There was a skinny woman wearing a black leather jacket and smoking a cigarette with her boots up on Mace’s kitchen table. Andy was already fumbling out his phone to call 911 when Billie ran straight into the kitchen and threw her arms around the woman with a plaintive, “Aunt Dani!”
Billie burst into tears and let the woman pick her up and snuggle her inside the jacket.
“You’re the brother, then,” the woman said, gesturing with her cigarette. “Detective Hammond. You can call me Danielle.”
“You’d be the best friend the nurse at the hospital mentioned then,” Andy said, pushing his phone back into his pocket. “How much do you—” He glanced at Billie, still sobbing, and sighed. “My condolences.”
Danielle Hammond had long black hair and pale skin that made her look more closely related to Bi
