Fatal Invasion

by Marie Force

  “That’s nice of you,” Sam said, surprised by the change in tone. Perhaps the thought of criminal charges had softened her. “Thank you.”

  “We were sort of hoping Nelson would resign.”

  “We’re sort of glad it didn’t come to that,” Sam said, deadpan.

  Janice laughed. “I’m sure you are. I don’t get why anyone would want that job. It’s somewhat thankless.”

  “Yes, it is.”

  “You don’t have Secret Service protection?”

  Sam shook her head and rested a hand on her service weapon. “I can take care of myself.” At the front door, she turned back to face the other woman. “Thank you again for your help.”

  “They were a sweet family. I’m heartbroken that this has happened to them.”

  “Call me if you think of anything else.”

  “I will.”

  Outside, Sam turned to Freddie. “Impressions?”

  “We might be spinning our wheels talking to the friends if she kept her relationships at a surface level.”

  “Agreed. What I’d like to know is why she did that? In my experience, women overshare more than they undershare.”

  “Is undershare a word?” Freddie asked. “It rhymes with underwear.”

  “Stop,” she said, cracking up. “I’m actually being serious here. Women talk about everything. It’s weird that she didn’t.”

  “Just to play devil’s advocate... You aren’t like that.”

  “I’m talking about regular women, not badass cop women.”

  “I see, and I stand corrected. As always, I bow to your wisdom, Lieutenant.”

  “Quit your sucking up. Despite your limited experience with women, you know exactly what I’m talking about.”

  Freddie rolled his eyes, as she’d known he would. She loved to razz him about marrying the first woman he’d slept with. He said he preferred quality to quantity. Elin made him happy, which was good enough for Sam.

  “What’s next?” he asked as they got in her car.

  “A stop at the kids’ school on Connecticut Ave.”

  “While we’re in that area, can I pick up my tux?”

  “No personal errands on city time,” she said sternly, directing the car toward Connecticut Avenue.

  “It’s so close.” He rubbed his always-empty belly. “And it is almost lunchtime.”

  “Fine. If you must.”

  “It’s the only thing Elin told me to do this week.”

  “You guys get off so easily when it comes to weddings. You show up in a monkey suit at the appointed time and get married.”

  “You’re tossing around a lot of stereotypes today, Lieutenant. I’ll have you know I was heavily involved in the planning of my wedding.”

  “You were not.”

  “Yes, I was! I helped decide on everything.”

  “From choices she had pared down from thousands of options.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  Sam gave him a withering look. “About to get married and still so much to learn about women, my young grasshopper. She has been planning this day in her mind since she was old enough to know what a wedding was. You did not help to plan the wedding. You validated choices she’d already made.”

  Scowling, he said, “I’m getting married this week. You could take the week off from being mean to me, especially since you’re my best man-woman.”

  “How am I being mean?”

  “You just are. I helped whenever she asked me to.”

  “I’m teasing you. Don’t be oversensitive. It takes the fun out of it.”

  “For who?”

  “Me, of course.”

  “And it’s all about you, even the week of my wedding.”

  “Duh.”

  He huffed out a laugh. “At least you’re consistent.”

  “I pride myself on my consistency and my predictability—most of the time.”

  “I still can’t believe Nick made such an insanely cool place available to us to use for our wedding. Elin and I want to pinch ourselves that we get to be married at the Naval Observatory,” he said of the traditional home of the vice president.

  “He is rather awesome, and he’s not using it, so it’s all yours.” When he became vice president, they had stayed in their own home, primarily to remain in close proximity to Sam’s paralyzed father, who lived three doors down the street from them.

  “It was so nice of him to offer it,” Freddie said.

  “He was thrilled to do it. It’s a beautiful spot for a wedding.”

  “It certainly is. We couldn’t be happier about it. I feel like Saturday is never going to get here.”

  “It’ll be here before you know it.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  SAM TOOK A left into the driveway of the school, where they were forced to stop at a monitored gatehouse. “Whoa. Check this out. What’s up with the gate guard?”

  “The president’s grandchildren and other VIP kids go here.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I read the paper. Do you?”

  “Not as much as I did before my husband was the daily headline.” At the gatehouse, Sam showed her badge. “Lieutenant Holland, Detective Cruz, MPD.”

  “What can we do for you, ma’am?” the guard asked, his eyes bugging at the sight of her.

  “We’d like to speak to the administrator, please.”

  “May I ask what this is in reference to?”

  “You can certainly ask, but I won’t tell you. Please let us in.”

  “One moment, please.” He went back into his hut and picked up the phone.

  “Add security guards to the list of people who annoy me.”

  “Above or below receptionists?”

  “Below. Way below. Receptionists are in a category all their own.”

  Freddie pretended to make a note. “Got it.”

  Sam adored him and the way he rolled with her. He certainly made work a lot more entertaining than it had been before he’d been her partner. “Let me ask you something.”

  “What?” He’d learned to be wary where she was concerned, and she liked him that way.

