He wasn’t sure if he should mention it.

Her hair was brown and chopped short. Her eyes were the same color and all cop.

He’d heard it said she chewed up lazy cops for breakfast and spit them out at lunch.

He wanted to make it through the day.

“Dispatch came through at sixteen-forty, report of a break-in and possible death at this address.”

Eve looked back toward the bedroom. “Yeah, extremely possible.”

“My partner and I responded, arrived on scene at sixteen-fifty-two. The witness, identified as Samantha Gannon, resident, met us at the door. She was in extreme distress.”

“Cut through it. Lopkre,” she added, reading his name tag.

“She was hysterical, Lieutenant. She’d already vomited, just outside the front door.”

“Yeah, I noticed that.”

He relaxed a little, since she didn’t seem inclined to take a bite out of him. “Tossed it again, same spot, right after she opened the door for us. Sort of folded in on herself there in the foyer, crying. She kept saying, ‘Andrea’s dead, upstairs.’ My partner stayed with her while I went up to check it out. Didn’t have to get far.”

He grimaced, nodded toward the bedroom. “The smell. Looked into the bedroom, saw the body. Ah, as I could verify death from the visual from the doorway, I did not enter the scene and risk contaminating same. I conducted a brief search of the second floor to confirm no one else, alive or dead, was on the premises, then called it in.”

“And your partner?”

“My partner’s stayed with the witness throughout. She-Officer Ricky-she’s got a soothing way with victims and witnesses. She’s calmed her down considerably.”

“All right. I’ll send Ricky out. Start the canvass.”

She started downstairs. She noted the suitcase just inside the door, the notebook case, the big-ass purse some women couldn’t seem to make a move without.