06 Fatal Mistake

by Marie Force

  “Oh my God!” Shelby’s blue eyes flashed with fury that made her a friend forever in Sam’s world. She looked at Sam. “What’re we doing about it?”

  “I took care of it.”

  Shelby’s smile was full of catty satisfaction. “I’ll bet you did.”

  “That’s what he’s afraid of.” Sam reached for Scotty’s hand. “Here’s what to do. If he says anything to you, give him the death stare. Do you know how to do that?”

  He shook his head.

  Sam narrowed her eyes and zeroed in on Scotty, making him retreat a bit in his seat.

  “Wow. I hope you never do that to me for real.”

  “With you there, sport,” Shelby said.

  “Works wonders on guilty scumbags in the interrogation room. Now let me see you do it.”

  Scotty scrunched up his face, but nothing about his stare was deadly.

  “No, like this.” Sam went for her most sinister, intimidating glare. “You have to put some hate behind it.”

  “Mrs. Littlefield says we don’t hate anyone.”

  “You hate what he did, right?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Focus on that then. Let’s see it.”

  Scotty’s stare had a lot more menace behind it this time.

  “There it is! Excellent. Now what will you do if he hits you again?”

  “Hit him back?”

  “That’s right. You’re allowed to defend yourself. But I don’t want you to ever throw the first punch. You got me?”

  “Yeah. I can see the difference.”

  “Now, give me a fist.”

  He rolled his fingers around his thumb and held up his hand.

  “Dude, that is the fastest way to end up with a broken thumb. Like this.” She manipulated his hand into a fist. “Lead with your knuckles.”

  “What if he comes at me from behind?”

  “Stomp on the top of his foot,” Shelby said. “Then spin around and clip him under the nose.”

  Sam nodded in approval. “Someone’s had self-defense classes.”

  “When you’re barely five feet tall and living in a city, you can’t be too careful.”

  “Is your belly feeling better?” Sam asked Scotty.

  He nodded, showing more of his usual enthusiasm. “Thanks for showing me what to do.”

  “You got it. Now go brush your teeth and comb your hair.”

  “I did comb my hair.”

  “The front looks good. The rest of it’s a problem.”

  “Fine,” he said, running off.

  “Do you think less of me, as a homicide detective, that I want to kill the kid who hurt him?” Shelby asked.

  “Actually, I think more of you as a friend than I ever have before. Thank you for helping with that just now.”

  “You’re a great mom, Sam. He’s lucky to have you in his corner.”

  “That’s nice to hear, thank you. I need to get to work. Do you mind making the drop at school and sticking around for a few minutes to make sure he’s okay?”

  “I’d be happy to.”

  “I’m going out to get the papers,” Sam said. She was anxious to see if there was anything reported about Nick’s connection to Lexicore ahead of Graham’s statement.

  Just as she was about to open the door, the doorbell rang.

  She opened the door and was overtaken by a hulking form in a police uniform. Before she had time react, he had grasped her throat and was squeezing the life out of her.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The feral snarl from her attacker identified him as Stahl. Sam had been on the receiving end of that snarl often enough to recognize it. He had such a tight hold on her throat that she immediately saw stars and couldn’t seem to get her hands to function properly to practice any of the self-defense strategies she’d just imparted to her son. The scene before her faded in the fog that filled her mind as she had enough capacity to wonder if she was going to die right there on her own doorstep.

  As images of Nick and Scotty filled her mind, she found the wherewithal to slam her knee into his groin.

  He shrieked and fell away from her, stumbling backward on the ramp.

  Drawing in greedy gulps of cold air, Sam kicked at him, her foot connecting with his knee, drawing another grunt of pain from him.

  And then Scotty’s Secret Service agents were on him, pulling him down the ramp, kicking and screaming the whole way.

  Sam bent in half, hands on knees as she took a series of deep breaths, willing her pounding heart into submission.

  Shelby came to the door. “What happened? Oh God, Sam! Are you all right?”

