State of Affairs

by Marie Force

  That’s why she needed to talk to one of the identical blonde triplets who served the District as Assistant U.S. Attorneys. Sam arrived at HQ a few minutes later to discover a much larger Secret Service presence had effectively moved the media mob out of the way. “Huh, well, look at them being useful.” She parked in her usual spot outside the morgue and went inside, stopping first to check in with Lindsey. “Have we got DNA back from the rape kit on Shanice Williams?”

  “Just now.” Lindsey handed her a printout of the report. “All five suspects matched.”

  “Vile.”

  “Extremely.”

  “That poor girl.” After so many years on the job, Sam had become almost immune to the horrors she experienced on a daily basis. But some were worse than others. “I’ve possibly tied one of them to a cold-case murder from fifteen years ago.”

  “Wow.”

  “I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to play it with him. Maybe let him think I’m going to deal on the murder and assault of Carter in exchange for info on Worthington.”

  “Good luck with it. I hope you can get some answers for the Worthingtons.”

  “Me too.”

  “So, um, Terry invited me to go along on the trip to South Dakota on Air Force One.”

  “If you squeal like a girl, I’m gonna stab you.”

  Lindsey cracked up laughing. “It’s Air Force One, Sam.”

  “Go to work, Lindsey.”

  Sam left her laughing as she exited the morgue and headed for her pit. She’d always be more at home there than on Air Force One or at the White House. This was her world, and it was where she thrived. Maybe there was something missing in her that she didn’t feel the need to squeal like a girl over the trappings of the presidency. But then again, she’d never been a typical girl or gotten excited about things other women did. Sure, she loved shoes and clothes as much as the next gal, but she drew the line at squealing.

  Freddie was waiting for her when she came in. “Faith will be here in ten, Lopez is in interview one, and Dr. Trulo is waiting for you in your office.”

  “Great, thanks. Has the lab reported back about the prints on the knife that killed Carter?”

  Freddie checked his computer. “I just got the report. There were two sets of prints—one belongs to Shanice Williams and the other to Fernando Toppa, one of our five suspects.”

  “Excellent.” It worked out perfectly for her plan that Lopez wasn’t the one who actually stabbed Eduardo Carter. “Send Faith in when she gets here, and ask Captain Malone to sit in too.”

  “Will do.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Sam went into her office, where Dr. Trulo was in her visitor chair, scrolling through his phone while he waited for her. “You’re like a teenager with that thing,” she said with a teasing smile. After initially resisting the need for shrinking, Sam had come around to adoring the department psychiatrist who’d been so good to her during some of the rougher moments in her career—and her life.

  “My daughters say the same thing. They say I’m addicted.”

  Sam was ashamed to realize she hadn’t known he had daughters. “How old are they?”

  “Twenty-nine, twenty-seven and twenty-three, and so far, they’ve given me four grandchildren, two of each.”

  “Ah, that’s lovely.” She sat behind her desk and put her hair up in a clip to keep it out of her way. “What’s going on?”

  “I wanted to check in to see how you’re holding up with everything that’s going on.”

  Sam gave him her best blank look. “What’s going on?”

  He busted up laughing. “You’re such a piece of work.”

  “So I’m told,” she said, amused by him. “I’m fine. I’m coping. I’m doing my thing while he does his. It’s all good. For now, anyway.”

  “I’m glad to hear you’re holding up well. My first thought upon hearing the news of President Nelson’s tragic death was for you, actually.”

  “Why me?”

  “Well, I’d like to think we’ve become friends over the years, and as such, I was worried about how my friend and colleague would cope with this rather major change in her life and her family’s life.”

  “Thank you for thinking of me, but I’m quite determined to keep things as normal as possible for myself and the kids, and so far, that’s what I’ve been doing.”

  “Good for you. It’ll mean so much to other women to see you continuing to do your job while taking care of your kids and supporting your husband. The country is lucky to have you both.”

  “I’m glad you think so. Not everyone does.”

  “I suppose that’s to be expected.”

  “The only thing that truly freaks me out is someone trying to harm Nick simply because of the office he holds.”

  “A logical concern, but he’s surrounded by the best security in the world, as you certainly know from his tenure as VP.”

  “I do know, but still, I worry.”

  “I’m here if I can help with that.”

  “If it gets to be too much, you’ll be the first to know.”

  “My door is always open to you, Lieutenant. The other reason I came by was to tell you I received a call from a producer with the Today show. They’d like to interview us about our grief group in the next couple of weeks.”

  “For real?”

  “Yep. Remember how we talked about you using your platform to make this a national project? Here’s our opportunity to make that happen. If you’re game, that is. Of course, they only want me if you’re there too.”

  Sam scowled at that. “You’d be fine without me.”

  “Perhaps, but you bring the star power, my dear.”

  “Ugh. Whatever.”

  Chuckling, he said, “I’d love to do it if I can convince you to appear with me. If nothing else, my girls will be impressed to see me on Today, and they’re a tough crowd. I need all the help I can get to look cool with them.”