  “Gonzo.”

  “What about him?”

  “Is he up for keeping things together if I take a few weeks off?”

  “Why wouldn’t he be?”

  Sam chose her words carefully. Since she wasn’t sure she had anything to be worried about, she didn’t want to alarm him needlessly, especially this week. “No reason. Just wondering.”

  “He seems okay to me. He’s different than he was before, but that’s to be expected, I suppose.”

  “Yeah.” Sam looked over to find the guard still on the phone. She leaned on the horn.

  He scowled at her.

  She hit the horn again. Out the window, she said, “You’re wasting my time, and people who waste my time irritate me.”

  “You don’t want to irritate her,” Freddie said.

  “I’m about to drive through this gate.”

  “Ohh, do it,” Freddie said gleefully. “I dare you!”

  Sam eyed the gate, trying to decide if it was worth potentially damaging the BMW Nick had tricked out for her. Just as she was about to hit the gas, the gate went up. “Bummer.”

  Freddie busted up laughing.

  Sam navigated the driveway that led to a large stone structure with ivy on the walls. “This is a preschool?”

  “It’s a rich people preschool.”

  “Ahh, that explains it.” She parked in the fire lane outside the main entrance and got out.

  “Ma’am, you can’t park there,” the same security guard from the hut said, huffing from the effort it took to chase after her.

  “Already did.” Sam took the stairs two at a time and encount
ered another roadblock—a locked door and an intercom. Flashing her badge at the security camera above the door, she pushed the button three times. “Lieutenant Holland, MPD. Let me in right now, or I’ll arrest everyone in the building.”

  “I’m not doing that paperwork,” Freddie said.

  She buzzed three more times, and the door clicked open. “For fuck’s sake,” she said as they went inside, where they landed in the main office, staffed by women who stared at them as if they were aliens.

  “Who’s in charge here?” Sam asked.

  All eyes turned to an older, stern-looking woman, who looked like she’d been sucking on a particularly sour kosher dill for the last five years. “What do you want?” she asked in a tone dripping with disdain.

  Sam went to her. “I need to discuss a fatal fire at the home of the Beauclair family. I understand their children are students here.”

  At that, her pickle puss eased ever so slightly. “The children...”

  Sam lowered her voice so the others wouldn’t overhear. “Have not yet been located. We believe the parents are deceased. May we speak in private?”

  “Yes, of course. Right this way.”

  Dead people had a way of opening doors. Sam and Freddie followed her down a hallway into an elegant room that looked more like a Victorian parlor than an office. “May I offer you some coffee or tea?”

  “No, thank you,” Sam said before Freddie could accept. This wasn’t a fucking social call. “What’s your name?”

  “Beatrice Reeve.”

  “And you are?”

  “The school director.”

  “And you’re acquainted with the Beauclair family?”

  “Oh yes. Cleo and the children have become a big part of our community. This is their first year here, and we’ve so enjoyed having them. They’re very well behaved and just a joy to be around. They aren’t... The children...”

  “We don’t know yet. What can you tell us about Cleo Beauclair?”

  “She’s a lovely person, a dedicated mother. She’s given so much of her time to the school this year. Most of the mothers drop their children and leave, but she spends the day here helping out until it’s time for the kids to go home.”

  “And that’s unusual?”

  “Oh yes. Highly unusual. Don’t get me wrong—many of our parents are exceptional volunteers but few give as much time as Cleo does. Or did. Is she really gone?”

  “We don’t know that for sure yet. Did you know Mr. Beauclair?”

  “I met him once when they came to tour the school before enrolling the children.”

  “Going back to what you said about Mrs. Beauclair volunteering,” Freddie said. “Did she stay every day that the kids were here or just some of the days?”

  “Every day. We were so thankful for her help. There’s always something that needs to be done.”

  “And how many days a week did the children attend school?” Freddie asked.

  “Five days. They were in our kindergarten program, which runs from eight until one every day.”

  Freddie wrote the info in his notebook.

  “If there’s anything at all we can do to assist you, I hope you’ll let me know.” She gave each of them her business card.

  “Thank you,” Sam said, handing over hers. “I appreciate that. I’d also appreciate being waved right through if I have to come back for any reason.”

  “Why would you need to come back?”

  “Hard telling. But you should instruct your tin soldier at the gate to let me or any member of my team through without a hassle. We’re just doing our jobs. We appreciate people who make our jobs easier.”

  “I understand.”

  “I hope so.” To Freddie, she said, “Let’s go.”

  When they were in the car and on the way back to HQ, she said, “What do you think?”

  “I don’t have kids, but do you find it odd that Cleo stayed at the school every day that her kids were there?”

  “Very odd. It tells me she was afraid of something happening to them when she couldn’t be there to keep them safe. What was she afraid of? That’s what I want to know.”

  “I’d like to know that too. Don’t forget we need to stop at the tux place.”

  “Yeah, yeah.”

