06 Fatal Mistake

by Marie Force

  “We’re not the youngest ones,” Ginger said softly.

  As Freddie sucked in a deep breath, Sam’s stomach turned with revulsion. “Where are they?”

  “There’s a house,” Amber said haltingly. “I’m not sure where it is. They blindfold us when they take us there.”

  “I can tell you where it is from the motel.” Ginger closed her eyes and began to speak. “You leave the parking lot and take a left.” She continued with a dizzying array of directions that Freddie frantically tried to keep up with.

  “You memorized all that despite being blindfolded?” Sam asked.

  Ginger opened her eyes and met Sam’s gaze. “I’ve been going back and forth between the house and the motel for three years.”

  Sam had to fight to hide her shock and dismay from the girl who needed her help, not her pity. “How old are you, Ginger?”

  “I think I’m sixteen, but I don’t remember anymore.”

  “We’re going to help you figure it out. I promise.”

  Freddie went to a map on the wall and used a highlighter to pinpoint the location of the house.

  “Call it in to Vice and SVU,” Sam told him.

  “Call what into SVU?” Sergeant Ramsey asked as he came into the room.

  Both girls visibly shriveled at the sight of the big strapping man.

  Sam got up and gestured for him to leave the room. She followed, closing the door behind her. “We’ve got a situation that we’ll need your assistance with.” She told him what they knew so far about the goings-on at the hotel and the house Ginger had led them to, despite being blindfolded on every trip.

  Ramsey shook his head. “Fucking animals.”

  “No offense intended, but can you send one of your female officers down here to help with Ginger and Amber?” Sam had gotten the vibe in the past that Ramsey didn’t like her, so she chose her words carefully. “As you can tell, they’re uncomfortable around men.”

  “Absolutely. And I’ll get my team over to the house to round up the rest of the kids.”

  “We’re going to make a lot of parents very happy today.” Sam couldn’t think about what it might be like to not know where Scotty was for even a day, let alone years.

  “They’ll be happy until they realize the kid they’re getting back bears no resemblance whatsoever to the kid they lost,” he said with a sigh. “I’ll take care of it.”

  Ramsey walked away, and Sam went back in with the girls.

  Freddie went out to meet the pizza guy and returned with the food, which the girls dove into like they were starving.

  Sam could barely eat because she was so revolted by what she’d stumbled upon at the run-down motel, but she made an attempt to try to maintain some normalcy for the sake of the girls.

  “Not hungry?” Freddie asked.

  “Not anymore.”

  “I know. Me either.”

  Watching the girlish delight Ginger and Amber exhibited over the pizza gave Sam hope that maybe they weren’t beyond a chance at a normal life. Even though she was pressed for time and dying to help Hill dig into Darren’s lead, she forced herself to go slowly and to treat the girls with the kid gloves they deserved.

  Ginger finished a second piece of pizza and washed it down with a long swallow of cola that she seemed to relish. “I’ve missed soda.”

  “I miss it too,” Sam said. “I used to be a diet cola addict, but my doctor said I can’t have it anymore because it was messing up my stomach.”

  “So you can’t have it ever?” Amber asked.

  “I’m not supposed to, but I sneak one every now and then.”

  “Is that right?” Freddie asked, drawing girlish giggles from both their guests.

  “You guys are good friends,” Amber said.

  “I’m his boss,” Sam said. “He has to do what I tell him to.”

  “But you’re a girl,” Amber said. “Girls don’t get to be the boss.”

  “Around here, girls get to be the boss. In a lot of places girls get to be the boss. Someday maybe you can be the boss too.”

  “Do you think so?” Amber asked, her voice full of yearning.

  “I know so.”

  “You need us to tell you what we saw at the motel,” Ginger said.

  Sam wondered if the food had softened her disposition and made her more inclined to cooperate. “That would really help.”

  “He came in a cab after the baseball game,” Ginger said.

  “How did you know about the game?”

