Fatal Jeopardy

by Marie Force

  “Sam.” The single word from Avery brought her out of the exhaustion-fueled rage and back to the reality that she was getting nowhere fast with Mrs. Danziger, who was now crying softly.

  “I’m so sorry about your niece. I don’t know what Hoda was thinking going to Virginia. She knows she’s not allowed to leave the city without telling me.”

  “How did she get to Virginia, Mrs. Danziger?” Avery asked.

  Sam was thankful to him for taking over the interview because she was on the verge of ripping the stupid woman’s stomach out her mouth and bitch-slapping her with it.

  “She...she has a car. It’s an old Toyota Camry.”

  “We need the license plate number and registration information. Can you get that for us?”

  “I’ll see if I can find it.” Probably grateful for anything that took her away from Sam’s hateful glare, she got up and bolted from the room.

  “Are you okay?” Avery asked in that goddamned accent that made her want to punch him.

  She had to remind herself that he was helping her and wasn’t part of the problem. “I’m fine.”

  “You don’t seem fine.”

  “I’m tired, and I’m furious, but I’m fine.”

  Mrs. Danziger returned with some paperwork and made a wide circle around Sam to hand it to Avery.

  He flipped through it quickly, made a couple of notes and handed it back to her with his business card. “When you hear from your daughter, I want you to call me.”

  “I will.”

  “I also need a recent photo of her.”

  “I have some on my phone.”

  “Can you email one to me that shows her face?”

  He dictated his email address to her, and she sent the picture.

  “I want to make it clear to you,” Sam said as she got up to leave, “that protecting her is not in her best interest—or yours. If you find out where she is—and I urge you to get busy doing that—and you don’t tell us you’ve located her, we will charge you for impeding our investigation. Do you understand?”

  “Yes,” she said meekly.

  Sam headed for the door, hoping Hill was right behind her. “Who are these fucking people who let their kids run wild and then act all surprised when their little darlings end up in trouble?”

  “Is that a rhetorical question, or am I expected to answer?”

  Not appreciating his attempt at humor, she got in the car and slammed the door.

  “Where to?” he asked when he got in.

  “Can you drop me at GW and then get the computer and iPad to the lab?” Since the MPD relied upon the FBI crime lab, things would happen faster if he made the request.

  “Can do.”

  On the way to the hospital, Sam called HQ and requested an all-points bulletin on Hoda and her car. When they arrived, she turned to Avery. “I really appreciate your help with this, and I’m sorry if it messed up your holiday plans.”

  “It’s no problem. I can go home later in the week.” He pulled up to the hospital’s main entrance. “Am I invited to the powwow with your squad later?”

  “How do you know about that?”

  “I can read.”

  “You can read a text I’m writing while you’re driving?”

  “One of my many skills.”

  Sam tried not to think about what Nick would have to say about Agent Hill coming to their house. The last time he’d been there, she’d had to warn Nick to curb the impulse to pee on her to mark his territory. Her husband could barely stand the sight of the guy, let alone tolerate him as guest in their home. And since she and Nick were getting along so swimmingly at the moment, Hill’s attendance ought to go over really well. “Um, sure, you can come if you want to.”

  “Wow, another really long pause. I’m underwhelmed by your hospitality.”

  “I don’t have to tell you that your presence won’t please my husband.”

  “Forget it. I don’t have to go.”

  “No, it’s fine. You’ve been a huge help today, and we’ll take all the help we can get on this one.”

  “I thought you’d been removed from the case.”

  “I was.”

  “Soooo...”

  “I’m still their commander, and I want to know what’s going on.”

  “It’s none of my business, Sam, and you certainly know what you’re doing, but I’d hate to see you get screwed over this. You’ve worked really hard to get where you are, and there’re people who’d love to see you taken down a peg.”

  “Believe me, I know, and I appreciate your concern. But I can’t be disengaged. It’s just not who I am.” She grasped the door handle. “I’ll see you at ten?”

  “I’ll be there.”

  “Thanks for today, Avery. I mean it. I owe you one.”

  “No, you don’t,” he said in a tone filled with resignation.

  “Just the same... Thanks.” With Norman the bear tucked under her arm, Sam got out of the car and walked through the automatic doors, anxious to see how Brooke was doing. She took the elevator to the ICU and was surprised to see Nick sitting in the waiting room.

  “What’re you doing here?”

  “Same as you, I suppose. Checking on Brooke as well as her parents.”

  “How is she?”

  “The same. They’re going to wean her off the sedation tomorrow, and that’s when the fun really begins.”

  Sam winced when she considered what Brooke would have to be told about what’d happened to her. But she was extremely anxious to hear what her niece recalled about the night in question. It only took one little tidbit to blow an investigation wide open.

  “Where’s Scotty?”

  “Home with Skip and Celia. I stayed with all the kids so they could come over earlier, and then we traded places. I’ve been keeping Mike company. He just went to get coffee.”

