Fatal Accusation (The Fatal Series)

by Marie Force

  Nick’s heart would’ve gone out to him if he hadn’t been mired in a mess of his own making.

  “I wanted you to hear from me that Gloria has decided to move home to Pierre for the remainder of my term.”

  Nick kept the fact that he already knew to himself. He wasn’t sure what he should say in response either.

  “In fact, she’s planning to file for divorce, so things could get nasty.”

  Nastier than they already were? He knew he was expected to express his condolences on the demise of the man’s marriage, but he really wanted to send up a cheer for Gloria for dumping the cheating asshole. Good for her for not “standing by her man” after he humiliated her.

  “Anyway, I just wanted you to know what’s going on.”

  “I appreciate the courtesy.”

  “I’m still not planning to resign, in case you were wondering.”

  “Okay.” That was good news.

  “Although, I expect the calls for my resignation to get louder when the news hits that Gloria is planning to divorce me.” Nelson raised his head and looked directly at Nick. “I regret that I’ve hurt my wife, my children, my grandchildren and the country this way.”

  “Maybe you should say that publicly. It might help.”

  “Maybe I will.” He sat up straighter. “Your wife is working on Tara’s case, right?”

  “She is.”

  “Do you know if she’s figured out who killed her?”

  It was interesting to note that the man seemed more grief-stricken when he spoke of Tara than he did when discussing his wife of forty years and her plan to divorce him. “I’m not sure where the case stands.” And even if he did know, he wasn’t at liberty to share that information with anyone, even the president.

  “I understand. Of course I’m praying for justice for her. She certainly didn’t deserve what happened to her, and it pains me to think it might’ve happened because of me.”

  Now Nick sat up straighter. “Why would you worry about that?”

  “Because of the timing. The news broke of our affair, and she was dead soon after. How can that be a coincidence?”

  “Mr. President, if you know anything about what happened to Tara, I urge you to share it with Sam as soon as possible. If you hold back information that could be relevant, you can be implicated in a crime.”

  “I don’t know anything that would be relevant.”

  “Are you sure?”

  He looked Nick dead in the eye. “I am.”

  “Was there anything else you wanted to discuss?”

  “No, not now.”

  Nick stood and buttoned his suit coat. “Very good. Then I’ll let you get back to your day.”

  “Nick...”

  He turned back to face the president, brow raised in inquiry. “I know you don’t approve of my behavior—”

  “Whether or not I approve is hardly relevant, sir.”

  “Still...I’m sorry that I disappointed you along with everyone else. It was never my intention to cause so much hurt to the people around me.”

  “If I might ask... What was your intention when you began the relationship with Tara?”

  “I know it may sound silly to you. Hell, it sounds silly to me when I say it out loud. But I fell in love with her. She was young and beautiful and exciting and...I’m the worst sort of cliché, but that’s just what happened.”

  “Did you know she was expecting a child?”

  “I didn’t.” He looked down at the floor. “I ended things with Tara in January. After the inauguration, I came clean to Gloria. I confessed my indiscretion and begged for her forgiveness.” Nelson glanced at Nick. “She agreed to work on putting things back together, as long as the affair remained private. Needless to say, after the news went public, all bets were off as far as Gloria was concerned. I hate that she was humiliated in this way.”

  What did you think would happen? Nick wanted to ask him, but held his tongue. He had no desire to pile on at this point.

  “Do you have any idea how the story became public?”

  “It certainly didn’t come from me. My staff is speculating that Tara released it, hoping to put pressure on me to acknowledge the child. What she didn’t know, however, is that there’s no way I could be the baby’s father. I, um, had a vasectomy years ago, after our youngest was born. I’ve provided documentation to that effect to the police.”

  Nick couldn’t believe he was actually standing in the Oval Office discussing the president’s affair and his vasectomy. It was just too sordid to be believed.

  “I just want to thank you for your support and your loyalty,” Nelson said.

  “I want to be clear about something. I do not support or approve of what you did to your wife, who is a decent, wonderful, lovely woman. She certainly didn’t deserve this, especially when she was dealing with a life-threatening illness. This whole thing makes me sick, frankly.”

  “I understand. All I can do is apologize for my behavior and try to do better in the future.”

  “You don’t have to apologize to me.”

  “And yet I feel the need to anyway. Your tenure as vice president has been far more dramatic than you ever could’ve anticipated, and that’s due to me and my son.”

  Nick couldn’t deny that, so he didn’t say anything.

  “At any rate, I’ve taken enough of your time. Thanks for coming in.”

  “No problem.” Nick left the Oval Office and headed back to his own office with Brant in tow. He felt like he needed a shower after that conversation. “I need a minute,” he told Terry as he ducked into his office and shut the door. He withdrew his phone and called Sam.

  “Hey.” She sounded rushed and maybe a little breathless. “What’s up?”