  “If it’ll make you look cool to them, I’ll be happy to do it—but only if we can do it from here. I’m not going to New York for this. Too much else going on right now.”

  He stood to leave. “I’ll see what we can work out and let you know.”

  “You should probably clear it with the chief too.”

  “Already did. He’s all for it.”

  “Of course he is.”

  “The department could use the good press.”

  “That’s for sure.”

  Faith Miller appeared at her door, dressed to the nines as always.

  “I’ll let you get back to work,” Trulo said, nodding to Faith as he left.

  “Come in,” Sam said. “Cruz! Where’s the captain?”

  “Right here,” Malone said as he came in.

  “Close the door.”

  When all the players were in the room, Sam said, “I’ve spent the day on the Worthington case, and I think I know who killed Calvin.”

  “You already know that?” Faith asked. “Didn’t you just reopen that case?”

  “Yes, and I found that Detective Stahl failed to do even the most basic investigation while reporting that he could find no leads to pursue.”

  Faith grimaced and blew out a breath. “Damn it.” She shook her head and met Sam’s gaze with the fiery determination that made her so good at her job. “What’ve you got?”

  Sam laid out the details of the case she’d put together over the course of that day.

  “So you’re saying that Javier Lopez killed Calvin after he embarrassed him at school,” Faith said.

  “That’s my theory.”

  “How do you plan to get him to cop to that?”

  “I want to offer him a deal on the Carter murder in exchange for information about what happened to Calvin.”

  “Why would he suddenly confess to a fifteen-year-old murder?”

  “I was thinking I might try to convince him that I’ve spoken to associates of his who are willing to testify that he’s the one who killed Calvin.”
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br />   “It’s a risk. If he calls your bluff and doesn’t give you anything on Calvin, he’s off the hook on Carter’s murder.”

  “No info on Calvin, no deal on Carter. We’ll still charge him with participating in the gang rape of Shanice Williams, and we’ve got him nailed with DNA there, so there’s no chance of him walking away. We’ve got four other defendants facing felony murder for Carter, so there’s justice for him as well.”

  “I think it’s the best chance we have to get Lopez for the Worthington murder,” Malone said. “I like the lieutenant’s plan to let him think others have rolled on him. Do we have a list of his known associates from the time of the Worthington murder?”

  “Green is working on that.”

  Malone opened the door and called for Detective Green. “What’ve you got on Lopez from fifteen years ago?”

  “Hang on.” Green returned to his cubicle and came back with a file folder. “I was able to access his high school yearbook and found several photos of him with three other boys.” He handed the list to Sam. “I couldn’t access his sealed juvenile record, but I was able to confirm that all three of the others also have sealed juvenile records.”

  Sam scanned the list. “Good work, Green. This is exactly what I need.”

  “No problem,” Cam said as he left the room.

  Malone closed the door behind him.

  “I could take the time to interview each of these men, but the chance of them actually rolling on him is probably slim, especially since they might’ve been involved. Do we agree with the strategy to let him think we talked to them and they gave him up?”

  “I think it’s worth a try,” Faith said, “as long as he knows he’ll be charged with the sexual assault of Shanice Williams and no info on Worthington means the murder charge for Carter sticks. That’s nonnegotiable.”

  “Agreed.” Sam gathered her notes and the file folder Green had given her. “Let’s get this done.” As she walked the corridors that led to the interview rooms, her spine tingled with the feeling she got anytime she was about to nail a murdering scumbag. And from everything she’d seen and heard about Lopez, not to mention what he’d done to Shanice, he was scummier than most. Nailing him to the wall for Shanice, Calvin and Lenore would bring her pleasure. Getting justice for people like them and taking dangerous criminals off the street was the most satisfying part of an otherwise shitty job.

  After Faith and Malone went to observe, Sam burst into the interrogation room, startling the two men who were waiting there. She took tremendous satisfaction in that. Lopez had light brown skin, dark hair and eyes and tattoos on his neck and face.

  His lip curled into a sneer. “They didn’t tell me I’d be getting VIP treatment.”

  “Shut up, Javier,” the lawyer said.

  “They sent in the president’s piece.”

  “Shut up,” the lawyer said through gritted teeth.

  Sam turned on the recorder and noted who was in the room before sitting in a chair across from them. “Oh, please, Mr. Kincaid. Let your client say whatever is on his mind.”

  “He’s got nothing to say.”

  “Well, good thing I do, or this might’ve been a rather awkward meeting.” Sam opened the file, shuffled some papers and appeared to be checking her notes when, in fact, she didn’t need notes for this. “You’re aware of the charges you’re facing, Mr. Lopez?”

  “I didn’t do nothing to those people.”

  “We hear that a lot. It wasn’t me. I didn’t do it. But you know what’s funny about that? You can lie to my face, but the DNA doesn’t lie. It always tells the truth, and your DNA was found in Shanice Williams’s vagina and on her skin.”

  Lopez cast a nervous glance at his lawyer, who ignored him.

  “Are you also aware that simply being present when Mr. Carter was murdered makes you an accessory, even if you weren’t the one who stabbed him?”

  “I wasn’t the one!”

