Fatal Accusation

by Marie Force

  “Wow.”

  “I don’t want to say too much more here. I’ll fill you in at home.”

  “I’ll look forward to being debriefed by you.”

  “Why do I suspect we’re talking about a different kind of briefs?”

  He laughed—hard, which pleased her greatly. She loved to make him laugh and when his gorgeous hazel eyes sparkled the way they were now.

  “Love you best of all,” he whispered as he kissed her.

  “Love you best of all.”

  “Take care of my wife out there.”

  “Always do. See you soon.”

  “Can’t wait.”

  As she left him at the doorway, she felt his gaze on her as she walked to the car where Freddie waited for her. “Let’s get at this,” she said to her partner. “Nick is about to buckle from the stress.” She recalled her plan to check in with Harry and tossed the keys to Freddie. “You drive. I have a call to make.”

  Harry answered on the second ring. “To what do I owe the honor of a phone call from the second lady?”

  “I’m worried about the VP.”

  “Ah, yes, nothing like another presidential scandal to have the vice president sweating out his future.”

  “Exactly. Did you really check his blood pressure today?”

  Harry laughed. “I did, and everything is normal.”

  “Thank you for keeping an eye on him. The insomnia is bad. There’s got to be something you can do about that.”

  “I would, but the meds leave him groggy the next day, so he won’t take them.”

  “Ugh. I’ll talk to him again. Groggy is better than being a zombie.”

  “You’re preaching to the choir, my friend.”

  “Text me if you see anything to worry about?”

  “I will, but try not to worry. He’s rock solid. You know that.”

  “Not this time. He’s putting on a good front, but he’s freaking out on the inside.”

  “I’ll talk to him again.”

  “Thanks, Harry. Appreciate it.”

  “Anything for you guys. Hang in there and find the person who killed Tara Weber. That’ll help.”

  “We’re on it. Talk to you later.” Sam ended the call and took a deep breath, needing to clear her mind of worries about her husband so she could refocus on the case. “What did Tara’s mom say about other guys?”

  “She said her daughter was circumspect about her personal life, and that Bryce is the only guy she dated for any amount of time. He’s the only one they met.”

  “So that’s a dead end. Let’s go back to HQ and see if the warrant came through for the phone data and the dating app. I also want to check in with Archie.”

  The street leading to HQ was now completely lined with satellite trucks.

  “What do they think they’re going to get here?”

  “An exclusive from you? Because that’s how you roll.”

  “Right? Are they expecting me to suddenly get the urge to share my innermost thoughts with them?”

  “Hope springs eternal.”

  “That’s very poetic, young Freddie.”

  “Wait till they hear the baby isn’t Nelson’s. That’s gonna be huge.”

  “Yep, but I want proof before we go public with that detail. I can’t believe I’m actually awaiting a report about the president’s sperm count and DNA. How is this my life?”

  Freddie snorted with laughter. “Right?” He drove around to the morgue entrance.

  “I can’t wait to be able to say the baby isn’t Nelson’s. Maybe that will make some of this insanity go away.”

  “The baby might not be his, but he still had the affair. I don’t think that part of the story is going away.”

  “Let me have my illusions, will you, please?”

  “My apologies. Of course the whole thing will go away as soon as it’s revealed that the baby isn’t his.”

  “Better. Thank you.”

  “I live to serve you, Lieutenant.”

  “You’re an expert suck-up, I’ll give you that.”

  “That might just be one of the best compliments I’ve ever received.”

  Inside, they found the rest of the squad working the computers and phones.

  “Conference room in ten.” Sam ducked into her office to check her email. The autopsy report from Lindsey had arrived, confirming what they already knew—that Tara had died by manual strangulation with no sign of sexual assault. Sam wanted to know how Tara had ended up naked in her bed if she’d gone to her condo to retrieve clothing and other necessities. At what point in a quick errand did she suddenly decide to remove her clothes and get into bed? She didn’t decide that. Someone else had made her do that, and when they figured out who, they’d know who killed her.

  Captain Malone appeared at the door. “Two things. Conklin says he has info that we’re going to want—and he’s hoping we’ll make a case for leniency in exchange.”

  “Like that’s going to happen. What’s the other thing?”

  “Final arguments are being delivered in Stahl’s trial. It’s expected to go to the jury by the end of the day.”

  Sam’s stomach dropped. Soon enough that nightmare would be over, but would she get the verdict she deserved?

  “When he’s convicted, they’re going to want you to do a victim impact statement.”

  “I already did that when I testified, and besides, I’m not giving him the satisfaction of hearing what impact he had on me. No way.”

  “I understand, but you know how this works. The judge wants to hear from the people most impacted by the crime. In this case, that’s you.”

  “They’ve already heard from me.” There was no way in hell she was going back to that courtroom. “Let’s see Conklin after I meet with my squad. Thirty minutes?”

