Sophie entered the conference room at the Hilo Police Department, carrying a tray of sushi from Foodland. She had learned from her time in Hawaii never to arrive at a social situation without bringing food. After she got the call from Jake to meet at the station, she’d speculated that the detectives would be hungry and tired from their labors of the afternoon.

She was right. The law enforcement team descended upon her offering like a flock of sparrows on a rice field. The group consisted of Freitan, Wong, Captain Bruce Ohale, and several other unknown staffers. Coffee was passed around in a metal carafe, and Sophie filled a Styrofoam cup with some of the inky brew, needing to get her energy up a bit after the session with Dr. Wilson.

Jake arrived, vibrating with his usual energy as he greeted the room. “Our supervisor and I spoke with the Weathersbys. Turns out they are already on the island, staying at a hotel in Hilo on the recommendation of a PR firm, FindUsNow.com. Have any of you heard of it?”

“Nasty bunch of vultures, preying on families’ hopes,” Freitan said. “I am not a fan.”

“Bix has a meeting scheduled for tomorrow with Mallory of FindUsNow. Hopefully, we can all get on the same page. It would not be good for the news to find out about all these bodies,” Jake said.

“Perhaps you want to control the message the public gets.” Sophie made eye contact with the station chief, a burly middle-aged Hawaiian man with a bristly buzz cut and very tiny wire-rimmed readers balanced on his wide brown nose. “Hold a press conference and make an announcement.”

“Not until we have some leads,” Captain Ohale growled. “Everybody keep your lips zipped.”

Sophie cleared her throat. “Have you considered calling in the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit? They might be a good resource if we are dealing with a serial.”

“Hell no.” Freitan snorted. “We’ve got it right now, thanks very much.”

“About a bigger item.” Ohale leaned forward, resting the tips of meaty fingers together. “Someone tipped off the governor about our missing persons list, and the situation has been dubbed a statewide emergency. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you, Ms. Ang?”

Sophie’s eyes widened in surprise. “Of course not, sir. The only people who know I was working some bigger numbers on the missing persons situation are Freitan, Wong, and my partner, Jake Dunn.”

All eyes turned to Jake, who lifted his hands in a surrender gesture. “Don’t look at me! Sophie and I have been running our asses off. Hardly had time to breathe, let alone stir the shit to tip off anybody. Our supervisor Bix is on us because we haven’t kept him updated, and now our client’s body has been found. So we aren’t even on the job for much longer.” He looked around the table. “I hope you found our contributions helpful. Such as finding a serial robbing tweaker couple that might be murderers, uncovering an extortionist, and discovering multiple bodies.”

A beat passed by, and Ohale gave an abrupt head nod. “Your help is noted. Let’s start over again with full introductions, then I would like Detective Freitan to facilitate a review of the situation that has led to our current discovery.”

Sophie took out her laptop, and looked to the station chief. “All right if I take some notes, sir?”

“No Internet. And shoot us a copy before you do anything with the notes,” Ohale said.

Sophie nodded. The level of concern about the apparent leak was merited. She was relieved to have keys under her fingers again and something to do with her hands as Freitan got up and went to one of the whiteboards on the wall.

Sophie noted the names of those present as they were introduced: Freitan, Wong, Jake, Ohale, a round, genial Filipino man introduced as Hilo’s District Attorney Sam Queiros, and Detectives Latimer and Lono from nearby Puna District.

The meeting got underway with a brief mention of the body dump Sophie had initially found. “I’ll just summarize the progress with that so far. We don’t think that the murdered family is part of this current investigation,” Freitan said. “The ‘Jones’ family was in Witness Protection. The Marshals Service has taken over that investigation, and is working on a leak that’s been leading to exposure of some of their witnesses here on the Big Island. We are no longer involved, except as pertains to processing crime scene evidence and whatever they ask us to do. And now, to our current case.”

Freitan turned to a large portable corkboard, which she propped against the whiteboard. Photos of people involved with the case were tacked to it. “Ms. Ang and her handy cadaver dog Ginger, along with Dunn here, are working the disappearance of Julie Weathersby because the parents went ahead and hired Security Solutions. Since these two paired up, the action on the case has been nonstop. They tracked a couple who had targeted and robbed Weathersby out at that encampment at Oceanview, Travelers’ Rest.” Freitan tapped mugshots of Holly Rayme and Jim Webb. “We still have Webb and Rayme in custody, and these two tweakers appear to have been robbing and rolling on a regular basis. They could be killers too, though our search at their squat didn’t yield anything tying to a particular case.” Freitan paused to slurp from her mug of coffee and went on. “Dunn and Ang also found a young man named Paul Chernobiac who has, at least, been a part of shaking down families of the missing. Chernobiac seems to have ties to unknown partners; Jake and Sophie reported being pursued by a black SUV when they went to check his address.” Freitan pointed to Chernobiac’s innocuous-looking photo.

