“Shit. I don’t think he knows anything about my personal life, right?”

“If you mean does he know you’re engaged to the investigating FBI agent, no.” She put her hands on her hips, staring him down. “This might come back to bite me in the ass. My career is over if he finds out that I let you prance all around this investigation.”

She’s not kidding.

“I know. I appreciate it and I owe you a big one.”

“I’m calling in that favor right now. You’re to stay away from all aspects of this case from now on. I’ve got no one to blame but myself for letting you poke your nose around, but I just stared into my commander’s eyes and lied. So I’m done. I’m not doing that again.”

Mason stared at her, feeling his access to Denny’s killer slip out of his hands. “Wait—”

“No wait! There’s nothing else to be discussed. I shouldn’t have let you in and you know it. Your only role in this case is as a witness. Nothing else.” She gave him a penetrating stare. “And if you think you’re going to use Ava to get close to this case I’ll get her replaced.”

He started to reply and closed his mouth. He’d pushed too far. He’d taken advantage of Nora Hawes and he didn’t have any right to continue. “I’m fully aware what you did for me, Nora. I won’t forget it.”

“If I need a couch to sleep on because I’ve lost my job, you’ll be the first person I call.”

“I’ll loan you my own pillow. It’s a Tempur-Pedic.”

She wrinkled her nose. “What am I? An old woman? I don’t need one of those concrete pillows.”

“Yet.”

“Go back to your desk and stay away from my cases,” ordered Nora. “If I find out anything new, you’ll hear.”

“Have you heard back from Scott Heuser yet? He was supposed to tell us who mentored Micah Zuch.”

“Did we not just have a conversation about how you’re off this case?” She looked ready to knock his head against the wall.

“You just said you’d let me know if you found out anything new. Did the director of Cops 4 Kidz get us the new information?”

“No. We haven’t heard from him.”

Mason considered his next words very carefully. “I missed the last Cops 4 Kidz board meeting. I should go pick up my copy of the minutes.”

“They don’t email those?” Nora asked with heavy sarcasm.

“I heard their email was malfunctioning.”

“Uh-huh.” She chewed on her lower lip, studying him.

He wanted to squirm. “Don’t look at me like that,” he muttered.

“Then stay out of my sight.”

“I’m going.” He turned and headed for the exit.

“Scott called in sick yesterday and left a message that he’s still sick today,” said the receptionist, looking rather harried as she spoke to Mason. “He’s the type of person that doesn’t stay home unless he’s very ill. If he hasn’t returned your messages, it’s because he can’t.”

A stubborn look swept across her face. “He’s an excellent director. I’ve worked with three of them over the last decade, you know. I wouldn’t hold this against him. I’m sure he’ll call when he’s feeling better.”

“I wasn’t thinking badly of him,” Mason assured her. “Did he tell you he’d been contacted by the FBI? They wanted some information about the cops who’d participated in the mentoring program.”

“No, he didn’t say anything. I met the female FBI agent the other day when she came to talk to him. She needs more information?”

“Yes. I believe she’s reached out to him twice about it.”

“This is in relation to the deaths of those cops?” She whispered even though no one else was in the office.

Mason folded his arms on the high reception counter and leaned in. “Yes. It’s been very upsetting that they’ve all volunteered with our organization at one point or another.”

“Well, eighty percent of the local police departments have worked with us,” she said. “We’re very proud of the number of people that give of their time.” She paused. “But I’m not saying anything that you don’t already know, Detective Callahan. What was the information she needed?”

Mason kept his excitement under wraps. “They needed to know who mentored Micah Zuch a few years back.”

Her face fell. “Only Scott has access to those records. That isn’t something I can look up for you.”

A brick wall rose in front of him and he deflated.

“Ah, crap.”

“I’m sorry, Detective Callahan, because the kids are minors, we keep a tight lid on the information, but if I hear from Scott before you, I’ll remind him that your task force is waiting on this information.”

Mason nodded and thanked her for her time.

Outside the building he pulled his collar snug around his neck against the chill of the October air. The temperature had dropped a good ten degrees since the cloud cover had blown away.

Now what?

Ava had been worried that something had happened to Zander when he didn’t return calls. All the cops in the city were watching out for one another, wondering if there’d be another death. A visit to Hauser’s home to see if he was okay and to ask him to open those records would be worth his time.