  “Yeah, okay. Sam, I know you have a lot on your plate, and your heart is broken over the loss of your dad, but you have to do whatever it takes to make sure that son of a bitch never again sees the light of day. After that, you can forget he exists.”

  Sam nodded to acknowledge she’d heard him as she left the office. “Let’s go, people.” She led the way to the conference room and waited until everyone was settled.

  The captain came in and took the last seat at the table.

  “Cruz, go ahead and brief on what we learned at the White House this morning.”

  As he went through the details of their conversations with the Secret Service agents, Derek and Tom, Sam tried not to think about Stahl or the trial or having to make a statement at his sentencing. Under no circumstances could she picture herself doing that. If she had her druthers, she’d never see that rat bastard again.

  “Holy crap,” Jeannie McBride said. “The baby’s not his?”

  “That’s what his aides are saying. He allegedly had a vasectomy after his last son was born, so there’s no way he could’ve fathered Tara’s child.”

  “Is it okay to say that I can’t believe we’re sitting here talking about the president’s vasectomy?” Matt O’Brien asked.

  “Detective Cruz and I said the same thing earlier. The challenge now is to figure out who did father the child and whether he might’ve been annoyed enough by the news of Tara’s affair with the president to kill her. We’ve gotten DNA from the baby and we’re getting Nelson’s. We’ll put a rush on the results, but it’s going to take a few days.” To Malone, she said, “When will we have the warrant for the cell phone carrier?”

  “I’m hoping we’ll hear in the next hour or two.”

  “That’s going to be key.”

  “I’ll stay on it.”

  “What else do we have?” Sam asked.

  “I did some more digging into Tara’s financials and her background,” Jeannie said. “Her best year in business was when she worked for the Nelson campai
gn. In total, she earned more than seven hundred thousand dollars that year.”

  “Whoa,” Sam said. “That’s five hundred thousand more than the figure we were previously given. If the media got ahold of the fact she made seven hundred grand while she was sleeping with the president, that’d make the story even more insane than it already is.”

  “That info is publicly available,” Jeannie said. “It’s only a matter of time before they have it.”

  “Great.” Sam released her hair from the clip and ran her fingers through it. “I feel like we’re getting nowhere fast here. What’re we hearing from Archie?”

  “They’re going through security tape from other locations in Tara’s neighborhood, but they don’t have anything yet,” Cameron said.

  “And no sign of her cell phone?”

  Cameron shook his head. “We’ve got Patrol checking the trash in an eight-block radius around her building, but nothing so far.”

  Sam glanced at the murder board that Jeannie, Cameron and Matt had started on one of the large dry-erase boards. She studied the photo of Tara in life and the one from the crime scene in which the dark bruises on her neck were the primary difference. “What do we think of the theory that she leaked the story of her affair with Nelson?”

  “What would she have to gain?” Cameron asked.

  “Getting the attention of the man who’d stopped returning her calls?” Freddie said.

  “She was trying to stick him with the baby,” Sam said. “What was her motivation in doing that when she had to know there were at least two men who could’ve been the father? And did Nelson tell her that he’d had a vasectomy? Did she know that?” Sam dropped her head into her hands. “God, am I going to have to ask him these questions?”

  “I think you might,” Malone said. “I want to know if she knew he’d had the vasectomy.”

  “I can’t even...”

  Malone laughed. “You can do it, Lieutenant.”

  “Not until I get the report Hanigan promised me that will prove he had the vasectomy in the first place. In the meantime, I want to know who else she was talking to. We need those phone records.”

  Malone got up. “I’ll go see what I can do to move that along.” Speaking directly to Sam, he added, “Come find me when you’re ready to do the other thing.”

  “Okay.”

  After he left the room, Freddie glanced at her. “What other thing?”

  “Conklin wants to talk to us again.”

  “I thought you already talked to him and he stonewalled you?”

  “We did and he did, but apparently he’s had a come-to-Jesus in the meantime and wants to talk.”

  “Are you sure it wouldn’t be better to let one of us do that?” His concern for her was etched into the furrow of his brows.

  “I’m fine. After I see Conklin, I want to double back with Delany, the assistant who found her. If anyone knew who her boss was dating, it would be her.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  “Keep me posted on any developments.” Sam got up to leave the conference room, putting her hair back up as she walked toward the lobby to find Malone. She wanted to get this chat with Conklin over with so she could get back to the case. Who should be coming the other way but her nemesis, Sergeant Ramsey, the last freaking person in the universe she wanted to see.

  She kept her head down so there’d be no chance of making eye contact with the son of a bitch.

  “Heard some interesting rumors about your good friend Gonzales floating around. Apparently, he was a bad, bad boy, scoring shit on the street.” He made a weird sound as he brushed by her. “Heard he’s in rehab and not out sick like everyone was told. Lies, lies and more lies.”

  Sam kept walking, but her heart skipped a beat at what she’d heard. She already knew what Gonzo had done in the throes of his addiction, but how in the fuck did Ramsey know about it, and what did he plan to do with the information?

