Novak was the first one here and had to look.

“How bad is it?”

He didn’t say anything right away. Instead, he turned toward his unmarked car backed into the drive across the street. Lena followed his gaze. An identical car was parked beside it. She could see Tito Sanchez sitting in the front seat beside a man she didn’t know. He looked about thirty and appeared distraught, and Lena guessed that Nikki Brant had a husband.

“Remember Teresa Lopez?” Novak asked in a low voice.

The memory registered. Her partner didn’t need to say anything more.

They may still have been getting used to each other, but Hank Novak was easily the best partner Lena had ever had. At six foot one he was taller than her by three inches, but they always seemed to stand eye to eye. Their friendship had begun the moment Lieutenant Barrera introduced them and asked Novak to show Lena her desk. He seemed pleased with the partnership rather than burdened and did everything he could to make her feel comfortable as he showed her around. Novak was divorced but had three daughters, and Lena could tell that he liked women, which was important to her. Although retirement was a favorite subject, and the front seat of his car was littered with travel brochures and fishing magazines, he loved talking about his twenty-seven years as a cop. The mistakes he’d made, and what he’d learned as a result. Lena often wondered how Novak managed to survive with his humanity intact and hoped that she would be as lucky.

She pulled a fresh pair of vinyl gloves from the box she kept in her briefcase and slipped them on.

“Where’s Rhodes?”

“Inside stretching tape,” Novak said. “The body’s in the bedroom. That’s James Brant in the car with Tito. He says he got home around five-thirty after doing an all-nighter at work. When he found his wife, he dialed nine one one.”

She took another look at James Brant, concerned that he might have contaminated the crime scene.

“How long was he in the house alone?”

“About half an hour. West L.A. had him in their cruiser when I pulled up. Brant says he didn’t touch anything. That he never got past the bedroom doorway. He took one look and made the call.”

“What about West L.A.?”

“They never entered the room. They backed out and sent the paramedics home. The case got bumped to us based on the view from the bedroom door.”

The view from the bedroom door.

Lena tried not to think about it, but she knew that it was already seared into Novak’s brain by the way he drained the can of Diet Coke as if it were a Bud Light and he could still drink beer. As she turned away, Stan Rhodes walked outside carrying a spent roll of crime scene tape. He looked at her with those dark eyes of his, something he hadn’t done since she was promoted to RHD. They shared a history, but Lena didn’t want to deal with it right now. His gaze appeared steady and even, the way it used to be, and she guessed that Rhodes was looking at the situation just as she was.

“It’s clear all the way to the body,” he said to her. “SID ready?”

Novak answered for Lena.