  Before she could tell him it was good of him to be here, and before she could ask him how he was feeling, her cell phone rang. Sam took the call but only because she saw it was the chief calling.

  “Holland.”

  “Lieutenant, we have a situation.”

  “As I see it, we have a number of situations at the moment.”

  “Then let’s call this a new one. Bill Springer is making a big stink out of the fact that you’re not running the investigation.”

  For the first time in hours, Sam had reason to smile. “Is he now?”

  “I can hear your ‘I told you so’ coming, so stifle it.”

  Sam laughed at the irritation she heard in his voice. “I wasn’t the one who thought it was a good idea to take me off the investigation.”

  “You know it was the right thing to do.”

  “I can prove Brooke didn’t kill anyone.”

  “And how can you do that?”

  Sam explained about the video that showed Brooke out of it while being sexually assaulted by three of the murder victims. “Her tox screen and BAC prove she was stoned and drunk.”

  Farnsworth was quiet as he processed that information. “So the video puts her at the scene, but shows her as a victim rather than a perp.”

  “Yes.” Sam swallowed a knot of fear as she pressed on. “I’ve also just been to her school to retrieve her laptop, iPad and a few other belongings. I was also able to view the video of the pickup and identified the girl who went in there pretending to be Brooke’s older sister.”

  “And you just breezed in there and they gave you all that access?”

  “Um, not exactly.”

  “Speak, Lieutenant. Immediately.”

  “I, um, had some help from Agent Hill. He got a warrant so we wouldn’t have to deal with the jurisdictional BS.”

  The chief’s deep sigh had Sam holding the phone
away from her ear. The grimace she directed at Nick normally would’ve amused him. Not today. “If and when my head actually explodes, you’ll be one hundred fifty percent responsible for it. You know that, right?”

  “Yes...sir. Sorry, sir.”

  “No, you’re not, so don’t compound it by lying to me.” He cleared his throat in a deep rumble that came through the phone line like a roar. “Here’s how we’re going to play this. You’re going to make a statement to the press in the morning that indicates your niece was at the party but we have eliminated her as a suspect in the homicides. You’re going to indicate your niece was the victim of a crime that is being handled by another division.”

  “But—”

  “Sam! Shut up and listen to me!”

  She literally bit her lip to keep from talking back to him.

  “You’re going to say the crime involving your niece is under investigation by a separate division of the MPD, and you’re to stay far, far away from that investigation. Do I make myself clear?”

  “I want to be there when she is interviewed.”

  “No.”

  “Yes.”

  “No!”

  Startled by his actual roar, she forced herself to remain quiet—for now.

  “You’re walking the finest line in the history of fine lines, Holland, and if you think I won’t hesitate to suspend you and take your badge to keep you from crossing that line, you don’t know me at all.”

  “I want Erica Lucas on Brooke’s case,” Sam said when she had the opportunity. “I don’t want Ramsey anywhere near it.” She’d had the chance to work with Lucas during a recent investigation that had unearthed a child prostitution ring in the city, and she’d appreciated Lucas’s no-nonsense approach as much as her sensitivity. “Ramsey hates my guts.”

  “What’d you do to him?”

  “Hell if I know.”

  “Fine. I’ll request Lucas, but you’re to stay out of her way. You got me?”

  “Yeah, I got you. I don’t think she’ll have much of a case. I think all the boys who raped Brooke are dead.”

  “Let her come to that conclusion without your assistance.”

  “So I’m back on the Springer case?”

  “You’re back on it.”

  “Excellent. We have a meeting at ten tonight, and I’ll bring everyone up to date.” As soon as she finished the sentence, she realized she’d said too much.

  “Why would you have a meeting tonight for a case I’d expressly removed you from?”

  “I was checking in with my squad, sir. Like any good commander would when her squad was in the middle of a hot case that had the potential to be emotionally devastating to them.” She laid the shit on superthick hoping it would soothe him.

  “Did you hear that sound? It was my head officially exploding.”

  Sam held back a laugh that would get her in deeper trouble with him. “If it’s just the same to you, sir, I think I’ll keep Detective Sergeant Gonzales in charge of the Springer investigation, but I’ll be close by to keep Mr. Springer off your ass. Is that okay?”

  “You’re actually asking my permission? This is a banner day indeed. For what it’s worth, I agree with your decision regarding Sergeant Gonzales, and I’ll be at the briefing tomorrow morning to show the department’s support of you both.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “Get some sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day.”

  “Yes, sir. I’ll see you in the morning.” She stashed the phone in her pocket and turned to face her husband. “How’re you feeling?”

  “Fine.”

  “Your ribs don’t hurt?”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  Though she badly wanted to see Brooke and Tracy, she sat in the chair next to him. Under normal circumstances when he wasn’t angry with her, not to mention hurt, she would’ve crawled into his lap for some much-needed comfort. Something told her his lap wasn’t open for business tonight.

  “I’m sorry you’re upset about everything. I agree that you have good reason to be. We had plans, and my life, my job and my family has once again gotten in the way of that.”