  This was not good. If Ramsey had dirt on Gonzo, he’d do whatever he could to discredit him and her. Damn it. This was the last fucking thing she needed right now.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  “WHAT’S WRONG?” Malone asked when she reached his office.

  “Nothing.” She wasn’t telling him or anyone what Ramsey had said until she had a chance to talk to Gonzo about it. “Let’s get this done with Conklin. I’ve got far more important things that need my attention.” Only because she wanted to know who else had known the details of her father’s shooting would she give Conklin even five more minutes of her precious time.

  “I had him brought up to interview two.”

  “Let’s go.”

  Sam wondered how many times she would have to see her former deputy chief in an orange jumpsuit before it would sink in that he’d actually known who’d shot her father—and why—the whole time Sam had been on a desperate search for answers. How did he live with himself and the guilt of pretending to be Skip’s friend while hiding the truth?

  She decided to ask him that before giving him the chance to speak when she and Malone entered the room where Conklin and his attorney waited for them.

  Conklin sat up a little straighter when they came in, but otherwise didn’t react.

  Sam stared him down. “I want to know how you can live with yourself. How did you sleep at night for four years sitting on information that would’ve led to justice for a man who’d been your friend for thirty years? How do you live with the guilt of knowing he died without ever getting that closure?”

  His eyes narrowed and his jaw tightened with displeasure while his eyes filled with tears.

  Too fucking bad if he was uncomfortable. She wanted to know. “Well?”

  “It made me sick, all the time, for four years.”

  “Well, that’s good, because it makes me sick to know that you pretended to be his friend while withholding information that would’ve brought his shooters to justice.”

  “I didn’t have any choice!”

  Sam laughed. “Sure, you did. You chose to protect your own ass rather than do the right thing, and now the whole world knows what a fucking coward you are.”

  The lawyer cleared his throat. “While I understand the lieutenant’s frustrations—”

  “Shut the fuck up. You don’t have the first clue about my frustrations.”

  “I’m sorry, Sam,” Conklin said, slumping with defeat. “I don’t know what else to say besides that.”

  Sam remained standing, arms crossed, her expression hard. She would never forgive him for what he’d done. “You called this meeting. What do you want?”

  He sat up a little and leaned forward on the table. “You wanted to know about that note you received.”

  She remained silent.

  “This is a big department, a lot of people... Not everyone was a fan of your father’s, as much as that might hurt you to hear. Officers start out together, they come up together and some just do better than others. That’s the way it goes. But not everyone understands that, and people’s feelings get hurt when someone gets pushed ahead of them in the ranks.”

  As she listened to him, her mind raced with possibilities. Had they considered everyone who came up in the ranks with her dad? Not just in his academy class, but the ones immediately before and after his.

  “Do you have specific information on who else knew or are you speculating?”

  “I’m speculating. If someone else in the department knew, that’d be news to me.”

  “Anything else?”

  “I want to try to make this right.”

  “You can’t.”

  “Sam, please. Try to understand. They would’ve killed me and my wife. I was backed into a corner.”

  “Do you honestly expect me to feel sorry for you? We could’ve protected you both, as you well know.”

  “I couldn’t ask her t
o live like that.”

  “So you subjected my dad to four years in hell instead?”

  Dunning cleared his throat again. “Deputy Chief Conklin has cooperated with the investigation. His cooperation should be noted to the prosecutors.”

  “Is that what you think is going to happen here?” Sam asked, incredulous. “You basically signed my dad’s death certificate by telling Gallagher that he was taking another look at Coyne’s murder. You knew they’d go after him, and you told them anyway.”

  “Because if I didn’t and they found out I knew, they’d come for me! What was I supposed to do?”

  “Tell someone. Come clean about what you knew before another good cop could be murdered at their hands.”

  “I couldn’t.” Conklin dropped his head into his hands, his body shaking with sobs. “I was too afraid of them. I tried to support Skip every way I could after...”

  “I suppose you want some sort of reward for being a good friend to him after he was nearly murdered, but sorry to say that being responsible for putting him in that chair to start with makes you the worst ‘friend’ he ever had.” She glanced at Malone. “I think I’ve heard enough.”

  Malone glared at Conklin. “Me too.”

  “Will you tell the prosecutors that I cooperated?”

  “Fuck you.” Sam turned and walked out of the room, sucking in greedy deep breaths of the fresh air outside the small room. Aware of Malone following her, she didn’t slow down until she reached her office and ducked inside, needing a minute to get it together before she faced her squad. They probably thought she was a lunatic, but it wouldn’t be the first time she’d given them reason to think that.

  Malone came in after her and shut the door. To his credit he said nothing for several minutes, giving her the time she needed to collect herself.

  When she felt ready, she looked at the captain. “Imagine that he wants to be rewarded for doing the right thing now.”

  “His audacity knows no limits.”

  “He did give us a thread though. The others that came up with Dad, not just in your class but above and below.”

  “I have a few thoughts on that, but I’d like to discuss it with the chief first.”