  “Bruce watched it in the office. He was really mad when that guy dropped the ball. He said Rick would come to us after the game because he’d be too upset to go home.”

  “So he’d been there before?”

  “He came a lot. He said it was the one place he could totally relax.”

  “What did relaxing entail for him?”

  “Getting high, getting laid, getting drunk. All the things he couldn’t do at home, or so he said.”

  “Did you have sex with him, Ginger?”

  “Many times.” This was said without a hint of emotion. “I was his favorite.”

  Sam recalled Lind’s hulking size and tried to picture him with petite Ginger. The image made her sick. “Did he pay to have sex with you?”

  “I don’t know. You’d have to ask Bruce about that. If he did, I never saw any of the money.”

  “Was he nice to you?”

  “Nicer than most of them.”

  “There were a lot?”

  “Six or seven a day on a slow day.”

  Freddie gasped and then cleared his throat to cover it.

  “Have you had medical attention at all?”

  “No.”

  Sam felt her composure wavering, but fought through the urge to punch something—or someone. “Did Rick have any visitors while you were with him?”

  “Just one.”

  “Do you know who it was?”

  “I don’t know her name, but she has long blond hair. She was angry, and he asked me to leave so he could talk to her.”

  “Are you able to describe her in any more detail?” Sam realized that Ginger was most likely the second to last person to see Rick Lind alive.

  “She was very pretty and skinny. Super skinny.”

  “You said she smelled rich,” Amber reminded her friend.

  “Right. She was wearing fancy perfume, and her clothes were expensive. Quality. I thought she might be his wife.”

  “Did he seem happy to see her?”

  “No, he was mad she was there. He told her he had nothing to say to her. She said she had plenty to say to him.”

  “Had you seen her before?”

  “Once. She came to the hotel earlier in the summer. He’d had another bad game, and I heard her yelling at him. And then I heard them having sex.”

  “How did you hear that?”

  “I was in the room next door with another guy. The walls are really thin. I could hear them.”

  “Can you tell me what she was saying to him?”

  “It was a long time ago, but I remember because she was so mean to him. She said she pays him to win, and she can’t afford to lose. That everything was riding on this season.”

  “Could you hear what he said?”

  “Not clearly. His voice was a low rumble. She was screaming though.”

  Sam got up and went to the murder board to remove the photo of Willie in his uniform. “Have you seen this man before?”

  Ginger studied the photo.

  “I have,” Amber said softly. “He was a regular of mine.”

  Sam had to fight to keep her expression neutral. “When was the last time you saw him?” she asked.

  “The other night after the game.”

  “How long were you with him?”

  “A couple of hours, but then he said he had to go home. He never spent the night.”

  “Did he say anything about what had happened at the game?”

  Amber shook her head. “He wasn’t there to talk.”


  Sam expelled a deep breath as she pushed yellow pads across the table to them. “Will you please write down anything you can tell me about either man? How often they visited the motel, what they might’ve said or done, what kind of sex they liked to have. No detail is too small.”

  Amber glanced at Ginger, who nodded and handed her friend a pen.

  “While you’re working on that, I’d like to contact your families. Is there anything you can tell us that would help us to find them?”

  “I was abducted from a mall in Columbia, Maryland three years ago,” Ginger said bluntly. “My parents are Justin and Deanna Moreland.” She recited the phone number in a clear, calm voice.

  “That’s how I know you,” Sam said, putting the pieces together. “Your parents have never stopped looking for you. They recently distributed a photo of what you might look like today, and it was spot-on.”

  “They’re looking for me?” Ginger whispered, her chin quivering.

  “They’ve never stopped. Your abduction was big news.”

  Tears rolled down her face. She swept them away, almost as if she was annoyed with herself for the emotional reaction.

  “Do you remember your family, Amber?”

  “I’m from Massapequa on Long Island. I got separated from my mom at a bus station in the city when I was nine, and they took me. My mom is Allison Tattorelli. People call her Alli.”