  “Doesn’t matter. You were there, committing felony assault and kidnapping when the murder went down, which makes you as guilty as the one who plunged that knife into his chest.”

  “That ain’t fair. I didn’t touch him.”

  “No, but you did more than touch her, didn’t you?”

  He had nothing to say to that.

  “I’m willing to cut you a deal on the murder charge.”

  Both men perked up at that.

  “What kind of deal?” Kincaid asked.

  “We’ll drop the murder charge.”

  “In exchange for what?”

  Sam buzzed with an adrenaline high as the pieces fell into place. “Information on another case.”

  Lopez glanced at his attorney. “What other case?”

  “Calvin Worthington.”

  In a single second, Sam saw the truth in Javier’s eyes before he seemed to catch himself and school his expression. That second was all she needed to be certain she was right about what’d happened to Calvin. “Ring a bell?”

  “I don’t know anyone by that name.”

  “Now that’s just a bald-faced lie, Javier. I know for a fact that you went to high school with him, got into a fight with him, got expelled because that was your sixth fight that year, and had a major beef with him after he told you off in front of your friends.”

  “You don’t know shit.”

  “Really? So what part of what I just described was untrue? Did you go to high school with Calvin Worthington?”

  He shrugged.

  Sam rifled through papers to find the one she wanted, which was actually the DNA report on the gang rape. He didn’t need to know that. “I have here a statement from Ballou High School that puts you and Calvin one year apart in school. Do you still want to deny that you went to school with him?”

  “I don’t remember him.”

  “You don’t remember him calling you a douchebag in the lunchroom after you were unkind to a friend of his, a girl named Maisy? You don’t remember punching him in the face after he said that or him tackling you and both of you getting in trouble for the incident? Seems to me that something like that might stand out in my memories of high school, but I heard you got suspended so many times, you probably can’t remember them all. One last chance… Did you know Calvin?”

  “Answer the question, Javier,” Kincaid said. “Did you know the kid?”

  “What if I did?”

  “Must’ve made you mad to have him call you out that way in front of everyone at school.”

  Javier shrugged as if it had been no big deal, but the set of his shoulders and the tension in his jaw told her how he really felt.

  “I talked to some of your homies.” She read the names from the list that Green had given her. “They said you were pretty spun up about it. ‘Enraged’ was the word one of them used.”

  “That’s bullshit,” he said, sounding less nonchalant after hearing the names of his friends. “They’d never say shit about that to you.”

  “Why’s that? Were they there maybe when you decided to do something about the kid who embarrassed you in front of your friends?”

  “I didn’t do anything. I didn’t care about him.”

  “That’s not what your friends said. According to them, you cared very much about him disrespecting you that way, especially over a girl like her.”

  “She was a fucking loser. Everyone knew it.”

  “Not everyone. Calvin liked her, considered her a friend. He didn’t like how you treated her, and he told you so, didn’t he? That must’ve made you really mad. A kid like him, calling you out, sticking his nose where it didn’t belong.” Sam kept it up while Javier silently seethed. “What business was it of his to talk to you that way?”

  “It was none of his business.” The words fairly exploded out of Javier.

  “Something like that… I mean, I imagine it’s a point of honor. You can’t let him get away with disrespecting you like that in front of people. What would they say about you if you let him do that? You had to do something about
him, right? You didn’t have any choice.” Sam kept tightening the screws. All the while, the blood zinged through her veins. These were the moments she lived for. Come on, Javier. Give it up. “You couldn’t let a pussy like him say something like that about you and continue living. Isn’t that right, Javier?”

  She let him stew in that for a second, starting to fear that she wasn’t going to break him. “Your friend Monty… He said he’d never seen you so pissed off than you were after Calvin mouthed off. He said you were out to kill. Were you out to kill, Javier?”

  “Don’t answer that, Javier,” Kincaid said.

  “You’re fucking right I was!” Javier exploded. “That motherfucker had no idea who he was fucking with when he got in my face.”

  “Javier—”

  “Shut the fuck up,” he said to the lawyer. “You got no clue.” Rage infected every cell in Javier’s body and rolled off him in palpable waves.

  “What happened, Javier? What did you do to Calvin?”

  His jaw set in a mulish expression. “I don’t gotta tell you shit.”

  “No, you don’t, but I have enough to charge you with Eduardo Carter’s murder, whether you tell me shit or not about Calvin Worthington.” She gathered her paperwork and put it in the file folder and stood to leave the room.

  “What about my deal?” Javier shouted after her.

  Sam turned back to face him. “There’s no deal unless you tell me what happened to Calvin.”

  With his arms folded, he gave her a hateful look. “Calvin was a pussy.”

  “That doesn’t mean he deserved to die.”

  “Yes, he did.”

  “So what’re you saying?”

  “If I tell you what happened to Calvin, you won’t charge me on Carter? I didn’t touch him.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Javier, you need to stop talking right now,” Kincaid said.

  “I want my fucking deal. I shot at Calvin, but I didn’t go there to kill him. I just wanted to scare him.”

  “So you shot him by accident.”

  Javier shrugged. “I guess.”