by Linda Howard
“Even in the midst of everything else that’s going on, even as I plan my best friend’s funeral, even as I deal with a traumatized staff and John’s parents, I want you. I think about you, and I want you.”
“I can’t, Nick. My job is on the line. My whole career is riding on this investigation. I can’t let you do this to me right now.”
“What about later? After it’s over?”
“Maybe. We’ll have to see.”
“Then that’ll have to do.” He gestured for her to lead the way out of his office. “For now.”
CHAPTER 10
“What’s the plan for the funeral?” Sam asked Nick as they sat in heavy traffic on Constitution Avenue.
“He’ll lie in state at the capitol in Richmond for forty-eight hours, beginning on Friday. The funeral will be held at the National Cathedral on Monday with burial at Arlington a week or two later. It takes a while to get that arranged.”
“I didn’t realize he was a veteran.”
“Four years in the Navy after college.”
“If possible, I’d like to attend the funeral with you in case I need you to identify anyone for me.”
“Sure. I’ll do what I can.”
“Thank you.” She wanted to say more but found her tongue to be uncharacteristically tied in knots. After a long, awkward pause, she glanced over at him. “I, um, I appreciate the help you’re giving me with background and insight into the senator’s relationships.”
“Have you spoken to Natalie yet?”
Sam’s brain raced through the various lists of friends, family, coworkers, and acquaintances. “I haven’t heard of a Natalie. Who is she?”
“Natalie Jordan. She was John’s girlfriend for a couple of years.”
“When?”
Nick thought about that. “I’d say for about two years before he ran for the Senate and maybe a year after he was sworn in.”
“Did it end badly?”
“It ended. I was never sure why. He wouldn’t talk about it.”
“Yet you saw fit to toss her name into a homicide investigation.”
He shrugged. “You were mad I didn’t tell you Chris was in love with him. Natalie was important to him for a long time. In fact, she was the only woman I ever knew of who was truly important to him. I just thought you should know about her.”
“Where is she now?”
“Married to the number-two guy at Justice. I think they live in Alexandria.”
“Did he ever see her?”
“Sometimes they’d run into each other at Democratic Party events in Virginia.”
“Would she still have a key to his apartment?”
“Possibly. They lived together there for the last year or so that they were together.”
“Did you like her?”
Nick rested his head against the back of the seat. “She wasn’t my type, but he seemed happy with her.”
“But did you like her?”
“Not really.”
“Why not?”
“She always struck me as a social climber. We rubbed each other the wrong way—probably because I couldn’t do anything to advance her agenda so she didn’t have much use for me.”
“Knowing he dated someone like that seems contrary to the picture you and others have painted of him. To me, he wouldn’t have had the patience for it.”
“He was dazzled by her. She’s quite…well, if you talk to her, you’ll see what I mean.”
“What do you think of his sister and brother-in-law?”
Nick appeared startled by the question. “Salt of the earth. Both of them.”
“What’s his story? Royce Hamilton?”
“He’s a horse trainer. One of the best there is from what I’ve heard. Lizbeth has been crazy about horses all her life. John always said she and Royce were a match made in heaven.”
“Any financial problems?”
“None that I ever heard of—not that I heard much about them. I saw them at holidays, occasional dinners in Leesburg, fundraisers here and there, but we don’t travel in the same circles.”
“What circle do they travel in?”
“The Loudoun County horse circle. John adored their kids. He talked about them all the time, had pictures of them everywhere.”
“What did Senator O’Connor think of his only daughter marrying a horse trainer?”
“Royce is an intelligent guy. And more important, he’s a gentleman. The senator could appreciate those qualities in a potential son-in-law, even if he wasn’t a doctor or a lawyer or a politician. Besides, Lizbeth was wild about him. Her father was smart enough to know there’d be no point in getting in the way of that.”
“What about her? Could she have had some sort of dispute with John?”
Nick shook his head. “She was completely and utterly devoted to him. She was one of our best campaigners and fundraisers.” He chuckled. “John called her The Force. No one could say no to her when she went out on the stump for her ‘baby brother.’ There’s no way she had anything to do with this.” More emphatically, he added, “No way.”
“Did she have a key to the Watergate apartment?”
“Most likely. Everyone in the family used the place when they were in town.”
“That place has more keys out than a no-tell motel.”
“It was just like John to give keys to everyone he knew and think nothing of it.”
“Yet he was the only other person in the world who had a key to your place. Can you see the irony in that?”
“He led a bigger life than I do.”
“Tell me about your life,” she said on an impulse.
He raised that swarthy eyebrow. “Who’s asking? The woman or the detective?”
Sam took a moment to appreciate his quick intelligence, remembering how attractive she had found that the first time she met him. “Both,” she confessed.
He glanced at her, and even though her eyes were on the road, she felt the heat of his gaze. “I work. A lot.”
“And when you’re not working?”
“I sleep.”
“No one—not even me—is that boring.”
He flashed her a funny, crooked grin that she caught out of the corner of her eye. “I try to get to the gym a couple of times a week.”
