Fatal Accusation

by Marie Force

  “You know, I’ve asked myself that, and while I can’t picture him arranging a hit on his mistress, two years ago I couldn’t imagine him having an affair in the first place. But I keep coming back to what would he have to gain? The news was already out about the affair and the baby. How would killing her fix anything? It’s only made everything worse. The media is crucifying him.”

  “Who would benefit from seeing him crucified?”

  “His political enemies, for one.”

  “Anyone in particular?”

  “It’s no secret that there’s no love lost between him and Senator Stenhouse.”

  “Ah, our old friend Senator Stenhouse. Remember him, Detective Cruz?”

  “All too well,” Freddie said.

  They had interviewed the senate minority leader during the O’Connor investigation. Suffice it to say the man had not appreciated their visit. He was a pompous ass, and she’d love nothing more than to have cause to question him in another Homicide investigation. “Anyone else?”

  “The list of people who hate Nelson is endless. You know how this town works. If you’re the one in power, people hate you. A lot of people are celebrating the fact that his dead mistress is causing trouble for him.”

  Add that to the long list of reasons Sam hoped that Nick never ascended to the top job. It was bad enough that people hated him simply because he was vice president. That hatred would grow exponentially if he became president. The thought of people hating him simply because of the office he held spiked her anxiety. She forced herself to push those worries to the back burner to focus on the job at hand with the secondary goal of keeping him right where he was—in the number two job. “If you can think of anyone specifically, we’d like to know.”

  “I’ll think about that.”

  “What’s the theory on where the story about the affair came from?”

  “We think it came from her.”

  “Seriously?”

  “That’s the theory. She was pissed that he’d cut things off with her, wasn’t returning her calls, etc. So she found a way to get his attention by leaking the story about the affair and the baby.”

  “Well, that’s a bombshell,” Sam said.

  “No kidding,” Freddie said.

  “So she blew the lid off her own affair with the president, as well as the child that possibly resulted from the affair, and was dead forty-eight hours after the story went live.” Sam tried to wrap her head around the victim’s motivation for outing her own scandal. “What did she have to gain?”

  “The attention of the man who fathered her child?” Freddie asked.

  “Maybe.”

  “Had she been trying to reach the president before her death?”

  “Relentlessly,” Derek said. “We received more than two hundred calls from her in the two weeks before her death, and who knows how many more to his personal phone.”

  “We can find that out with a warrant to her carrier,” Sam said. “What’s the president’s personal phone number?”

  Derek recited it from memory. “Can I tell you something off-the-record?”

  “Sure.”

  “The entire West Wing staff wants to quit over this. People are furious that he did this to Gloria while she was sick.”

  “Will they quit?”

  “Probably not. Like me, they have families to support and people counting on them. But they want to.”

  “This has been really helpful, Derek. If you think of anything else that might be useful in the investigation, please call me.”

  “I will. I hope you get whoever did this to her. I didn’t approve of her relationship with the president, but she certainly didn’t deserve to be murdered.”

  “No, she didn’t, and I’m sure this strikes too close to home for you.”

  “It really does.”

  “I wanted to tell you that I’m working on a group for victims of violent crime to come together in support of each other. I thought it might be of interest to you.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Having walked this journey, your experiences might be helpful to someone just beginning it.”

  “Keep me in the loop.”

  “I will.”

  “Did you know Pat Connolly?” Derek asked.

  “No, I didn’t, but I met his wife after he was killed. Such a tragedy.”

  “It really is. I played in a softball league with him years ago, before we were married. He was a good guy and, by all accounts, an IT genius.”

  “That’s what I’ve been told. His wife, Roni, is just the kind of victim I’m hoping to help with the new group.”

  “It’s a good idea. Those first few weeks and months after Vic was killed were just dreadful.” He stood, as if he needed to move to keep the painful memories at bay.

  Sam’s heart ached for him, his beautiful daughter and his late wife, who’d been a friend. “Thanks again for your help.”

  “Whatever I can do. Should I send Tom in?”

  “If you wouldn’t mind.”

  “Will do.”

  When they were alone, Sam turned to Freddie. “Thoughts?”

  “I can’t believe she would out her affair with the president.”

  “That shocked me too, although we don’t know anything for sure yet. As Derek said, that’s the theory.”

  “Still, who brings that kind of attention on themselves willingly?”

  “Someone who wants the attention of a man who’s stonewalling her?”

  “And the part about them getting busy in the Oval Office... Ew.”

  “I know! That makes for one hell of a midlife crisis.”

  “Except he’s a little past midlife. I remember the press saying Nick was twenty-five years younger than Nelson, so that’d put him at sixty-two or -three.”

  A knock sounded on the door.

  Sam got up to admit Tom Hanigan.

