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mascot incidents. Whatever else they had shared, their time at Brighton Academy had ingrained a certain loyalty. Teller would do his best for a fellow alumnus.
    After high school, they’d gone their separate ways. Dan had followed Jess to Boston and Teller had headed to Tennessee’s Vanderbilt University. In time, they’d both returned to Birmingham.
    “They’re doing well. Dad retired after his heart attack, but he’s doing great now.” His father might object to that last part depending on how much trouble his wife was giving him. Katherine Burnett could make life… complicated. But she was Dan’s mother and he loved her.
    Teller nodded. “I see Annette from time to time. Did you hear she filed for divorce from Brandon? He’s already engaged to someone else.”
    “I hadn’t heard.” Dan was so out of touch with everything and everyone—including the stepdaughter, Andrea, he still claimed in spite of the divorce from Annette. “Brandon’s an ass. I’m glad she’s moving on.”
    “I hear you’ve moved on as well,” his old friend noted. “I remember Jess. She’s all over the news these days. I guess she left Birmingham and made quite the name for herself in the FBI. Good for her.”
    Dan nodded. “She did. We’re fortunate to have her in the department.”
    Teller studied him for a time before getting down to business. “Why don’t you give me an overview of what’s going on, and then we can best determine how we should proceed?”
    “Three weeks ago one of my division chiefs went missing.”
    “Captain Ted Allen,” Teller said. “Saw that on the news too.”
    “There were issues between him and Jess. We believe he made an attempt on her life just before he disappeared.”
    “What kind of attempt?”
    “A car bomb.”
    Teller arched an eyebrow. “But that hasn’t been proven?”
    “The investigation is ongoing.” Dan wasn’t at liberty to say more on the subject at this time. The truth was he didn’t have much more than that. “Just over a week ago his cell phone was found in my trash. I left the trash can on the street on pick up day and somehow it was overturned. A pedestrian noticed the cell phone lying in the street and assumed someone had dropped it. Forensics later determined the cell had been inside my trash can.”
    “Circumstantial at best,” Teller argued.
    No matter that he’d known that was the case, Dan felt some amount of relief at hearing an attorney say so. “Then last week Allen’s wedding band was found in the grill I keep on my patio.”
    Teller turned up his hands. “Easily accessible. Anyone could have put it there.”
    “I’ve come under scrutiny in the investigation,” Dan confessed. “That’s as it should be under the circumstances. Since I was aware of the direction the investigation had taken, it looks suspicious that my house was basically destroyed by a fire. The fact that only days before the fire my security system was breached doesn’t appear to matter.” Dan held up a finger. “Also, I can’t forget the report recently found in Allen’s desk suggesting he intended to file a grievance against me. Somehow, that report was overlooked the first few times his office was searched.”
    “Someone’s going to a hell of a lot of trouble to set you up, Dan.” Teller searched his face. “You made any enemies lately?”
    “None that I’m aware of.” Dan exhaled a heavy breath. “I’m certain not every decision I make suits everyone in the department. But I can’t fathom anything I’ve done to cause this sort of reaction.”
    “What about your choice to bring Jess Harris onboard? Was that decision well received?”
    Though Dan understood the question was necessary, it still rankled that the man asked. “By most, I believe.”
    “Is there anyone who would like to have your job who perhaps thought they should have had it instead of you?” Teller shrugged. “The situation with Jess and this obsessed serial killer may have presented the