  “I just met with Nelson again. He told me he fell in love with Tara but ended it after the inauguration. He said he didn’t know Tara was expecting and was as shocked as everyone else when the news broke about the child. He confirmed that Tara didn’t know about the vasectomy. He told Gloria about the affair, and they were working on putting things back together. Her only stipulation was that the affair remain private. When the news leaked, that blew the lid off their marriage. She’s moving back to Pierre and planning to divorce him.”

  “Whoa. You did good work, deputy. This is all very helpful.”

  He laughed at the title she’d given him. “It was so surreal being in the Oval Office talking about his affair and his vasectomy.”

  “Indeed. I never imagined the day would come when the president’s vasectomy would figure into one of my cases.”

  “They didn’t cover presidential vasectomies at the academy?”

  “Believe it or not, that never came up.” She winced audibly. “Bad pun.”

  “Stop,” he said, laughing. “I don’t need that visual in my head.”

  “You said head.”

  He choked on a laugh. “Sam! Knock it off.”

  “Your behavior is not very vice presidential.”

  “No, it isn’t, and that’s because my wife has the sense of humor of a junior high school boy.”

  “Aw, thanks. That might be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

  “In other news, are you making any progress on the case?”

  “I’m digging in hard on where the story about the affair came from and tracing it back to its origins. We’re hobbled without her phone and the dating app is still stonewalling. A woman is dead and all they care about is protecting their bottom line.”

  “Along with the privacy of their millions of users.”

  “To hell with privacy. A woman is dead!”

  “She’s very lucky to have you working on her behalf, babe.”

  “You know what I’m most afraid of with this one?”

  “What’s that?”

  “That the media
will slut-shame her for playing the field after her breakup. I’m trying to finesse it so no one knows about anyone other than the baby’s father and Nelson, but it’s like trying to keep a lid on a pressure cooker. Everyone and their brother is digging into her background and looking for dirt. When there’s dirt to be found, they’ll find it.”

  “Hopefully, you can solve the case before they get too far.”

  “That’s the goal. I’ve got to get back to it. Thanks for the help.”

  “Anytime. Call me if you need me.”

  “I will. Love you.”

  “Love you too.” As he ended the call, he glanced at the clock and tried not to groan at the idea of another eight hours before they’d be together again. Even after all this time, he still counted the hours until he could see her. He would never understand men like Nelson or why they hurt the women they loved. He’d rather be dead than do anything to hurt Sam. She was the most important thing in his life, along with their kids. All he wanted was as much time as he could get with her and their family.

  This had been a tough time for her, and watching her soldier on the way she had made him so proud of her. He sat behind his desk and fired up his computer. Opening the browser, he did a search for local florists, found one that could deliver that day and placed an order for flowers to be delivered to her at work.

  It was corny and clichéd and she’d probably be pissed for the public display of affection, but as he composed the message and placed the order, he couldn’t find it in him to care if she was pissed. He loved her, and he wanted the whole damned world to know it.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  SAM HELD A brief closed-door meeting in her office with Freddie, Jeannie and Cameron before their shift officially began. “Ramsey is coming for us. It’s time for us to fight fire with fire.”

  “What do you have in mind, LT?” Green asked.

  “He’s looking for dirt on us, so we’re going to return the favor. Let’s take a nice, quiet look at what he’s got going on behind the scenes.” She made eye contact with each of them. “That said, no one is required to participate in this. If I had my druthers, none of us would be doing something like this to a colleague.”

  “I’m in,” Cruz said.

  “Me too,” McBride said.

  Green hesitated, but only for a second. “Me three.”

  Sam met the gaze of the earnest detective who’d replaced Arnold, the most by-the-book member of her team. “You’re sure?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “No one outside the four of us is to know about this, and you report anything you find directly to me in person. No paper trails or emails or texts. Everything is verbal. Understood?”

  They nodded in agreement.

  “The priority is the Weber case and finishing the paperwork on Conklin. This takes a backseat to the regular stuff.” Which meant it would take a while. That was fine. She’d rather they do it right than fast.

  With everyone on the same page, she released them to start their shift, hoping she was doing the right thing by fighting Ramsey with some of his own tactics. If it went bad, she’d take the heat for all of them.

  Malone had gotten the warrants for Tara’s phone and her account on the dating app, but neither company had yet complied with the order to turn over the information they’d requested. In truth, she wasn’t holding out any hope for the dating app. If word got out that they were disclosing private information about their clients to the police, their business would be ruined. She fully expected them to fight the order in court, which would tie things up long enough for the investigation to play out without them.

  The cell phone data, however, she expected to receive anytime now, and once they had that, they could find out who Tara had been talking to around the time her child was conceived as well as her recent communications. In other words, they could get what they needed from the dating app without the dating app ponying up. However, it gave her great pleasure to know the app’s management was probably sweating the warrant and having to pay for lawyers to figure out how to fight it.