  The gray-haired man seemed rushed and stressed as usual. Sam didn’t know him well, but he always struck her as an intense sort of guy. He’d been Nelson’s closest aide throughout his career, coming with him to Washington from South Dakota.

  “Thanks for your time.”

  “No problem.” He took the seat recently vacated by Derek. “I assume this is about Tara.”

  “You assume correctly.”

  “This whole thing is just...” His angry expression indicated his feelings on the matter.

  “How well did you know her?”

  “I hired her. She came highly recommended and did a fantastic job with the polling and market research. She was instrumental in our strategy in several of the swing states.”

  “Your interactions with her were described by others as contentious. Is that fair?”

  “We often didn’t agree about the polling results. Any contention was strictly professional.”

  “When did you realize her relationship with the president had become personal?”

  “Almost as soon as it happened.”

  “Which was when?”

  “Right after the convention. He and I had words over it, more than once. He assured me there was nothing to worry about, that they were just friends and she was helping him with his messaging.”

  “Did you believe him?”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  “Had that happened before?”

  “Not once in all the years I’ve worked for him. It was like he’d taken leave of his senses at the worst possible time.” Hanigan seemed to catch himself, sitting up straighter. “This is just between us, right?”

  “For now. I can’t promise that whatever you tell us won’t be part of building a case against whomever killed Tara.”

  “I want the person who killed her to be found and brought to justice. She didn’t deserve to be murdered. But it doesn’t break my heart that she’
s out of his life. She’d become a serious liability with the nonstop phone calls and the histrionics.”

  “Mr. Kavanaugh told us that the president had been refusing her calls?”

  “Yes, he had.”

  “Had he no concern for the mother of his child?”

  “The child isn’t his, and he can prove that.”

  Sam glanced at Freddie, who seemed equally surprised. “How’s that?” She wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

  “He had a vasectomy after his youngest son was born, and is willing to provide proof of the procedure should that become necessary.”

  “Whoa.”

  Freddie said what Sam was thinking, even as relief coursed through her system. The baby wasn’t his. Okay, so the affair was bad, but the baby wasn’t his. Thank you, Jesus.

  “It might be a good idea for him to produce the proof.”

  “Tell me you aren’t seriously looking at him for this.”

  “We’re not seeing a motive for him to kill her, since the affair had already become public. What would be the reason to silence her after that?”

  “He didn’t silence her. He froze her out when she became too big of a liability, but he didn’t kill her.”

  “Since vasectomies can be reversed or even fail, we’re going to need to rule him out as the child’s father. I’d like to send someone over to take a DNA sample.”

  Hanigan made no effort to hide his shock and revulsion. “I just can’t believe we’re having this conversation.”

  “I understand, but you’ll see to it that he cooperates with the DNA test?”

  “Yes, of course. I can also provide proof that he had the vasectomy.”

  “That’d be good. Do you have any idea who might’ve wanted her dead?”

  “Everyone who loves Gloria, and those numbers are in the millions. Her approval rating is double his, and I’m sure it’ll go even higher in the wake of this crap.”

  “Did you know she was sick during the campaign?”

  “I was one of the few who knew, which was why I had so many arguments with him over what was happening with Tara. I told him if it got out, it would be devastating in more ways than one. I hate to say I told you so, but... Now it feels like we’re bailing the Titanic, and right after we cleaned up the last mess.”

  “Derek said the West Wing morale is low.”

  “As low as it’s ever been. People are infuriated. Gloria is very well liked around here, and that he would cheat on her at all is astonishing, but while she was sick? Revolting.”

  “It is rather hard to fathom. I assume Tara had a clearance and other background checks done before she joined the campaign.”

  “She was thoroughly vetted.”

  “Would it be possible to see the vetting documents?”

  “I could make that happen.”

  Sam handed him her card. “My email is on there.”

  “I’ll have someone send the reports today.”

  “If there’s anything else you can think of that might be relevant, I hope you’ll let me know.”

  “Have you spoken to her former business partner? We hired them both, but something happened right before they started. I never did hear what went down there.”

  “We haven’t spoken to her yet, but she’s on my list. Was there anyone else from the campaign that she was particularly close to?”

  “Not particularly. She tended to keep to herself when she wasn’t with the president.”

  “We appreciate the help.”

  “No problem. And I’ll see about getting that proof of the vasectomy...”

  “Thanks. We’ll let you know when someone from the ME’s office will be by for DNA.”

  He nodded, got up and left the room.

  “This gets nastier and nastier,” Freddie said.

  “No kidding. Never thought I’d need proof of a president’s vasectomy and DNA to get him off the hook in a murder case.”

  “We need to figure out who else she was seeing who might’ve fathered her baby.”

