Free The Only Witness by Pamela Beason

running his lips gently over their tiny bodies.
    Baby soft . Neema hooted softly again as she signed.
    "It's as if she's telling him to be careful," Josh murmured.
    Gumu set the tiny gray kitten on the floor. It scampered between the bars and pounced on its white sibling next to Neema's leg. Grace could almost breathe again.
    Gumu cradled the calico against his pot belly. Its purr was audible. He placed his arm horizontally against his chest, then tapped himself again. Baby Gumu .
    "When did you teach him baby ?" Grace asked.
    "I didn't." Excitement raised Josh's voice half an octave. "Neema did."
    Neema had taught Gumu a word! What other sign language conversations were they having when she wasn't watching? Clearly, she needed to film the gorillas in the barn and play enclosure as well as during their lessons. That meant more cameras and hours of videotape to review. As soon as her grant check arrived, she'd see about buying more equipment and recruiting more help.
    Neema turned to Grace and Josh, signing Nest Gumu . She scooped up the white kitten and signed Snow baby Neema .
    Josh expelled a breath. "Think Gumu agrees his kitten should be named Nest?"
    Grace shrugged. "No way to tell unless he picks up the sign."
    "What was that snake business?"
    "Maybe she was telling him not to treat the kitten like a snake, but like a baby?" Grace guessed.
    "Or maybe she was telling Gumu not to be mean like a snake."
    Snake bad baby cry , Neema signed.
    "Well, there you have it," Josh chuckled. "Gumu learned a word from Neema, Neema's obsessed with snakes, and we have two new pets."
    Grace laughed. "I think the gorillas made it pretty clear that those kittens are their pets, not ours."
    Two cats play , Neema agreed. Then she cuddled her ivory bundle of fluff even closer to her chest, pressing it gently to her leathery black nipple as if she expected the kitten to nurse.
    "Good session. The Foundation should really appreciate that video." Grace stood up, stretching. "Time for lunch."
    Neema's gaze bounced to Grace. The gorilla balanced Snow on her hairy protruding belly as she used both hands to quickly sign her list of favorites: Jell-O lettuce yogurt banana .
    Gumu too looked up from the calico kitten. Give banana baby , he signed.
    "How altruistic of him," Josh said.
    "Right. Go ahead and feed them, but keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't actually try to make that kitten eat a banana. I'll take the others back." Grace pressed the three remaining kittens into the basket and tossed a towel over them.
    Josh grabbed the basket from her. "You feed, I'll take them. I'm going out, anyway."
    "Thanks," she said. "Tell the Canos that we're giving the kittens a good home. Do not mention gorillas."
    "Will do." He snapped off a salute. "Then I'm heading into town to grab a bite to eat with a friend, okay?"
    The friend, Grace knew, would be young and female and pretty. "Go for it," she said.
    "I'll be back in two to three hours. Can I bring you anything?"
    A winning lottery ticket? A handsome professor bearing a gourmet picnic basket and a bottle of good Chianti? You're the Ph.D. in charge of this project, Dr. McKenna, she told herself. Swallowing her self-pity, she answered, "No. We're good, aren't we, guys?"
    Jell-o , Neema signed. Yogurt jell-o.
    As the door closed behind Josh, Gumu grunted and signed Banana give.
    Grace sighed.

    Brittany's mother was dry-eyed, but a deep furrow was carved across her forehead, and her reactions seemed slow. Sleep-deprived. Finn could identify with that.
    "You stayed home from work," he observed.
    "I went in this morning while Noah stayed here. Now he's out at the plant. It's hard to focus on work, but it's sort of a relief to be able to actually do something useful."
    He nodded. That was why it was routine to post an officer with a victim's family in the first few hours—they started cleaning house, doing the laundry, cooking, and so forth, just to keep busy, sometimes mucking up a crime scene in the