“I guess...”

 “You sound a little cautious,” he said.

 “It’s been a long time,” she said. “But yes, let’s talk.”

 “When is too soon to call you?”

 “Fifteen minutes after we say goodbye today,” she said.

 He laughed. “You read me, all right. I’ll call tonight.”

 Then they kissed a little more.

 * * *

 Logan hadn’t been looking. Well, he was always looking, but he hadn’t been expecting to find anyone. This woman was a surprise—as pretty as any woman he might be physically attracted to, as smart as any he could be serious about, as sexy as anyone he could be completely into. It took him a little by surprise, but damn.

 This one, he sincerely believed, had some outstanding staying power. A few things would have to be managed, however. Like the case he was working on. And the fact that Riley had only crossed his path because he’d been watching Emma Shay.

 They talked late Sunday night, too late. That quiet, intense, getting-to-know-each-other, coming-on-to-each-other kind of talk. He had dreams. Fantastic dreams. He went to work early Monday morning tired with a love hangover.

 “We got a break in the Compton surveillance,” his partner Georgianna Severs said. “Her relationship with the Kerrigans flared—she took a job from Riley Kerrigan and it appears her casual friendship with Adam Kerrigan has been upgraded. I reviewed a week’s worth of her phone log and she calls the brother at least three times a day. She took a job with Riley and she’s boinking the brother, Adam. We’ve got her on tape referring to both Adam and Riley Kerrigan multiple times. I guess we know why she’s back here.”

 Logan felt the shot to his gut. His suspect was involved with his new girl...

 Logan slid down in his desk chair and said, “Fuck.”

 “What?” Georgianna asked him. “We knew they knew each other.”

 “Everyone knows everyone around here. She went to school with half the town but she hasn’t been in touch with them. The word was they were estranged, hadn’t talked in years. In four months we had one text to the brother’s cell. One! They weren’t in touch!”

 “That we know of,” Georgianna said. “Our warrant is limited to her phone and her banking. We don’t have her under surveillance.”

 “We’ve been watching her,” he said.

 “Hit and miss, not surveillance. We’re not sitting on her.”

 “I thought we’d be cutting this loose pretty soon...” He shook his head miserably.

 They occupied a little cubicle, but it was early. Not too many people around. They wouldn’t even have their morning briefing for another half hour.

 “What did you do?” Georgianna asked.

 “I’m hooked up with the friend. Riley Kerrigan.”

 Georgianna was silent. It took her a long time to speak. “Why?”

 “Why? Why?” he asked incredulously. Then all the wind out of his sails, he put his head in his hands. “The flesh is weak,” he muttered.

 “Oh, my Jesus,” she said tiredly. “What were you thinking?”

 “What do you know?” he asked. “You were born married. You were seven the last time you were tempted. She’s beautiful, all right? She’s funny in a ridiculously arrogant sort of way—she thinks she knows everything, like all women, as you should understand. Besides, this just wasn’t that much of a case. I thought she might accidentally give me some useful information and probably never even know it and poof—the warrants would expire, it would be over and—”

 “And we agreed it certainly would be a major case if we caught her transferring money from a hidden account. In which case it would be a career maker. And there was probable cause for the warrant.”

 “Very thin probable cause that had nothing to do with Riley Kerrigan,” he argued.

 He got up from his desk and went for coffee.

 A little over six months ago, shortly before the suicide of Richard Compton, Emma Shay Compton’s cell phone had gone missing. So she claimed. It was not recovered, but in the interim the FBI monitored calls and there had been two placed from that number to Aruba where the Comptons had owned a beachside estate—their winter place. Based on the suspicion that Emma might have offshore funds in the islands, money set aside from her husband’s estate for her to access, a judge had granted a warrant for surveillance of phone and banking records for six months. The six months would be up in February and if there wasn’t any new probable cause, it would not be renewed.

 It was a soft case now with Compton dead, everything either liquidated and auctioned or held by US Marshals for auction. The apartment in Manhattan and the estate in Aruba had been sold. Emma Shay had been thoroughly investigated and if no new incriminating evidence turned up before the expiration of the warrant, it was likely the case would be closed. The FBI was being assisted by local detectives Danner and Severs, but after the expiration of the warrant the local police would be off the case and it would be up to the FBI to sniff around Emma to see if she suddenly started living large or if she bought airfare to another country where she might access her nest egg without the interference of the US Government.

 Law enforcement could investigate her forever if they chose to, but they couldn’t access her property, phone records, banking records or other personal property and space without a warrant.

 Logan and Georgianna had been watching, listening, and there had been nothing to indicate the former Mrs. Compton had access to illegally received money. And they had other cases to work. They were actually property crimes cops but both had had some previous experience in intel and fraud and it served a purpose to have them working in a division that didn’t normally deal with white-collar crime. No one would suspect them of investigating Emma Shay.