  “Yeah,” Sam said. “Keep Scotty inside.” When Shelby hesitated, obviously torn, Sam said, “Go. Please. Close the door.”

  Shelby did as Sam asked, which was a tremendous relief to Sam, who didn’t want Scotty to see her hurt.

  “I called it in,” one of the agents said as the other slapped cuffs on Stahl, who was calling her a fucking bitch and spitting his rage all over her sidewalk. “Ambulance is on its way.”

  “No ambulances,” Sam said, her voice raspy from the attack. “I’m fine.”

  “It’s for him.”

  “I’m so sorry that happened, Lieutenant,” the agent said. He must’ve been new, because Sam hadn’t seen him before. “He was in uniform and had your newspapers so we assumed he was a friend of yours.”

  “Not your fault,” she said, still breathing hard as a MPD cruiser came screaming around the corner onto Ninth Street.

  The agents turned Stahl over to the EMTs and patrolmen, who seemed a bit freaked out to be hauling away an Internal Affairs lieutenant. They looked to Sam for guidance. Ignoring the throbbing pain in her neck, she nodded to them and took extreme pleasure in watching them cuff a purple-faced, screaming Stahl to the gurney.

  Sam took another minute to regain her composure before she went back inside. The entire incident had transpired in under ten minutes, but the seconds in which she’d been denied oxygen had felt like weeks.

  Shelby rushed from the kitchen to meet her. “Are you okay? Tell me the truth.”

  “I’m fine. I don’t want Scotty to know.”

  “Come,” Shelby said, taking her hand, “quickly.”

  “Come where?” Sam allowed the tiny sprite to drag her through the kitchen to the mudroom where Shelby had to go on tiptoes to wrap a pink cashmere scarf around Sam’s neck. “That bad, huh?”

  “That bad.”

  Sam fingered the soft wool while turning her nose up at the color. “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

  “Yeah, you’re fine.”

  Scotty’s footsteps were heavy on the stairs. He came back with his hair wet down and tamed into submission. Ignoring the runaway trembling that continued to rack her body, Sam held his backpack for him and turned him to face her, hands on his shoulders. “You’re going to be fine.” Despite the pain it caused her, she forced her voice to remain normal. “Right?”

  He nodded. “Why are you wearing Shelby’s scarf? You hate pink.”

  “Shhh,” Sam said in an exaggerated whisper. “She gave it to me as a gift. I’m pretending to like it.”

  Scotty’s lips curled with amusement.

  “Let’s see the death stare one more time.”

  His eyes narrowed into a positively sinister expression.

  “That’s my boy.” She hugged him tightly. “Love you. If anything happens, use your cell phone to call me.”

  “We’re not allowed to use them in school.”

  “Go in the bathroom and text me. I’ll be there so fast they won’t know what hit them.”

  His smile lit up his face and touched her heart. “Thanks.”

  She cuffed his chin. “Love you.”

  “Love you too.”

  Sam waited until he’d left with Shelby and the detail to let herself fall apart a little. She sat at the table and dropped her face into her hands, fighting back tears she refused to allow. Stahl had scared her. There was no dou
bt in her mind that he could’ve killed her. Her strength was no match against his rage, and in his addled mind, he had nothing left to lose.

  She experienced a powerful longing for her husband’s strong arms. In light of how angry he’d be over what’d happened on their doorstep—with Secret Service agents in close proximity—it was probably better for all of them that he was winging his way across the globe at the moment.

  When the trembling finally subsided, Sam got up to collect her badge, gun and cuffs from the locked drawer in the kitchen where she kept them now that Scotty lived there. She went through the motions of securing her service weapon in the hip holster she wore on her belt and clipping her gold shield to the waistband of her jeans.

  Because she knew her dad would be wondering what had happened to bring a police car screaming on to their street so early in the morning, she went down the ramp from her house and up the ramp to her childhood home, rapping on the door as she walked in. “Anyone home?”

  “Back here,” her dad called from the kitchen.

