'I heard. No, it's not about that.'

'Then what?'

'It's a different case. I need your help.'

'I'm on leave, remember?' Stride said.

'I remember. I also remember we were partners once upon a time. I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important.'

That was true. Denise had started her police career in Duluth fifteen years earlier. She and Stride had spent four years working together after Stride was chosen to lead the Detective Bureau. Then Denise married her high school boyfriend and moved back home to Grand Rapids. The next cop Stride had hired to work at his side was Maggie Bei.

'Don't keep me in suspense,' Stride said. 'What's the case?'

'Look, get dressed, will you? There's no time.'

'If you want my help, you can tell me what the hell is going on,' Stride retorted.

Denise folded her arms in impatience. She cocked her head and frowned. 'A child is missing. A baby. Snatched right out of her room tonight, according to the father. I need you to take over the investigation.'

When Stride slipped inside his bedroom, he saw that Serena Dial was already half-dressed. She buttoned a burgundy flannel shirt over her bra and pushed a brush several times through her long black hair. She sat on the end of the bed and began to squeeze her long legs into a pair of jeans.

'What's up?' she asked.

'Denise Sheridan wants to pull me into one of her cases. Missing kid.'

'Why can't the locals handle it?'

'I don't know. We haven't gotten that far.'

Serena stood up, zipped up her jeans, and left the flannel shirt untucked. 'Couldn't sleep again?' she asked him.

'No.'

She stepped into leather boots and hooked dangling ruby earrings in both ears. Even though it was the middle of the night, in the middle of the northern Minnesota woods, Serena wasn't casual about her looks. She had spent most of her life in Las Vegas, and two years in Duluth hadn't softened her touch of glamour.