Blue Smoke

he handled business?”
    “No. He’d complain about work—being overworked, not being appreciated enough. But mostly he liked to brag.”
    “Another woman?”
    She sighed now, wished she drank coffee. Holding a cup would give her something to do with her hands. “We’ve been seeing each other about four months. Exclusively, as far as I know. He was involved with someone before me. Ah . . . Jennifer. I don’t know the last name. She was a bitch, of course, according to him. Selfish, demanding, nagging. All the thingsI’m sure he’d say about me now. I think she was in banking. I’m sorry, I don’t know more.”
    Steadier, she straightened her shoulders. “I think you should look around. I think you should search the apartment, and my car. The sooner this is cleared up, the better.”
    “You’re entitled to department representation.”
    “I’m not requesting any, at this time. He hit me, I hit him back. For me that was the end of it.”
    She would make it the end, Reena promised herself. She wouldn’t let this stupidity smear her reputation or slice up her career. She wouldn’t have it. “This other business isn’t connected to me. The sooner we establish that, the sooner I can get back to the job, and the sooner the investigators on this can move in other directions.”
    “I’m sorry about this, Hale.”
    She shook her head at her partner. “It’s not your fault. It’s not the department’s fault. And it’s not mine.”
    S he refused to be embarrassed or insulted at having her own colleagues go through her home, her things. The more thorough this unofficial inquiry, the sooner the door on it closed for good.
    When they were finished in the bedroom, she went in with Gina to dress. “This is outrageous, Reena. I don’t know why you take it.”
    “I want my record clear. There’s nothing to find, so they find nothing. And it moves on.” Because it was Gina, she closed her eyes, pressed a hand to her belly. “I feel a little sick.”
    “Oh, hon.” Gina gathered Reena into a strong hug. “This sucks so wide. But you know it’s going to be cleared up. It’s going to be cleared up in, like, five minutes.”
    “That’s what I’m telling myself.” But even five minutes of being under suspicion was five minutes too long. “The only thing pointing at me is the fact that Luke and I had a fight last night.” She eased away, pulled on a sweater. “Something like this, you’ve got to look at the ex—especially when she happens to be a cop in the arson unit. Sometimes it’sthe ones who fight or investigate fires who set them. You’ve heard the stories.”
    Her voice shook a little. “Set a fire so you can play the hero and suppress it, or just to get back at someone.”
    “That’s not you. That’s not anyone I know.”
    “But it happens, Gina.” She covered her eyes, winced as she set her cheek throbbing once more. “If this were my case, I’d take a good, hard look at the angry ex-girlfriend who knows just how to set a vehicular fire.”
    “Okay. And once you took that good, hard look, you’d eliminate her. Not only because she’d never hurt anyone, and never use fire to strike back even at the most deserving asshole. But you’d have to eliminate her when she spent the night in her own apartment, eating ice cream with her best friend.”
    “I’d have to ask myself if that best friend would cover for her. Fortunately, she also has a veteran firefighter who knows his wife answered an SOS and went to stay with her friend. That adds to my side. And the fact that Luke lied about this.” She tapped a finger gently to her cheek. “That smears it on his side. Nobody looks at this and thinks it’s accidental. I documented it, and thank God I called you and you didn’t listen to me and came over.”
    “Steve insisted as much as me. He’d have come himself, but I didn’t think you wanted a guy around.”
    “No, I wouldn’t have.” The roiling in her stomach eased as she thought it through, studied the facts as she would any case. “My record’s clean, Gina, and it’s going to stay that way.”
    She started to reach for her makeup, to disguise the bruise. Then thought, Hell with it.
    “I’ve got to go down, tell my parents. They’re going to hear about this on the news. I’d rather they hear it all from me first.”
    “I’ll go down with you.”
    “You’ve got to get home, get yourself ready for work.”
    “I’ll call in sick.”
    “You will not.” She