Fatal Deception

by Marie Force

  “Smith is the tip of the iceberg,” she said. “We’ve got bigger fish to fry before this one is wrapped up.”

  “Explain.”

  “One or all of the Patterson gave the order to have Victoria eliminated.”

  Malone released a low whistle. “You’ll take down the entire campaign with the accusation alone.”

  “That’s why I’m going to be damned sure before a word of this hits the press.”

  “Holy shit. You weren’t kidding when you said this was big.”

  “You gotta help me keep a tight lid on this until we we’ve got it all sewed up.”

  “Absolutely. What’s your plan?”

  She lowered her voice and dropped back as Cruz marched Jerry to the elevator. “I’m going to let Jerry cool his heels at HQ in the hope that some time in custody might make him more forthcoming. He’s got a record, so he knows what he’s in for if he gets sent back to prison.”

  “The Patterson organization will either swoop down en masse or abandon him completely.”

  “I’m banking on option B. I think the second we arrested Jerry Smith, he became persona non grata to the Patterson family. They’re going to act like they’ve never met the guy, that anything he’s done was all his idea of loyalty. They had nothing to do with it. Yada, yada.”

  “You’re probably right about that.”

  “He’s about to get a hard lesson on who his so-called family will protect when the shit hits the fan. We’ll be right in.”

  “I’ll request the warrants.”

  “We need that DNA report on Victoria too.”

  “I’m on it.”

  “Tight lid, Captain.”

  “You got it, Lieutenant.”

  * * *

  In deference to the media camped out front and because she wasn’t quite ready to tip her hand to the Patterson family, Sam and Freddie escorted Jerry Smith into HQ through the morgue entrance. “Take him up to processing,” Sam said to Freddie. Smith would be strip-searched, fingerprinted and photographed, which ought to enhance his good mood. She lowered her voice so only Freddie could hear her. “I want to know if there are any scratches on him.”

  Freddie nodded in understanding.

  “And then put him in interrogation.”

  “Got it.”

  Sam headed into the morgue to find Lindsey. “Hey, Doc?”

  “In here,” Lindsey called from her office.

  “I need you.”

  “What can I do for you, Lieutenant?”

  “I need you to take a DNA swab and rush through the results.”

  “Do you realize that every request we receive has the word ‘rush’ attached to it?”

  Sam smiled at the saucy reply from her friend. “You’re not going to get a rise out of me. I’m having a fantastic day. The best day I’ve had in longer than I can remember.”

  “Are you about to break into song?”

  “I very well could before this day is over.”

  “I take it you’ve had a break in the Kavanaugh case.”

  “Oh yeah, and wait ’til you get a load of this one. That’s all I can say.”

  “Bigger than the DNC chairman, the speaker of the House and a senior senator?”

  “Maybe not quite that big, but it’s big. We’re waiting on the warrant for the DNA. I’ll give you a call when it comes through.”

  “I’ll be here. How’s the face?”

  “Still hurts like a mo-fo, but nothing’s getting me down today, my friend.” Sam turned to leave but stopped herself. She’d been trying to make an effort to be a better friend to the people who mattered to her, and Lindsey mattered. “How are things with Terry? You haven’t said much lately.”

  Lindsey smiled, and a soft glow lit her green eyes. “Things are great. I’m so glad I took a chance on him. It was so totally worth it. He was worth it.”

  “I’m glad you’re happy. You guys look great together.”

  “Thanks, and thank you for getting married and giving me the chance to meet him.”

  “Happy to oblige, even if the cross-pollination of my world and Nick’s world continues to give me hives.” Sam added a shudder for dramatic effect.

  “They have medication for that,” Lindsey said drolly.

  “Ha-ha.”

  “I hear you’ll be taking a trip to Charlotte later in the month.”

  For a brief second, Sam didn’t know what she was talking about, and then she remembered. “Oh, right. The convention.” It hadn’t occurred to her until that very moment that she’d have to be there with Nick. God, I really am a jerk, she thought.

  Lindsey raised a brow. “It’s a pretty big deal, Sam.”

  “So I’m told.”

  “Are you freaking out?”

  “Me? Freak out? Of course not.”

  “Whatever you say,” Lindsey said with a snort of laughter. “I’m freaking out, and it’s not my husband who’s doing the keynote at the Democratic National Convention.”

  “Why are you freaking out?”

  “Because my boyfriend is writing the speech, and he’s freaking out. He said it has to be perfect. No pressure or anything.”

  Sam was almost ashamed to admit that she’d not given a thought to what would go into preparing Nick for his big moment. “I’m sure he’ll do a great job.”

  “Yeah,” Lindsey said, her smile fading.

  “What?”

  “I worry, you know? His recovery is still so new, and stress can be a trigger.”

  “He’s doing great, and he seems to be loving his new life. Why would he risk all that?”

  “I know you’re right, but I still worry.”

