Page 66 of Bad Mother

Sienna smiled. “Yes, all good.” She was sure Ingrid would repeat the compliment she’d given Sienna about their work to Kat later. She leaned against the porch railing. “Regarding this case, you know what’s weird?”

“Whatisn’tweird?”

Sienna let out a small agreeable chuff. “What’s weird is that the bed the dead body upstairs, presumably ‘Father,’ was left in, the place where he rotted and turned to bones, it was a single bed.”

Kat cast her eyes to the side. “Hmm. Yes, I see what you’re saying. If he shared a room with Mother, where did she sleep?”

“Right. I mean, there are a couple of other rooms upstairs, but from all appearances, Father was a single man.”

“Then again, if you were Mother, would you have shared a bed with that dude?”

“I don’t know. It seems like Mother did whatever Mother wanted to do at a certain point, but before that?”

“Detective Kozlov?” one of the POs who’d helped them clear the house earlier called as he approached. “Can I get you to sign off on a few things?”

“Sure.” Kat accompanied the officer back inside the house, and Sienna brought her phone out. There were two texts from Gavin that she hadn’t seen, as the last several hours had been spent trying to figure out what the heck they’d walked into.

She stepped to the side of the porch, out of the way of the steady stream of law enforcement and criminalists going in and out of the house, and dialed Gavin’s number.

“Hey,” he said, picking up right away. “I saw on the news there’s something going on in Old Northwest. Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine. We’re pretty sure we found our suspect.”

“Danny Boy?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“You apprehended him?”

“No, he wasn’t here, but he left plenty of evidence.”

“Oh.” There was a pregnant pause. She knew he wanted to ask for more details but was glad he didn’t. She couldn’t share all of them anyway, but she also didn’t have the clearest picture of what was going on. “I get it if you can’t—it’s been a long day. But if you’re up for dinner, I’d love to have you here. You haven’t seen my place yet.”

She smiled, letting out a soft breath.My place.The sudden yearning to be at this unseenplaceimmediately, snuggled up in his arms, almost knocked her off her feet. She steeled her spine. There was work to do, and they had time for that. So much time. “I’d love that,” she said, glancing at the door, where Kat and the PO she’d been signingpaperwork for were coming out. “It might be a little late. Will you keep it warm for me?”

“As long as it takes,” he said softly.

She smiled again. “Okay. Oh, hey, have you talked to your mom?”

“I texted her earlier after I got your message, and she texted me back, but I haven’t spoken to her. Apparently, she came down with a bug or something. I haven’t gotten hold of Argus yet.”

Her brow dipped, but she felt better. No wonder she’d seemed flushed when she’d left Sienna’s house earlier. She’d try Argus shortly. Right now, she needed to focus on work and on apprehending the man who’d already murdered three people and might be setting up the clues that would lead them to another. “Okay. Will you text me when you do talk to them?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Okay... see you later.”

“Hey, Si... I love you.”

“I love you too.” The words came as easy as an exhale.

She ended the call and turned back toward the doorway. Kat was still chatting with the PO, but it didn’t appear to be related to work this time, Kat’s head tilted as she smiled at something he was telling her, using his hands to gesticulate. He was cute too.Go, Kat.

The criminalist named Malinda Lu came out of the house, carrying a pile of board games in her hands. Sienna blinked, hurrying over to her. The woman came up short. “Hi, Malinda.”

“Detective Walker.”

“Where did you find those?” she asked, nodding to the pile of games in her arms, contained in a large plastic bag.

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