  “I’ve been sitting here thinking about how often that happens.”

  “I’m really sorry. You have no idea how sorry I am.”

  When he reached for her hand and held it between both of his, Sam felt like she could truly breathe again for the first time since they’d argued earlier. She hadn’t forgotten the little tidbit Darren had tossed in her lap, but she was taking things one crisis at a time.

  “What I was thinking is that these things always appear to be your fault because your job is twenty-four-seven, and mine isn’t as much, and because you have this big amazing family, and I don’t. So it’s not really fair for me to blame you when your stuff messes up our stuff.”

  Sighing, she dropped her head onto his shoulder. “It’s fair. I blame me too. I know you may not believe it, but I was looking forward to this week as much as you were.”

  “I believe it, and I’ll let you make it up to me as soon as you’re able to.”

  “I’ve got something I need to talk to you about.”

  His body stiffened, which caused him to gasp in pain. “What?”

  “Let’s talk about it later, when we’re alone.”

  “We’re alone right now.”

  “Not alone enough.”

  “Sam...”

  “Nick...”

  “Fine. Have it your way. I don’t know why any of us ever try to get you to do anything other than exactly what you want to do.”

  The comment made her laugh—hard. “You’re finally starting to get a clue. Took you long enough.”

  “Kiss me.”

  “Right here?”

  “Right here. Right now.”

  Sam turned toward him and laid her hand on his face, taking a moment to appreciate his absolute adorableness. And yes, that was a word, and yes, it totally suited him. “I love you so much, and I hate when we fight.”

  He turned his face into her hand to kiss her palm. “I hate it too.”

  Sam leaned in to kiss him, and as their lips connected, she reveled in the overwhelming rightness she always felt with him. They might often infuriate each other, but they also completed and complemented each other in more ways than she could count.

  “I’m going in to see Brooke and Tracy, and then I could use a ride home. Everyone is coming at ten to go over the case.”

  “So I heard. Is your friend Hill included in everyone?”

  “He was a huge help to me today. He cut through miles of red tape to get me into Brooke’s dorm room and to get the footage of the pickup last night.”

  “So that’s a yes?”

  “That’s a yes.”

  She felt rather than saw him pull back from her at that news. He had such a blind spot where Hill was concerned. “You’ve got nothing to worry about there. I’ve told you that before. I just spent five hours alone with him and never once felt the slightest inkling of what I’ve felt since I sat down next to you.”

  “That’s nice to hear, but let me ask you this. Say the shoe happened to be on the other foot, and a woman I work closely with made it clear she’d be all over me if you were out of the picture. How would you like that?”

  “I wouldn’t, but I’d do my best to understand that it was her problem, not yours and not ours.”

  “Sure, you would,” Nick said with a laugh. “After you removed her liver with your famous rusty steak knife.”

  “Why, Nick, honey,” she said, batting her eyelashes, “you make me sound so violent and unrefined.”

  “You’re both those things, but you’re my violent, unrefined wife, and I wouldn’t change a thing about you. Well, except for your sloppiness, your willfulness, y
our stubbornness, your need to mess with my stuff, your—”

  Her fingers squeezing his lips ended his recitation. “You made your point.” She released his lips to kiss him again. “I’ll be back in a few.”

  “I’ll be here waiting for you.”

  “Good,” she said with a smile, relieved to have put their ship back on an even keel after a long day of rough sailing. She still needed to talk to him about what Darren had told her, but she would bring that up later when they were at home and had the ability to air it out thoroughly. As she walked down the hallway to Brooke’s room, she thought about how much time they’d spent in hospitals during their first year together and hoped the second year would be much less eventful.

  She stepped into Brooke’s room, where a sleeping Tracy held Brooke’s hand from the recliner next to the bed. Sam tucked Norman in with Brooke, bent to kiss the girl’s forehead and stood upright to look down at her niece. She tried to imagine what Brooke had been thinking when she and her friend Hoda plotted to bust her out of school. Where was she planning to be in the morning when her parents set out to pick her up for the holiday?

  Sam would really like to know the answers to these and other questions, but she wasn’t going to get any answers tonight, so she left them sleeping and returned to the waiting room, where Mike had joined Nick.

  “Hey, Sam, anything new?” Mike asked.

  “I brought Norman from the dorm room and tucked him in with Brooke.”

  The mention of his daughter’s beloved stuffed animal reduced Mike to tears. Seeing her big, strapping brother-in-law in such a state broke Sam’s heart.

  “I can’t deal with this,” he said softly. “Half of me wants to kill her, and the other half is bargaining with God to get her through this in one piece.”

  Sam sat on the other side of him and put her arm around his shoulders. “I don’t blame you for feeling both those things because I feel them too. You know what I was thinking earlier? Maybe this will be the wakeup call she needs to get her shit together before it’s too late.”

  “Let’s hope so, because if this doesn’t do it, I don’t know what will.” To Nick, Mike said, “Thanks for hanging out. I appreciate the company.”