest of your life.” It was certainly going to inspire some nightmares for her, and she’d only just begun researching it.

She sensed Contreras’s gaze, and turned her head to find him studying her, slight frown plucking downward at the corners of his mouth.

“What?”

He took a beat before responding, and she had the sense he was choosing his words carefully; a sense that left her bristling, because even if she was new to this department, and even if she was younger than the vets who’d been at it a long time, she loathed the idea of being handled with kid gloves.

“It’s late,” he said. “It’s…” He checked his watch and made a face. “It’sreallylate. We’re on hold until Lana Preston wakes up, and Forensics is gonna take a while getting everything processed. Why don’t you go home and grab a little sleep for now? We’ll start fresh in a few hours.”

“I…”can staywas swallowed up by a massive yawn.

Contreras grinned. “Go home. I’ll call soon as I hear anything.”

It felt like quitting, but Melissa switched off her computer, shrugged into her jacket, and headed out.

As late as it was, the sidewalks were far from empty. She’d been in New York almost ten years at this point, but it still startled her, sometimes: the hum and pulse of its nightlife. Nights back home had been alive, too, but in a way that was wholly natural: the songs of insects and laughs of foxes; the groans of gators and bullfrogs and trill of whippoorwills. Any humans out and about in the wee hours were up to no good, there.

Back home. She’d stopped thinking of it that way.

Until tonight.

Irritated with her slip, she pulled out her phone once she’d settled in a cab to check her messages – and then groaned. Five of them were from Pongo.

Yo what up?

Doing sumthin 2nite?

Big important detective shit huh?????

Wanna meet up later?

Call if u still wanna. I’ll be up late. Got something good for u this time.

Given the lack of an eggplant emoji at the end of the last one, she assumed he meant some sort of intel and not his dick.

She left him on read and scanned the rest of her threads.

She had a new cat meme from Leslie. Her best friend had three of the things, all rescues, and they had a running gag about Leslie being the crazy cat lady and Melissa being the spinster on the porch with the rocking chair – sue her for liking to knit. It was relaxing.

Her only other messages were notifications from the bank, her credit card company, and a politician begging for money. Because she had absolutely no social life.

Seeing anyone special?Contreras had asked on their first day together, and whatever face she’d made in response had left him chuckling and offering his palms in surrender.Hey, I can take a hint.

So could she. A hint that had proven the final push in her decision to put in the paperwork for her transfer.

She caught sight of Cole’s name farther down her list – a simpleOKhe’d texted in response to an inquiry months ago, during one of their cases – and set the phone face-down in her lap.

She was yawning again, when she climbed out of the cab and stepped up onto the sidewalk in front of her building. The window above hers was illuminated, which probably meant the Mendozas’ baby was having another sleepless night. She grimaced to herself at the thought, and fished out her keys.

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