  Freddie’s phone rang, and he glanced at the caller ID. “Speaking of the future Mrs. Cruz,” he said, grinning like a loon. “Gotta take this. Hey, babe.” He paused. “Elin? Elin! What the hell?”

  “What’s wrong?” Sam asked.

  “She said my name, and then the phone went dead.”

  “Call her back.”

  He put through the call.

  Sam kept one eye on the road and one on him.

  “It went right to voice mail.”

  “Where is she today?”

  “Home. She took the week off.”

  Sam checked her side-view mirror and then made a U-turn toward the Woodley Park neighborhood where Freddie and Elin lived. She flipped on emergency lights and pressed the gas pedal to the floor.

  “You don’t think...”

  “Overabundance of caution.”

  “Yes, that’s good,” he said, clearly trying to stay calm. “She’s fine. Of course, she is.”

  “Track her phone.”

  His fingers moved over the screen of his phone while Sam steered the car through an intersection, bracing for an impact that didn’t happen. After being hit broadside a few weeks ago, now she expected it every time she ran a red light in the line of duty.

  “It’s off.” The two words conveyed a world of panic. “Sam.”

  “Breathe. Just breathe. We’ll be there in two minutes.”

  They both knew a lot could happen in two minutes. “Call it in.”

  “What am I calling in?”

  “Get us some backup at your place. Just in case we need it.”

  He seemed frozen as he pondered the implications of needing backup.

  “Freddie! Call it in!”

  He made the call, and she heard fear in every word as he asked for backup at the home he shared with Elin.

  They darted around traffic, ran red lights and made fast time getting to Woodley Park.

  “Go left here,” Freddie said. “It’s shorter.”

  Sam followed his directions, tires squealing as she took the turn, tightening her hold on the wheel so she wouldn’t lose control of the car. The ten minutes it took to get there felt like an eternity to her. She couldn’t begin to imagine how Freddie must feel. She slammed on the brakes outside his building and was out of the car before it even stopped moving.

  Freddie was ahead of her, his hands shaking as he used his key to gain access to the vestibule. It took two tries, and Sam was about to take the keys from him when the door swung open. The first thing she saw was blood on the floor and stairs, as well as a cell phone lying on the bottom step. She propped the door open so other officers could get in.

  “That’s her phone!”

  “Don’t touch it!” She gave him a push up the stairs, which he took three at a time.

  Noting the trail of blood on the stairs, Sam scrambled to keep up with him as they made their way to the third floor, where they found his apartment door wide-open. She grabbed his arm to stop him from going in and reached for her weapon.

  “Freddie,” Sam whispered, pointing to the other side of the doorway. She watched him marshal the fortitude to follow procedure, to not barge into a possible crime in progress without proper preparation. She could see it took everything he had to stop himself, to think like a cop and not like the man in love with the woman who lived there with him.

  “Go,” she said softly, letting him take the lead while she covered him. She hoped their backup would be right behind them.

  They walked into a bloody nightmare, blood on the floor, the sofa
, the kitchen counter and a knife on the floor also covered in blood.

  Freddie’s knees buckled.

  Sam grabbed him, which was the only thing that kept him standing.

  “Elin,” he said on a whimper.

  “Sit.” She pushed him into a chair while she went to check the bedroom, which was clear. Sam returned to the living room and holstered her weapon.

  “What the hell?” The sheer terror in his expression fueled Sam’s panic. Where the fuck was she?

  “Remember not to touch anything.” Sam made a second, more urgent request for backup and then called Malone to fill him in.

  “There’s blood everywhere and no sign of her?” Malone asked.

  “Right, and a bloody knife on the kitchen floor. She called Freddie and said his name before the phone went dead. We found the phone in the vestibule but didn’t touch it.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  Sam closed her phone and tried to remain calm for Freddie.

  “What do I do?” he asked, standing. “I have to do something.”

  “We’ll find her. Just keep breathing. There might be a perfectly reasonable explanation.”

  “You don’t believe that any more than I do, so don’t blow smoke up my ass.” He bent at the waist, hands on knees. Then he straightened. “I’m going down to see where the blood leads.”

  While he did that, Sam knocked on the neighbors’ doors. No one was home in the first three she tried. The fourth was answered by an older woman who let out a scream of surprise at seeing Sam on her doorstep. In the background, the TV was set to blare.

  “You’re the second lady! Oh my God! I am such a huge fan of your husband’s!” In a low, sultry tone, she added, “He’s so handsome and sexy.”

  Sam showed her badge, which shut the woman up as she’d hoped it would. “Did you hear anything in the hallway in the last hour or so? My partner lives three doors down and came home to blood all over the place.”

  “Oh no! I didn’t hear a thing, but my TV is loud, so I can hear it. He’s such a sweet young guy, and the two of them are so in love. They’re adorable. Is she...”

  “We don’t know anything yet. If you’re sure you didn’t hear anything, I’ll let you get back to your day.”

  Before the woman could continue talking, Sam walked away, placing a call to Gonzo as she went. He answered on the second ring.