Judging from the ripped physique she had been pressed against the night before, he put those gym visits to good use. “And? No wives, girlfriends, social life?”
“No wife, no girlfriend. I play basketball with some guys on Sundays whenever I can. Sometimes we go out for beers afterward. Last summer, I played in the congressional softball league, but I missed more games than I made. Oh, and every other month or so, I have dinner with my father’s family in Baltimore. That’s about it.”
“Why haven’t you ever gotten married?”
“I don’t know. Just never happened.”
“Surely there had to have been someone you might’ve married.”
“There was this one girl…”
“What happened?”
“She never returned my calls.”
Shocked and speechless, Sam stared at him.
“You asked.”
Tearing her eyes off him, she accelerated through the last intersection before the turn for the public safety parking lot. “Don’t say that to me,” she snapped. “You don’t mean that.”
“Yes, I do.”
She pulled into a space and slammed the car into park.
He grabbed her arm to stop her from getting out. “Calm down, Sam.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.” She tugged her arm free of his grasp. “And save your cheesy lines for someone who’s buying. I don’t believe you anyway.”
“If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be so pissed right now.”
“Do you want to know what happened to your friend?”
With one blink, his hazel eyes shifted from amused to furious. “Of course I do.”
“Then you have to stop doing this to me, Nick. You’re winding me up in k
nots and pulling my eye off the ball. I need to be focused, one hundred percent focused on this case, and not on you!”
“What about when you’re off duty?” The teasing smile was back, but it didn’t steal the sadness from his eyes. “Can I wind you up in knots then?”
“Nick…”
Fixated on the drab-looking public safety building, he sighed. “We’re about to go in there and take John’s parents to see him laid out on a cold slab, and yet, all I can think about right now is how badly I want to kiss you. What kind of a friend does that make me? To him or to you?”
His tone was so full of sadness and grief that Sam softened a bit. “You were a great friend to him, and in the last twenty-four hours, except for the whole kissing thing, you’ve been helpful to me, too. Can we keep it that way? Please?”
“I’m trying, Sam. Really I am, but I can’t help that I feel this incredible pull to you. I know you feel it, too. You felt it six years ago—as strongly as I did—and you still do, even if you don’t want to. If we had met again under different circumstances, can you tell me the same thing wouldn’t be happening between us?”
“I have to go in now.” Her firm tone hid her seesawing emotions. “His parents are probably waiting for me, and I don’t want to drag this out for them. Are you coming?”
“Yeah.” He opened the door. “I’m coming.”
*
Freddie met them inside. “We’ve got the O’Connors in there.” He pointed to a closed conference room door. “And the Dems from Virginia the senator had dinner with the night he was killed are in there.”
Sam glanced back and forth between the two closed doors. “Will you take Mr. Cappuano and the O’Connors to see the senator, please?” she asked Freddie.
“No problem.”
She rested a hand on Freddie’s arm and looked up at him. “Utmost sensitivity,” she whispered.
“Absolutely, boss. Don’t worry.”
To Nick, she said, “I’ll catch up to you.”
He nodded and followed Freddie into the room where Graham and Laine O’Connor waited with their daughter and another man who Sam assumed was Royce Hamilton. With a brief glance, Sam noticed that both O’Connors had aged significantly overnight.
“Senator and Mrs. O’Connor, my partner, Detective Cruz, will take you to see your son. I’ll join you in a few minutes.”
“Thank you,” Graham said.
With a deep breath to change gears and force her mind off the intense conversation she’d just had with Nick, Sam entered the room where two portly men sat waiting for her. She judged them both to be in their late sixties or early seventies.
Upon her entrance, they leapt to their feet.
“Gentlemen,” she said, reaching out to shake their hands. “Detective Sergeant Sam Holland. I appreciate you coming in.”
“We’re just devastated,” drawled Judson Knott, who had introduced himself as the chairman of the Virginia Democratic Party. “Senator O’Connor was a dear friend of ours and the people of the Commonwealth.”
“I’m not looking for a sound bite, Mr. Knott, just an idea of how the senator spent his last few hours.”
“We met him for dinner at the Old Ebbitt Grill,” said Richard Manning, the vice chairman.
“How often did you all have dinner together?”
The two men exchanged glances. “Every other month or so. We offered to reschedule that night because he had the vote the next day, but he said his staff had everything under control, and he had time for dinner.”
“How did he seem to you?”
“Tired,” Manning said without hesitation.
Knott nodded in agreement. “He said he’d been working twelve-and fourteen-hour days for the last two weeks.”
“What did you talk about over dinner?”
“The plans for the campaign,” Knott said. “He was up for re-election next year, and although he was a shoo-in, we take nothing for granted. We’ve been gearing up for the campaign for months, but now…” His blue eyes clouded as his voice trailed off. “It’s just such a tragedy.”
“What time did you part company after dinner?”
“I’d say around ten or so,” Knott said.
“And where was he headed from there?”
“He said he was going straight home to bed,” Knott said.
“Who will take his place in the Senate?”
“That’s up to the governor,” Manning said.