  Seated in his wheelchair, he was scanning the headlines in the morning paper. His wise blue eyes took a perusing look over her, settling on the pink scarf and widening with surprise. He hadn’t seen her in pink since her toddler years.

  Sam bent to kiss his forehead. “Anything in the news? I didn’t get a chance to look at the paper.” In light of recent events, the statement would’ve made her giggle if her throat hadn’t been throbbing.

  “Did you hear about Lexicore and the Thai factory?”

  “Unfortunately, yes. Nick owned stock in Lex, and had to dump it at a huge loss yesterday.”

  “Ah shit. That’s a bummer, but he doesn’t need that sticking to him in the homestretch of the election.”

  “He’s hoping it doesn’t screw things up.”

  “Did he get off on the trip okay?”

  “Early this morning.”

  “Are you going to tell me what just happened?”

  “Do I have to?” Sam dropped into a chair and told him what had transpired the day before with Stahl. As she spoke, she watched her dad’s usually genial expression harden with anger.

  “So he blames you for the whole thing even though he was the one stupid enough to make the call at all, let alone make it from inside HQ?”

  “That’s the gist.”

  “And now he’ll face an attempted murder charge on top of everything else.”

  “At least he’ll never get bail after the stunt he pulled this morning.”

  “There is that.” He glanced at her neck. “Take off the scarf. Let me see.”

  “No need. I’m fine.”

  “I didn’t ask.”

  Sam reluctantly unwound the scarf from around her neck.

  Skip winced. “Looks like it hurts.”

  “Doesn’t feel great, but I’ll live. I gotta get to work. They’re going to want a statement about what happened with Stahl. Not to mention I’ve got one murdered ballplayer and another missing.”

  “Who’s missing?”

  “Lind, but we don’t know yet if he’s actually missing or off the grid licking his wounds. Apparently, that’s his pattern.”

  “You sound frustrated, baby girl.”

  “I am. We need something to go on, and there’s very little beyond the chaos in Willie’s personal life. No one’s jumping out at me as an obvious suspect.” She got up, repositioned the scarf and leaned in to kiss her dad, surprised when he winced. “What?”

  “Weird tingle in my leg.”

  “You’re feeling something in your leg?” He’d been paralyzed from the neck down in an unsolved shooting almost three years earlier. To her knowledge, the only place he’d retained sensation was in his right hand.

  “I don’t know what it is.”

  “But it’s something. Have you talked to the doctor?”

  “I’m seeing him next week.”

  “What do you think it means?”

  “I couldn’t tell you. It’s damned uncomfortable though. Like a bad case of pins and needles.”

  “Oh my God, Dad! You can’t wait a week to get that checked!”

  “Get what checked?” Sam’s stepmother Celia asked as she came into the kitchen.

  “Dad’s got pins and needles in his leg.”

  “What?” asked Celia, who was a nurse.

  “It’s nothing,” Skip said, his annoyance clear. “Just a weird ripple of some sort.”

  “A weird ripple that you can feel?” Celia asked.

  “I don’t know if I’m feeling it or dreaming it or what.”

  “And when were you going to tell me this?” his wife asked, hands on hips.

  “Soon.”

  Celia scowled at him, but Sam knew she had to be as excited as Sam was. No one was more devoted to her dad than Celia.

  “Will you call the doctor?” Sam asked her.

  “Right away.”

  “Let me know what they say.”

  “Of course.”

  Sam leaned over to give her dad another kiss. “Do what Celia tells you to, got me?”

  “Yeah, yeah. Go to work and catch me a killer.”

  Sam squeezed Celia’s arm on the way by. Wouldn’t it be something if, after all this time, her dad regained some feeling in his paralyzed limbs? The idea of it was too tantalizing to entertain. Sam forced herself to put it aside until they knew more so she could focus on all the other more pressing matters at hand.

  Anxious to hear how Scotty had fared at school, Sam took a call from Shelby. “How’d it go?”

  “Perfectly fine. He ran into Jonah going in and was smiling by the time he got to the door.”

