Annoyance flared up inside her as Kate heard her phone go off. The most irritating ring tone, assigned to the most irritating person who would ever call her at such an early hour. Lieutenant Mendoza, her boss. She carefully placed her half eaten almond croissant back on her plate, and pushed the green button on the screen.

“Robbins!” Lieutenant Mendoza barked in hear ear as soon as she picked up her phone, not waiting for her to say anything.

“Morning, Sir,” she replied in her most cheerful voice. Not that it ever helped with Lieutenant Mendoza, but she vowed a long time ago that she will never let him know how much he irked her. Quite often she wondered how a man like him was able to rise up to his rank after demonstrating his clear lack of people skills, but office politics was something that eventually just gave her headaches. Mendoza was appointed as her superior about a month ago, and she seriously considered asking for her transfer at least once a week ever since.

The lieutenant grunted. “You and Petersen are going to Pine Creek. There’s been a homicide and those idiots over there have no clue how to handle it. They found a body in the woods, and need our investigators. So you two are the lucky ones.”

“Very well, Sir”, Kate said as lightly as she could manage.

“You tell Petersen,” the lieutenant said and hung up.

She swirled around the remaining coffee in her mug, and winced when the lukewarm liquid filled her mouth. Great, thanks boss… Croissant in one hand, phone in the other she punched in Ben’s number. He picked up on the third ring, slightly out of breath.

“Where are you?” Kate said with a frown. “Everything OK? You are not having a heart attack, are you?”

Ben laughed. “I’m in the gym, still alive.”

“Good. Because Mendoza wants us to go over Pine Creek and it would be more difficult if you weren’t.”

“Great,” Ben said, the humour gone from his voice. “Pick me up from my flat in twenty minutes.”

Kate sniffed a jumper she found lying around on her sofa. Damn it! Wrinkling her nose she discarded it and headed to her bedroom where she leafed through her wardrobe with a heavy sigh. This is not how she imagined her Saturday morning on this cold December day. Without any real enthusiasm she pulled on a pair of jeans, combed her hair back with her fingers and pulled it up in a bun that looked messy not even two minutes later. She let out another sigh and muttered a whatever to her reflection that stared at her with dull eyes from the mirror on the wall.

*

Kate was sipping her second coffee, leaning up against the hood of her car when Ben arrived, hair still wet from the shower, a backpack slung over his shoulder. Kate held out another cup and he took it with a smile.

“Just what I needed.”

“I made some sandwiches too,” she said, pointing at her bag on the back seat.

“Of course you did,” Ben said as they climbed in Kate’s car.

“You know the way?”

“Apparently there’s a diversion just before Pine Creek,” Ben said as he poked his phone. “We need to get around, through Silverthorne.”

Kate nodded, and pulled out from the parking lot. “Let’s go then.”