  “Yes, we do. Call the mom and find out which carrier she was with. Also ask the mom if she has any other info about men her daughter was seeing. If Nelson wasn’t the baby’s father, I want to know who was. But don’t tell the mother what we found out about Nelson. Not yet.” Sam didn’t want that info getting out until she had the proof in hand that there was no way Nelson could be the baby’s father.

  “Got it. I’m on it.”

  While he did that, Sam called Lindsey to ask her to take care of getting a sample of the president’s DNA.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  AFTER THE SURREAL conversation with Lindsey, Sam wandered into Lilia’s office.

  Her chief of staff smiled in welcome.

  “I thought about the NAPO speech, and I guess I’ll do it.”

  “They’ll be thrilled.”

  Sam rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

  Lilia laughed. “How’s it going with the investigation?”

  “It’s going. Hearing things about the commander in chief that make my skin crawl a little, but other than that...”

  “The whole thing is hard to fathom.”

  “Not to mention that it happened during his reelection campaign when he was once again casting himself as a family kind of guy.”

  “That too.”

  Lilia lost some of her usual sparkle as she discussed the president’s behavior. “I know that politics is so much smoke and mirrors, but I still like to think the best of people. It’s painful to be so disillusioned.” She looked up at Sam. “You have to promise me that you and your husband will never disappoint me this way. I don’t think I could handle it from you two.”

  The thought of Nick cheating on her was impossible to wrap her head around. “I can promise you we won’t let you down in this way.”

  “I’m honestly not worried about that. The two of you are what the rest of us aspire to be. When I first knew you, I wondered if your public persona was too good to be true. But after spending time with you and getting to know you both, I tell everyone who asks that you guys are every bit the real deal that you appear to be.”

  “That’s nice of you to say. He’s my real deal.”

  “And she’s mine,” her husband said as he slipped an arm around her from behind.

  Sam smiled as the scent of home filled her senses. “Aren’t you supposed to be tending to world domination or something equally important?”

  “It’s hard to focus on world domination when my best girl is in the building.”

  Lilia fanned her face. “See what I mean? Hashtag couple goals.”

  In a past life, before him, she would’ve been embarrassed to be part of a couple that inspired a hashtag. Now she didn’t care because being part of that couple meant she got to spend her life with him.

  “How’s it going?” he asked.

  “We’re done here. Getting ready to head back to HQ.”

  “Were Derek and Tom able to help?”

  “They were great and gave us a few threads to pull.”

  “I know how you love your threads.”

  From behind Nick, Freddie said, “Hate to interrupt the White House snuggle session, but I wanted to tell you that Malone is requesting the warrant from Tara’s cell carrier.”

  “Thank you. Wait for me in the car.”

  “Yes, Mom. Will do.”

  “Young Freddie is a brat,” Sam said. “We need to do something about that.”

  “We’ve got our hands full with our other three and a half kids.” They had taken to referring to the twins’ older brother Elijah as their half kid, as he was technically an adult but now very much a part of their family.

  “That we do. Let me go so I can get back to work and home to you and the crew that much sooner.”

  “If I must.” He
kissed her neck and let her go. “Tell me this... Are you any closer to making it so he won’t have to resign?”

  She turned to face him, noticing once again how tired and stressed he looked. “I hope so, and trust me, that’s my number two goal right after getting justice for Tara.”

  “Excellent.”

  “Try not to worry.”

  “What? Me, worry? I’ll walk you out.”

  “See you soon, Lilia,” Sam said, “and thanks again for such a great time the other night.”

  “It was my pleasure. We’ll do it again soon.”

  Nick put his arm around Sam and kept it there as they walked toward the exit with Brant keeping a respectful distance as he followed them. Though they passed several people who looked familiar on the way out, Nick kept his attention entirely on her.

  “What were you and Lilia talking about when I found you?”

  “She was saying that if we ever turned out to be like the Nelsons, she wouldn’t be able to handle the disillusion.”

  “There’s no need to worry about that with us.”

  “That’s what I told her.”

  He looked down at her. “You know that for one thousand percent certain, right?”

  “Of course I do.”

  “With all the things we both have to worry about, that should never be one of them.”

  “Agreed. You keep me so entertained, why would I need anyone else?”

  “My evil plan is working then.”

  “You’re all I need.”

  “Likewise.”

  “I feel so badly for Gloria in all of this. Have you heard anything about how she’s holding up?”

  “Not really, but he wants to see me this afternoon.”

  “Ugh.” Sam stopped and crooked her finger to bring him close enough to whisper. “Hanigan told me Nelson had a vasectomy. The baby isn’t his.”

  “Is that right?”

  She nodded. “I also heard that their theory is Tara leaked the story about the affair and baby.”