Right under the headline was a photo showing Conklin and me going in through the compound’s tall front gate.

My heart rate kicked up as I read Blayney’s report; he said that Homicide had been called to a disturbance at the famous Ellsworth compound, owned by Harry Chandler.

Blayney gave the context of the story by telling his readers about the SFPD’s dismal rate of unsolved homicides.

Then my name jumped out at me.

Our sources tell us that the Southern Division’s Sergeant Lindsay Boxer is lead investigator on the Ellsworth case. Boxer, rumored to have lost her edge since stepping down from the Homicide squad lieutenant’s job several years ago…

It was an unfair jab and I wasn’t prepared for it. I felt a shock of anger, and then tears welled up. This guy was knocking a decorated elderly primigravida with a dozen years on the force and a pretty decent record of solved crimes.

Not 100 percent, but high!

I sat on the kitchen stool long enough for my coffee to get cold and my hormones to give me a break.

Blayney had attached himself to both of my cases, but so far he didn’t know that Chaz Smith was an undercover cop and that seven heads had been dug up at Harry Chandler’s house.

We had no leads, no suspects for either crime.

How long would it be before “anonymous sources” leaked that to Jason Blayney?

Boxer, rumored to have lost her edge…

The government was broke. Jobs were being eliminated. Blayney’s cutting remarks could color the top-floor bosses’ perception of me.

For the first time in a dozen years, I worried about keeping my job.

Chapter 16

I drove my husband to the airport through the maddening morning rush. Traffic was congested, gridlocked at the stoplights, and Joe’s flight would be leaving without him if we didn’t get clear roadway soon.