  She found the report she’d been promised detailing the president’s vasectomy in her email and checked that box.

  Her phone rang with a call from Faith Miller. “Hey, what’s up?”

  “After the hearing about the warrant yesterday, I got a call from the attorney for the dating app company who told me unofficially that the ‘person in question’ hadn’t been active on the app in more than fifteen months.”

  “Well, that’s info we didn’t have before. Thank you for that.”

  “No problem. Wish it could’ve been more.”

  “It’s just enough. Thanks, Faith.”

  “Sure thing.”

  After ending the call and notifying her team of the development with the dating app, Sam turned her attention toward tracing the origins of the story that had broken about Tara’s affair with the president. She placed a call to Darren Tabor at the Washington Star.

  “This is an unexpected surprise. By any chance, are you calling to tell me how you feel about the possibility of moving to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?”

  “Shockingly, that’s not why I’m calling.”

  “Oh damn. And here I thought I was going to get the exclusive of the year.”

  “Sorry to disappoint.”

  His huff of laughter came through loud and clear. “No, you’re not.”

  “No, I’m not, but I’m wondering if you’ve gotten anywhere on figuring out the origins of the Nelson affair story. I’m trying to figure out who knew what and when.”

  “I was going to call you this morning. I’ve done some digging, and from what I can tell, the first place to have the story was a small website called DailyPolitic. Have you heard of it?”

  “I haven’t.”

  “It’s relatively new and made its mark during the last election cycle with some rather revolutionary reporting about the various candidates.”

  Sam was ashamed to admit that she’d paid very little attention to the relentless coverage of the campaign. She often wondered why it was allowed to drag on for years, rather than just being confined to the election year. The resources expended to elect people to office made her crazy when she thought of all the causes that could benefit from the obscene amounts of money that went toward the business of politics.

  Other than Nick’s involvement, she kept her distance, mostly because there was so much about the process that irritated her.

  “The person you need to speak with there is a guy named Tim Finley. He’s the CEO and editor in chief. If anyone would know where that story came from, it’s him. Their offices are on Connecticut Avenue.”

  “This is very helpful, Darren. This earns you some points in your column.”

  “How can I cash in these points toward an exclusive about how you and the VP are handling the latest Nelson scandal?”

  “The points are blacked out on that topic, but feel free to use them toward a different topic.”

  “That’s funny, but I refuse to laugh because it might encourage you to continue stonewalling your favorite reporter.”

  “When did I ever say you were my favorite reporter?”

  “It’s so obvious to me and everyone else that I’m your favorite.”

  “You’re giving yourself an awful lot of credit.”

  “It’s okay. I know the truth.”

  “Whatever. How’s Roni holding up?”

  “Not well from what I’m hearing. Someone else on our team had to write the obit. She couldn’t bring herself to do it.”

  Sam grimaced, recalling how important it had been to Roni, an obituary reporter at the Star, to get her husband’s story just right. “I feel so badly for her. She had her whole life figured out and then it’s just over.” And what’d happened to Roni struck at Sam’s deepest fears about something happening to N
ick. She shuddered from the sick feeling that went through her at the very thought of having to face the rest of her life without him. She wasn’t at all sure she could do it.

  “It’s so hard to believe,” Darren said. “We were just dancing at their wedding not that long ago, and now we have to go to his funeral. Hard to wrap your head around something like this.”

  “I know. Well, thanks for the info.”

  “I’m available at any time for an exclusive.”

  “Bye, Darren.” He was tenacious. She’d give him that, and he actually was her favorite reporter, due to his inherent fairness and ability to portray victims of violent crime in a thoughtful, caring manner. But she couldn’t ever tell him that.

  “Cruz!”

  Freddie came to the door of her office. “You bellowed?”

  “I’ve got a thread to pull.”

  “What’s that?”

  She told him about DailyPolitic and the CEO/editor they needed to see. “A guy by the name of Tim Finley. Do a run on him and get me the lowdown. When you’re done with that, we’ll pay him a visit.”

  “Got it.”

  Freddie no sooner walked away than Malone appeared at her door. He had an odd look to him as he came in and shut the door, taking a seat in her visitor chair.

  “What’s up?”

  “Sometimes I hate this job.”

  Sam had never heard him say anything like that and it had her sitting up straighter in her chair as her stomach dropped with dread. “Why?” She almost didn’t want to know.

  “Hernandez.”

  The captain in charge of Patrol. “What about him?”

  “He’s up to his eyeballs in debt.”

  “Okay...”

  “Because he has a gambling problem.”

  Sam didn’t need Malone to connect the dots for her. If Hernandez had known about the gambling ring, he probably also knew the lengths the organizers had gone to in order to protect their cash cow.

  “We had the FBI’s lab analyze handwriting samples from Hernandez’s reports against the card you received after your dad died.”

  “Let me guess. A perfect match.”