  “Do you remember her phone number?”

  “I remember it started with 516, but I can’t remember the rest.”

  “We’ll find her, honey,” Sam said, her heart breaking for the girls and their families and the ordeal they’d endured. “I’ll be back in a few minutes. Detective Cruz will be here if you need anything.”

  She got up and left the conference room, shutting the door behind her. In her office, she dropped into the chair behind her desk and took a moment to get her emotions in check before she called Ginger’s parents. It was a phone call she couldn’t wait to make but also dreaded at the same time.

  Gonzo and Hill appeared at her door.

  “Everything okay?” Gonzo asked.

  “The girls we brought in from the motel were abducted years ago.”

  “Oh, God,” Gonzo said. “What can I do to help?”

  Sam handed him the paper on which she’d written down the information about Amber’s mother. “Can you find me a number for Allison Tattorelli in Massapequa, New York?”

  He took the paper. “I’m on it.”

  “What can I do?” Hill asked.

  “Find me a connection between the Capitol Motor Inn and Elle Kopelsman. One of the girls was able to put her with Lind before he was killed. The other one was probably the last to see Willie alive.”

  “He was there too?”

  “He was a regular, just like Lind. Anything on the financials for Elle or Ray?”

  “Nothing that stands out, but it’s a complicated maze. You were right about one thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “The paper is hanging by a thread, and it’s dragging the rest of the family’s holdings down with it.”

  “She would’ve been desperate to protect her father’s legacy. She would’ve gone to any lengths to keep what he left her.” Sam’s spine tingled with the feeling she got whenever she was on to something. Everything was leading back to Elle Kopelsman Jestings.

  “How would killing the ballplayers who lost the game for the team protect her father’s legacy?”

  “It wouldn’t,” Sam said, more certain by the second that she was right about this. “But she would’ve been infuriated that they lost a game they should’ve won. She needed that win more than anyone else, and she would’ve blamed them for letting it get away.” Sam snapped her fingers. “The goons!”

  “What?” Hill asked, startled by the shift in conversation.

  “The bodyguards helped her,” Sam said, hearing clicking noises as the pieces began to fit together. “We’ve been looking for Willie’s car on video from the wrong part of town. I’ve got to make a phone call, and then we need to go have a conversation with your friend Elle. Can you find out where she is tonight?”

  “Yeah. I’ll take advantage of my lifelong friendship with her husband to get that info for you.”

  “If you’d rather not, I’d be happy to call him.”

  “I’ll do it.”

  When she was alone, Sam took another deep breath and dialed the number Ginger had given her. The phone rang five times before a woman answered. When her eyes filled with tears, Sam closed them, determined to get through this as unemotionally as possible. “Mrs. Moreland?”

  “Yes, it is.”

  “This is Lieutenant Sam Holland, Metro Police Department in Washington, D.C. We’ve found your daughter.”

  * * *

  The next two hours would forever go down as some of the most satisfying hours of Sam’s career. Justin and Deanna Moreland arrived fifty-seven minutes after Sam called them, and their reunion with their daughter was full of tears and hugs and the kind of overwhelming joy that Sam didn’t often get to experience as a homicide detective.

  Their joy brought her to tears more than once, but she made no attempt to hide them because everyone around her was in the same state. Even the formidable Agent Hill had wiped away a tear or two while watching the reunion of parents with the child they’d feared lost forever.

  Ginger’s tough outer facade crumbled the second her mother walked into the room, and she couldn’t seem to stop hugging both her parents.

  “I found Amber’s mother,” Hill said, drawing Sam’s attention away from the drama unfolding in the conference room. He handed her a piece of paper.

  “Thanks.” Sam wiped her eyes, took a deep breath to calm her emotions and went into her office to call yet another parent who’d waited years to hear this news.

  Like the Morelands before her, Alli screamed when Sam relayed the news and managed to stop crying long enough to tell Sam she was leaving right away to come to Washington.