“Hilo PD neither authorized nor sanctioned any illegal search of Chernobiac’s property,” Wong chimed in. “But when our team went to search the premises with a warrant, the bag of cash Ang and Dunn had reported seeing was missing. We didn’t have a confirmed connection between Chernobiac and any of these crimes, so he was released after twenty-four hours.”

“So you searched Chernobiac’s premises illegally?” Chief Ohale asked Jake.

Jake gazed back at him levelly. “We neither confirm nor deny such an action might have happened.”

The detectives snorted with laughter and Freitan picked up the thread. “Today’s discovery of four bodies, one of them tentatively identified as Julie Weathersby, has led to an expansion of the investigating team. Wong and I have no problem asking for help from the FBI at this point. It seems like we have a serial here, maybe even a serial with an organized underbelly of secondary crime feeding off of the victim’s families.”

“I have a question.” Detective Lono was a rugged-looking mixed Caucasian Hawaiian in a long-sleeved hoodie with a tattoo showing on his neck. “I usually work vice, and I’m wondering why we’ve been drafted to be a part of this. We have our own cases that will be neglected for this business here in Hilo.”

“Short answer? Because I asked your Lieutenant for more manpower. We need to take these missing persons cases more seriously, and we wanted some investigators with connections to the drug and vice trade in the area,” Ohale said. “We need to respond as aggressively as we can with the governor’s eye on the situation. I think we might find that there are a combination of different scenarios leading to what apparently seems like one trend.”

That seemed to sober the two from Puna District. Wong stood up and handed out packets of photocopied paper. Sophie took hers, scanning it and finding details from the bodies as Freitan said, “We are trying to identify the three sets of remains that we found in the stream. Dunn and Ang took a look at the female body and superficially, it matches the description of Julie Weathersby.”

“Too bloated to be totally sure,” Jake said, “but the coloring and height are right. Our witness Shirley Mandig identified Julie Weathersby, recognized after the fact through social media, as the girl in a black bra and underwear that she saw on the side of the road. Ultimately that led to our discovery. Julie Weathersby’s parents are already on the island and will be asked to confirm the identity.”

Sophie gave a little inward shudder at the thought of being asked to identify a child’s body after it was submerged for a week. Hopefully, the Weathersbys had strong stomachs.

“We still may need to use dental records and DNA to confirm if the parents can’t identify the body, since the fingerprints are too degraded. The others are older and are going to be more difficult. One of the first tasks we need to do is obtain dental records of all of the possible missing within the time frame that the medical examiner gives us for these bodies,” Freitan said.

The meeting devolved into the minutiae of who was doing what, none of which involved Jake or Sophie. Sophie continued to take notes, but sneaked a look at her partner.

Jake sat across from her, leaning back in his chair, his big body relaxed, his eyes half-closed, his fingers laced on his flat belly. He’d looked sexy and sleepy like that in her bed.

His eyes shifted over and met hers. He was remembering, too. Heat flushed the back of Sophie’s neck and she looked down at her laptop.

Jake coiled forward deliberately and set his elbows on the table. “If I may interrupt for a moment. Ms. Ang and I would like to continue to support the investigation, but with our client most likely deceased, it seems we might be out of a job.”

Ohale inclined his head. “You two can go. We will let you know when we have an interview set up with the parents.”

“I anticipate that tomorrow,” Freitan said. That patronizing edge she got to her tone was back, and Sophie frowned as she went on. “I’ll text you when. You can attend and watch, and afterward, provide emotional support to your clients when we are done with them.”

“So nice of you to include us.” Jake’s tone was heavy with sarcasm. He stood up, and Sophie closed her laptop and did the same.

Ohale looked up at them over his wire-rimmed glasses. His gaze and tone were sincere. “You’ve been a big help. Our whole team appreciates it, right, Freitan?”

“Yes, sir. These two earned their cheddar,” Freitan said reluctantly.

Cheddar? Some colloquialism for money, no doubt. There were so many.

Wong inclined his head. “Thanks, guys. A pleasure working with you.”

“We intend to see this through as far as the family will let us,” Jake said. “Talk to you all tomorrow.”

Sophie lifted a hand and walked through the door Jake held open for her. He touched her back as they exited the conference room and leaned close to whisper in her ear. “How about a bite to eat, and bed? We’ve had a long day.”

Goosebumps rippled across Sophie’s skin where he touched her. “How about showers and takeout, instead?” she countered. “I’m too tired for anything but food and bed.”

“Perfect.” Jake’s smile was wolfish.