“No front-runners?”
Knott shook his head. “We haven’t even talked about it, to be honest. We’re all just in a total state of shock right now. Senator O’Connor was a lovely person. We can’t imagine how anyone would want to harm him.”
“No one in the party was jealous of his success or bucking for his job?”
“Only his brother,” Manning said with disdain. “What a disappointment he turned out to be.”
“Was he jealous enough to kill the senator?”
“Terry?” Knott said with a nervous glance toward the door, as if he was afraid the O’Connors might hear him. “I doubt it. It would require he get his head out of his ass for more than five minutes.”
“The O’Connors had their problems, like any family,” Manning added. “But they were tight. Terry might’ve been jealous of John, but he wouldn’t have done this to his mother.” Shaking his head with dismay, he said, “Poor Laine.”
“We saw them outside,” Knott said. “Our hearts are broken for them.”
“Thank you for coming in.” Sam handed each of them her card. “If you think of anything else, even the smallest thing, let me know.”
“We will,” Manning said. “We’ll do anything we can to help find the monster who did this.”
“Thank you.” Sam saw them out and headed for the morgue.
CHAPTER 11
Following the O’Connors into the cold, antiseptic-smelling room, Nick thought he had properly prepared himself. After what he had seen yesterday, he should have been able to handle anything.
However, nothing could have prepared him for the sight of John lifeless, waxy, and so utterly gone. Nor could he have prepared for Laine’s reaction.
With one look at her son’s face, John’s mother fainted into a boneless pile. It happened so fast that no one was able to reach her in time to keep her head from smacking the cement floor.
“Jesus, God!” Graham cried as he dropped to his knees. “Laine! Honey, are you all right?”
“Mom,” Lizbeth said as tears rolled down her face. “Mom, open your eyes.”
Several tense minutes passed before Laine’s eyes fluttered open. “What happened?”
“You fainted,” Lizbeth said. “Do you think you could sit up?”
“I need to get out of here. Take me out of here, Lizzie.”
Lizbeth and Royce helped her mother up. Without another glance at the body on the table, they escorted her from the room.
“Are you all right, Senator?” Nick asked when they were alone.
His complexion gray, his hands trembling, Graham O’Connor fixated on the white bandage covering the neck wound that ended his son’s life. “It’s all so wrong, you know?” the older man said in a hoarse whisper.
“Sir?”
“Standing over the body of your child. It’s wrong.”
Nick’s throat tightened with emotion. “I’m sorry. I wish there was something I could say…” He kept his voice down so Detective Cruz, who was minding the door, wouldn’t hear them.
Graham reached out haltingly to caress John’s thick blond hair. “Who could’ve done this? How’s it possible someone hated my John this much?”
“I just don’t know.” Nick looked down at John, wishing he had the answers they so desperately needed.
“Do you think it could be Terry?”
Shocked, Nick whispered, “Senator…”
“He never got over what happened. He resented John—maybe even hated him—for taking his place in a job he felt was his.”
“He would
n’t have killed him over it.”
“I wish I could be so certain.” Graham looked up at Nick with shattered eyes. “If it was Terry…If he did this, it’ll kill Laine.”
Nick could only imagine what it would do to Graham.
“Um, excuse me,” Sam said from behind them. “I’m sorry to interrupt.”
Nick wondered if she had heard them speculating about Terry.
“Can I get you anything, Senator? Would you like to sit for a minute? I could get you a stool—”
Graham’s expression hardened as he turned to Sam. “You can tell me you’ve found the person who did this to my son.”
“I wish I could,” she said. “I can tell you we’re working very hard on the case. If you want to come with me to the conference room, I can update you and your wife on what we have so far.”
The senator turned back to his son and stroked John’s hair. Tears pooled in Graham’s already-bloodshot eyes. “I love you, Johnny,” he whispered, leaning over to press a kiss to John’s forehead. Graham’s shoulders shook as he clutched the sheet covering John’s chest.
Nick had never seen such a raw display of grief. After a moment, he rested a hand on Graham’s shoulder. The older man remained hunched over his son until Nick gently guided him up.
“Oh God, Nick,” he sobbed, pressing his face to Nick’s chest. “What’re we going to do without him? What’ll we do?”
Nick wrapped his arms around Graham. “I don’t know, but we’re going to figure it out. We’re going to get through this.” He glanced up to find Sam watching them with an expression of exquisite discomfort. Embarrassed by his own tears, he returned his attention to the senator. “Why don’t we let Sergeant Holland fill us in on the investigation?”
Graham nodded and stepped out of Nick’s embrace. With a long last heartbroken look at John, Graham headed for the door.
Swiping at his face, Nick followed him.
Sam directed them to the conference room where Lizbeth and Royce sat on either side of a pale and drawn Laine. Someone had gotten her a glass of water and an ice pack for her head.
Graham went to his wife, reached for her hands and drew her up into his arms.
Nick couldn’t look. He simply couldn’t bear to witness their overwhelming agony. Turning from where he stood in the doorway, he stepped out of the room.