  “Oh, good. That’s a relief. Thanks for taking him.”

  “No problem. I’ll be there when he gets out.”

  “Thanks a million.”

  “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine. It’s going to be a paperwork headache more than anything. Like I didn’t already have enough to do today.”

  “Hang in there. Call if you need anything.”

  “Hey, Tinker Bell?”

  “Yes?”

  “It’s really great having you around, except for the folding issue, that is.”

  Shelby’s delicate laughter brought a smile to Sam’s face. “Gee, thanks, boss. I’m enjoying the job very much. Thank you for trusting me with your home and your darling son.”

  “I’m glad it’s working out. I’m at HQ.” Sam’s gaze landed on Avery Hill, dapper as always as he got out of his car and waited for her to park. “I’ll talk at you later.”

  “Have a good day.”

  “You too.” Sam got out of the car and approached Hill. “You’re back.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth Sam felt like an idiot for stating the obvious.

  “So I am.”

  “And?”

  “Marco’s not our guy. He’s been in the hospital for the last week with an emergency appendectomy gone bad.”

  “Why didn’t Carmen tell us that?”

  “She probably didn’t know. His name was mud in her house, and Marco said he asked his parents not to further upset her by telling her he’s been ill.”

  “I’m sorry you wasted your time going there.”

  “It wasn’t a total waste.” He tugged a sheaf of papers out of his bag. “Willie’s financials.”

  “Excellent! We’ve been having the worst time with the Dominican bank. Appreciate the assist with this and the team and the trip.”

  “Mind if I stick around to see it through? I’m invested.”

  A few weeks ago, the question would’ve rankled and annoyed. Now she understood that at some point he’d become a trusted—and often useful—colleague. “Sure. Since you were able to procure the financials, you can see that through. That’d help.”

  “Sure, happy to.”

  They walked toward the main door together. “Are you going to call Shelby?” Sam asked.

  He eyed her warily. “Where’d that come from?”

  “
Just wondering—and so is she.”

  “Funny, I wouldn’t take you for a girlfriendy kind of gal.”

  “I have girlfriends,” Sam said, indignant that he thought he knew her so well.

  He raised an eyebrow rife with skepticism. “Any who don’t work here?”

  “My sisters, and I suppose Shelby counts, not that it’s any of your business.”

  He stopped short, and Sam had no choice but to stop too or run into him.

  “You’re right. It isn’t my business. But here’s the situation, Sam... You know I think a lot of you.”

  Since he’d all but confessed to being in love with her, Sam just nodded, afraid to do or say anything else and desperately afraid of where this might be leading.

  “I’d like it if we could be friends. And if not friends, at least cordial colleagues who occasionally work well together.”

  He was offering her a way out of the uncomfortable tension that had surrounded them since she’d tuned into his crush on her, and Sam appreciated the overture. If he was going to be sticking around the District, their paths were bound to cross again, and there was no reason for their relationship to be antagonistic when their goals were often the same.

  “That would be good. There’s one thing you should know, though.”

  “What’s that?”

  How to say this diplomatically? “You have to be careful around Nick. He’s... He’s possessive of what’s his, and he’s in a position to make your life difficult if he chooses to.”

  Hill’s lips got very tight with displeasure. “Has he made threats?”

  “Of course not. But don’t give him a reason to butt into your life. He’s a perfectly rational guy. Most of the time.”

  “I stand warned.” He started to stalk off, and Sam ran after him.

  “Hill, wait.” She grabbed his arm to halt his progress. “Hold on a second. I didn’t say that to piss you off. I swear.”

  He glanced down at his arm and then at her. “Why did you say it?”

  Sam let her hand drop away from him. “You’ve worked hard for your career. I respect that, and I don’t want to have anything to do with messing it up.” She was making a bloody mess out of this conversation. Nothing was coming out the way she intended. “That’s all.”

  “Thanks for the heads up. I get it. If I were in his shoes, I’d be possessive of what was mine too.”