Harper’s grin vanished and his eyes shuttered. “That sucks.”

Right. Harper hadn’t truly seen his father in years. All that Alzheimer’s shit.

“I’ll find out when you can leave.” Still flushed, Mason headed down the hallway without a good-bye. He felt Harper’s eyes follow him.

“Nine-one-one, what is the nature of your emergency?”

“There’s someone outside my house!” Lacey rattled off the address. “And he’s fighting with Michael! They’re rolling on the…”

“Where are you, ma’am?”

“In the truck! But Michael’s got a gun and I’m afraid someone…”

“A gun? Has anyone been hurt? Do you need an ambulance?”

“No! No one’s been shot! But I don’t know if the other guy is armed or not!”

“Police are on their way. Ma’am, you’d better stay in the vehicle. Are your doors locked?”

“No! I mean…” She hit the lock button. She’d forgotten to lock it again after Michael had got out. “They are now.” Why did the operator keep asking about her? It was Michael who was in trouble!

The figures on the ground stopped thrashing and Michael kneeled on the other man’s back, twisting his arms up behind him.

“He got ’em! He pinned him down.” She yelled into the phone.

“Don’t get out of the vehicle, ma’am.”

Lacey had already unlocked the door and was halfway down the drive, her phone to her ear. She tottered on the rough, icy surface in her heels, straining her eyes in the dim light for injuries on Michael. Two fights in one night! He was going to hurt in the morning.

“Ma’am. Don’t get out of the vehicle.”

“It’s OK. He’s not going anywhere.”

“I’ve informed the police there is a gun at the scene.”

“What!” Had she caused a bigger problem? “Michael! Where’s the gun?”

She spoke to the operator, “Tell the police no one is armed! I can see the gun in the snow. Don’t let them shoot! I’ll get it out of the way.”

“Don’t pick up the gun, ma’am.”

Lacey grit her teeth. This exceedingly polite operator was seriously starting to annoy her. “I’m kicking it out into the street. The police will probably drive right over it.”

She gently slid the gun a few feet toward Michael’s truck. She could hear the operator relaying her message in the background, but she knew it made no difference; the police would respond with escalated caution and readiness. They didn’t like being called to scenes involving a gun. It pumped up their stress level tenfold.

She turned back as Michael ground the man’s face into the gravel and snow. Michael didn’t look hurt, but his language made her eyebrows skyrocket. Somebody was pissed.

She squatted awkwardly at a safe distance to get a look at the stranger’s face, hoping he wouldn’t look directly at her. He’d get quite the view up her dress. Wailing sirens filled the night.

Panting hard, Michael grabbed the man by his hair and roughly yanked his head back, turning his face toward Lacey. “Know him?”

By the shock and then the embarrassment on the man’s face, he’d gotten a personal view up Lacey’s dress.

But her shock was greater.

Her voice cracked. “Sean? Is that Sean?”

Michael was kneeling on her janitorial hero.

Jack was collecting his wallet and change at the jail counter when Callahan reappeared. “You might want to stick around for a bit,” Callahan said.

“Why in hell would I want to do that?” Jack stated. He needed his bed.

“Some of your friends are on their way here.”

Jack gave Callahan his best who-gives-a-shit eyebrow cock.

“A dentist friend of yours.”

That got his attention. His hand stalled as he slid his wallet in his jacket pocket. “What? Lacey? Is she OK? She’s here?”

“And her boyfriend.” Callahan displayed all his teeth.

“That ass wants to keep me from leaving jail?” Jack’s chest had tied in knots at Callahan’s word choice.

“No. I guess the boyfriend caught an intruder on her property.”

Jack felt a hollow thump in his heart. “Was it him?”

Callahan didn’t ask who he meant; the detective knew. “I don’t know. They’re saying Dr. Campbell knows the guy. That it’s someone she works with.”

“But that doesn’t mean he isn’t the one.” Had the reporter stopped the killer before his next victim?

“I know.”

Dead silence filled the air as the two men studied each other.

“He leavin’ or not?” the cop behind the counter asked.

Callahan nodded his head at the cop and tugged at Jack’s sleeve, pulling him down the hall. “You want to clean up first?”

Jack tugged at his lapels and heard a stitch rip. He ran an inquiring hand over liquor-crisped hair and eyed his stained shirt. No tie. He checked his pockets. Still no tie.

“Don’t I look good?”

“Yeah. You smell real good too.”

Lacey’s angry voice carried down the hall to where he stood with Callahan. “No! You can’t arrest him! He didn’t know what he was doing! He…he doesn’t think like we do. I work with him and he doesn’t understand it was wrong!”