the door, and even across a window down the way.
Oh God. She’d been killed right on my porch. My breathing quickened and a panic attack loomed. I smashed my palm against my solar plexus and breathed deeply several times, trying to calm my nervous system. The champagne and canapés I’d eaten earlier swirled around my stomach, and I had to swallow to keep from throwing up. The need to vomit hovered just on the edge.
Detective Pierce then wound his way through crime techs to me just as more spotlights were set up to illuminate the scene. “Are you okay?”
“No.” I shook myself out of it and stood straighter.
“Take another deep breath.” Pierce was in his late thirties or early forties and had that cop look with an edge. His hair was a dark blond tinged with gray, his eyes green, and his scent salty-ocean somehow. “Did you know the victim?”
I nodded. “Her name is Sasha Duponte, and she’s an ATF agent. You’re going to need to call the agency.”
Pierce stiffened. “She’s ATF?”
“Yes,” I whispered, chilly in the warm evening.
Pierce’s exhale was heated. “I suppose she knew Aiden Devlin?”
“Yes,” I affirmed. Aiden and Pierce had been on the opposite sides of a couple of cases, and once Pierce had discovered that Aiden was an agent, he hadn’t been happy at the concealment of that fact. It appeared he still wasn’t.
“Great. Where is Devlin? I need to talk to him.” Pierce looked around the area again.
I chewed on the inside of my lip. “Aiden is in Seattle meeting with his director about a case he was going to work with Sasha.” I’d learned the hard way that lying to Detective Grant Pierce was a bad idea that just led to more problems. “They’ve worked together before.”
Because Pierce was a good cop, he must’ve caught something in my voice. “They were just colleagues?” he asked.
I paused.
“All of it, Albertini,” he said. “Don’t mess with me on this one. There’s a dead body on your freaking porch, and you knew her. She was killed right here. Keep talking.”
The world tilted around me, but I kept upright. Finding dead bodies was a shock to any system. “Yes. Aiden and Sasha were undercover at some point as a married couple, and they started dating. I don’t know how long it lasted, but it fizzled away when they both moved on to other jobs.” I needed to sit down.
Pierce pinched the bridge of his nose. “All right. When did you first meet her?”
I told him about her showing up at Aiden’s. Oh, I’d give him everything about the fights with her if he asked, but if he didn’t, I was going to keep those back for now. Blowing Aiden’s undercover Op wasn’t a good option, and I needed to talk to him before I revealed too much about it.
A shout echoed from the side of my porch, and an officer held up something. I squinted to see better and my stomach dropped. Oh, crap.
Pierce ducked his head to see better. “Is that a potato gun?”
I pivoted and hustled back to look in my car. Nope. No potato gun there. My thoughts reeled and I struggled to bring them in. Okay. I had to think.
“Anna?” Pierce followed me and then motioned for the cop to bring it over.
The tall woman who’d first arrived brought the gun over, her hands protected by gloves. “We photographed where it was found and all around it. Just need to bag and tag it.”
I coughed and kept puke down. The potato gun was familiar, except it was covered in blood and what looked like brain matter. It was only PVC pipe, for Pete’s sake.
Pierce leaned over to examine it better. “Recognize this, Anna?”
What would I do if I were representing myself? It was time to do what needed to be done. “I have a phone call to make.” Turning away, I walked to the edge of the drive and dialed quickly.
“Anna? What the heck? Can’t it wait until tomorrow?” Clark asked sleepily.
My voice shook. “I have good news and bad news. The good news is that we have our first client.” Suddenly, I really needed to go to the bathroom. Now.
“What’s the bad news?” Clark asked wearily, the sound of bedclothes rustling as he no doubt got out of bed.
“I’m the client.”
It wasn’t my first time sitting across from Detective Grant Pierce in a Timber City Police interrogation room, but it was the first time I was the one being questioned. Clark sat