Jake took his sweatshirt out of the Jeep and wrapped it around Sophie’s shoulders. She was hunched in on herself, clearly taking the girl’s death hard.

Jake felt it too, a numbness in the extremities, a lead ball in his belly. They watched from a distance as Freitan and Wong directed the uniforms to secure the area and the ME, clad in rubber boots and a coverall, got down into the stream with the body.

More vehicles arrived. Several police officers, dressed in waders, started down the narrow stream with poles in hand to probe for more remains.

“This could be major,” Jake said.

“Yes. There might be more bodies here.” Sophie’s phone dinged and she glanced at it. “Can you give me a ride back to town? I’m supposed to meet Dr. Wilson for a counseling appointment I set up yesterday.” She sighed. “I should have taken my own car.”

“It’s no problem.” Jake really didn’t want her going off on her own without him. “Well, you’ll have even more to talk to her about today.”

“Yes, unfortunately. I had planned to . . . do more research before I met with her. But I haven’t had time.”

“It’s been nonstop, yeah. Hop in the Jeep. I’ll tell Freitan where she can reach us if she needs anything more.”

Sophie nodded and headed toward the Jeep with the dogs.

Freitan was conferring with the ME on the muddy creek bank as Jake walked over to the detective. “Hey. We have to go back to town for an appointment. Anything else we can do to assist?”

“Nah. You two have done quite enough. Or I should say, that Lab has,” Freitan said. “She could be a cadaver dog! Was she trained or something?”

“Not that anyone can tell,” Jake said. “She’s a rescue dog, and generally badly behaved.” He pointed to the waterlogged corpse as it was being lifted into a body bag. “That was our client. How would you like us to inform the parents?”

“It’s a murder investigation, now. We will do the informing. Preferably in person. What you can do is get the parents over to the Big Island. Tell them there have been some developments and the police need to talk to them personally, ASAP. We’ll take it from there.” Freitan was abrupt but no longer condescending as she met Jake’s gaze squarely. For once, she wasn’t eying him like a steak at a barbeque.

“Really appreciate your breaking this open.” Wong said. “Can we get the contact info for the witness that tipped you to this location?”

Jake scrolled through his phone to Mandig’s contact information and sent it via text over to Wong. “We’d like to keep helping however we can. And please let us know of any new developments—like if you find any more remains in this stream. Sophie’s really into solving some more of the missing persons cases.”

“We’ll let you know,” Freitan said. “Stay close.”

Jake headed back to the Jeep.

Sophie was already seated inside, texting, but she put her phone away with a furtive gesture as soon as he arrived.

Not good. He’d lay money that she was in touch with Alika right now. His mood darkened.

“Just partners with benefits,” he muttered as he got in and slammed the door. “Not a bit fucking jealous.”

“What did you say?” Sophie’s eyes had dark circles under them and her honey-brown skin had that gray cast it got when she was stressed. He checked the digital clock on the dash—it was two p.m. Time had flown when they weren’t having fun.

“You need something to eat before I take you to Dr. Wilson,” Jake said. He turned on the Jeep and the engine roared in a satisfying way. “You look peaked.”

“You are not my parent to worry about my eating habits. And what is peaked?”

“No, definitely not your parent. Peaked is . . .” His mother had used that term when he was little. “A Midwestern thing. Means you seem weak. Sickly, I guess.” Jake pulled the vehicle off the shoulder, frustrated. “My mama thought food was the answer to every illness, and I like to see you eat. So, sue me.”

“I see no purpose in suing you for such a silly thing.” Sophie petted his leg like he was one of the dogs. “Your mama was likely a wise woman to raise such a competent son.”

“Is that a compliment?” Stupid as it was, her petting and praise perked him up. “I live for the crumbs of your positive regard.”

“Such big words!” Sophie batted her eyes. “You astound me, Jake.”

“I may be a Neanderthal, but I did go to college. Majored in political science. I even read several Cliff’s notes of the classics.”

“I like big words, Jake.” Sophie petted his leg a little too close to the groin this time, and he almost swerved off the road.

“Watch those hands or you’ll have to pay the price,” he warned. She laughed, and it was good to see a little color come back into her face.

“I am hungry. Perhaps we could buy one of those nutritionally unsound musubi things on the way to Dr. Wilson’s office,” she murmured. “I do wish we could have a more active role in the investigation. I am annoyed by this private role. But I could not stay in the FBI when they were trying to take ownership of DAVID. And I got frustrated there too, with the kinds of cases I had to keep working.”

“Tell me more about that.” Keep her mind off the bodies, keep her talking. “What’s going on with your patent application?”

“It’s moving ahead. The FBI has relinquished its bid for ownership with the advocacy of my very competent lawyer. But it’s a slow process. And the issues of consent and confidentiality . . . I don’t know if they will ever be resolved.”

Jake patted her leg this time. “I have faith in you, my intellectual logophile.”

Her smile was his reward. He was definitely going to be throwing around more big words.