  Since she was looking at a long, late night at work, Sam called home while she had the chance.

  “Hi there,” Shelby said. “How’s it going?”

  “It’s turned into an amazing day around here.”

  “How so?”

  Sam filled her in on what’d happened at the motel and the reunions taking place between the missing kids and their heartbroken parents.

  “Oh, Sam, oh my goodness! How wonderful!”

  “Needless to say, I’m going to be here a while. If you need to leave, Scotty can have a sleepover at my dad’s.”

  “I’ve got nothing going on tonight. I’m happy to stay here. Don’t worry about us. We’re just fine.”

  Sam nearly sagged with the overwhelming relief of having someone she trusted to help with Scotty. “I really appreciate it. I hope you know that.”

  “Of course I do. It’s my pleasure to spend time with him. I suspect I love him almost as much as you do.”

  “He’s pretty easy to love. Could I talk to him?”

  “Sure, let me see if he’s out of the shower yet. He talked me into pizza for dinner in exchange for taking his shower earlier than usual.”

  “You’re a shrewd negotiator.”

  “I’m learning. Scotty, Sam is on the phone and wants to talk to you. Here he is.”

  “Hi, Sam, did you catch the bad guy yet?”

  “Not quite yet, but we think we know who it is. I’ll tell you all about it when I see you in the morning.”

  “I still get to go with Mrs. L tomorrow right?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “She called tonight to see if I might like to have a sleepover at the house so I could see the kids. I told her I’d ask you and let her know tomorrow.”

  “That sounds like fun. If you want to stay, I can’t see any reason why not.”

  “Will Nick mind if he gets home and I’m not here?”

  “I bet he’ll be so tired that all he’ll want to do is sleep when he first gets hom
e.”

  “That’s probably true.”

  “How about you go with Mrs. L tomorrow, sleep over with the kids and we’ll come get you Sunday afternoon? Maybe we can even stop at the farm and have dinner with the O’Connors on the way home.” They had a standing invite to Sunday dinner that they rarely had time to accept.

  “Could I ride the horses?”

  “I’m sure that could be arranged.”

  “That would be the best weekend ever.”

  Sam smiled, delighted by his endless enthusiasm. “Shelby said things went okay with Nathan and the other kids today?”

  “Yep. He didn’t even look at me. I don’t know what you said to his mom, but whatever it was, it worked.”

  “And the other kids didn’t treat you any differently?”

  “Nope.”

  “That’s cuz they know your mom is a badass cop.”

  “Sam...”

  “I know, I know,” she said, holding back a laugh. The kid was too damned much.

  “We need a swear jar in our house.”

  “What the heck is that?”

  “We had one in Richmond. Every time you swear, you have to put in a quarter that I get to keep. I’ll be rich living with you.”

  “Very funny! I need a full list of what counts as a swear if I’m going to have to pay for them.”

  “You know what counts.”

  “No, I don’t. You’re always adding new ones to the list.” Had she ever enjoyed a conversation more? Not that she could recall. “Listen, buddy, I’ve got to get back to work. Behave for Shelby tonight and for Mrs. Littlefield tomorrow. We’ll see you Sunday, and we’ll call you while you’re gone.”

  “I’ll behave. Don’t worry.”

  “Love you.”

  “Love you too.”

  Sam ended the call and held the phone to her chest for a long time afterward. She had no doubt at all that she, who had spent her entire adult life avenging murder victims, could easily kill anyone who dared to harm that boy. She’d loved fiercely in her life, but not much could compare to the fierce love that came with motherhood.

  Hill came to the door. “Two ten-thousand-dollar checks were written from Ray and Elle’s joint account the day after the game, one to each of her two bodyguards, signed by her. It’s the only account of hers that has any money left in it.”

  Sam absorbed the new information, reached for her desk phone and asked dispatch to connect her to the cell phone of Lieutenant Rango, the officer in charge of the Crime Scene Unit.