Brazen Virtue

again?”
    “Yeah. The odds favor it.”
    “Saving lives. Isn’t that still what it’s all about? For both of us?”

    He stared at the bricks of the station house. There was tradition there. His tradition. It shouldn’t have anything to do with her. “I like it better when you do it in your cozy little office uptown.”
    “And I like it better when you’re sitting behind a desk grumbling about paperwork. But it can’t be that way every time. Not for you, and not for me. I helped once before. I feel very strongly that I can help this time. He’s not an ordinary man. Even from the little you’ve told me I’m sure of it. He’s very sick.”
    His hackles came up instantly. “You’re not going to start bleeding for this one too.”
    “What I’m going to do is help you find him. After that, we’ll see.”
    “I can’t stop you.” But her hand was still caught in his, and he knew he could. “I won’t stop you,” he amended, “but I want you to think about your own caseload, the clinic, your private patients.”
    “I know my capacity.”
    “Yeah.” It seemed endless to him. “If you start lagging, I’ll tell your grandfather on you. He’ll straighten your ass out, sister.”
    “I’m forewarned.” She drew him to her again. “I love you, Ben.”
    “Yeah? How about a demonstration?” Her lips curved against his, then softened. Ed stuck his head in the window.
    “Don’t you two know any of the side streets around here?”
    “Kiss off, Jackson.”
    Tess nuzzled her cheek against Ben’s. “Good morning, Ed.”
    “Tess. We don’t usually see you around here twice in one week.”
    “You’ll probably be seeing her more than that.” Ben pushed open his door. “Doc’s coming in with us on this one.”
    “Is that right?” It wasn’t difficult to sense the discord. He knew them both too well. “Welcome aboard.”

    “Always happy to lend a hand to a couple of civil servants.” She slipped her arm through Ed’s as they walked. “How is Grace doing?”
    “Holding up. She’s decided to stay in town until this is wrapped.”
    “I see. That’s good.”
    “It is?”
    “She strikes me as the type who doesn’t do well when things happen around her. She does better when she has a hand in. One of the worst parts of grief is helplessness. If you can get through that, you cope.” She waited until he pulled open the door. “Besides, if she went back to New York, how would you make a play for her?”
    Ben strolled in behind his wife. “Doc’s got your number, Jackson. Nice-looking lady,” he said as he jingled the change in his pocket. “Brains, looks, and money.” He swung his arm over Tess’s shoulder. “Glad to see you’re following my example.”
    “Tess only fell for you because she has a soft spot for disordered minds.” He turned into Homicide, grateful that the business at hand would change the subject.
    They settled in the conference room. Tess spread the files of both victims out in front of her. There were photos, the autopsies, and the reports prepared by her husband. There had been more violence here than in the other case she had worked on with the department—if murder could be judged in degrees of violence. The common ground was as clear to her as it was to the investigating officers, but she saw something else, something darker.
    Patiently, she read over Eileen Cawfield’s statement and the notes from the interview with Markowitz. She studied Ed’s official report of the events on the night of Kathleen Breezewood’s death.

    Ben never liked seeing her this way, handling and studying the bits and pieces of the grittier side of his world. It had been difficult enough to accept her work when she was tucked behind a desk in an uptown office. Logically he knew he couldn’t shield her, but he was edgy just having her in the department.
    She ran a pretty, manicured finger down the medical examiner’s report. His stomach tightened.
    “It’s interesting that both murders occurred at the same time of night.”
    Harris rubbed a hand over his stomach. It seemed emptier every day. “We can agree on the possibility that that’s part of his pattern.” He broke off a tiny end of a raisin bun that was rapidly going stale. He’d managed to convince himself that if he took calories in small doses, they didn’t really count. “I haven’t had the chance to tell you how much the department appreciates your assistance here, Dr. Court.”
    “I’m sure the department