  “I’m sure it’ll all work out. He’s the perfect person to write the speech. Nick is lucky to have him on his team, and he knows it.”

  Lindsey nodded in agreement.

  “Stay close to the phone.”

  “You got it.”

  As Sam traversed the winding corridors from the morgue to the pit, she thought about the conversation with Lindsey, which had served as somewhat of a wake-up call that she needed to be more tuned into what was going on with her husband in the next few weeks. Her work almost always took center stage in their relationship, but his was equally important—never more so than now with the convention and election looming.

  She was anxious all of a sudden to see him.

  Freddie met her in the pit. “He’s in interrogation one. Officer DuPont is with him.”

  “Phone call?”

  Freddie nodded. “He called Christian Patterson, told him he’d been arrested and he needed a lawyer. Patterson said they’d send someone right over.”

  “Excellent.”

  “What do we do now?”

  “We wait. If I’ve called this one right, Patterson won’t be sending anyone, and Smith has had his last contact with the Patterson family.”

  “And if you’re wrong?”

  “When does that ever happen?”

  “You’re insufferable, you know that?”

  “I have been told that a time or two.” Sam checked her watch. Four twenty-five. “Perfect timing. Everyone will be here for the four-thirty meeting in five minutes. Call the U.S. Attorney’s office and get one of the AUSAs down here. I want them in on this going forward.”

  “Are you going to tell them what we’ve got?”

  “I haven’t decided yet.”

  “You’d better make up your mind. There’s Hill now.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Ignoring the inquisitive look Hill sent her way as he stepped into the pit, Sam went into her office to give her e-mail a quick scan before the meeting. She also sent a text to Tracy to ask how Angela was doing.

  “She’s in transition,” Tracy replied a minute later. “Lots of pain, but hanging in there. You should have a new niece in the next couple of hours.”

  “Tell her I love her,” Sam replied. “And I’ll be there soon.”

  “Will do.”

  Sam took a deep breath as a swel
l of emotions overtook her. She was excited to welcome a new niece and so happy for Angela and her husband, Spencer, who’d tried for four long years to have a second child after Jack was born and had nearly given up when Angela got pregnant. Still, Sam couldn’t escape the fact that she was also jealous that her sisters were able to have children when she’d been so cursed with fertility issues.

  “Maybe this time,” she whispered.

  “Everything okay, Lieutenant?” Hill asked from the doorway to her office.

  Startled to see him, Sam said, “Sure. Yeah. What’s up? Did you meet with the doctor who implanted the GPS device?”

  “Yep. He was on safari with the family when it happened, which is why we didn’t hear from him about the device.”

  “I’d wondered about that.”

  Checking his notes, Hill said, “According to the doctor, the GPS device is becoming more common. He said some parents are more paranoid than others. Victoria fell squarely into the paranoid department. When I asked him if she seemed to think she had good reason to be concerned, he said she was very thorough in vetting the safety and security measures at the hospital.”

  “So she was worried from the beginning about someone taking her kid.”

  “Seems that way.”

  “I want to ask Derek about that before the meeting. I’ll be right in.”

  Hill started to turn away but stopped himself. “I saw your new assistant at the hospital.”

  “Shelby?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What was she doing there?”

  “Seeing Saltzman and crying—a lot. She told me she’s trying to have a baby.”

  Sam nodded. “She’s jazzed on hormones. They’re making her crazy.”

  “Apparently. I’ll let you make the call.”

  After he walked away, Sam picked up the phone and dialed the number for Derek’s cell phone. He answered on the third ring.

  “Hey, it’s Sam.”

  “Oh, hi. How’s it going? Do you know anything yet?”

  “We’re getting closer. I should have something for you in the next day or two.”

  “Good,” he said in a dull, flat tone. “I know I should be happy to hear that, but the reality is that catching the person who killed Victoria won’t bring her back. It won’t tell me what I really want to know.”

  Sam didn’t have to ask him what that was. “How’s Maeve?”

  “She’s great. Totally and blissfully clueless. She’s giving us something else to focus on besides the grief.”

  “I’m so glad she’s safe and sound. Speaking of her safety, I need to ask about whether Victoria was particularly concerned with her own safety or Maeve’s.”

  “Yes,” he said. “She was over the top when it came to safety. Maybe she always suspected someone might kill her and steal Maeve, or just steal Maeve. She was always checking the doors and windows at night. More than once, I caught her doing it in the middle of the night. I used to tease her for being OCD, but now I wonder if she didn’t have good reason to be fearful.”

  “She may have.” Sam wasn’t yet willing to tip her hand on what they’d uncovered. “This really helps. Thank you.”

  “Sure, whatever I can do. Maeve is up from her nap, so I need to go to her. Keep me posted?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Thanks, Sam. I appreciate all you’re doing.”

  “No problem.”

  His overwhelming sadness went a long way toward ruining her good mood. While it was a kick to be closing in on a killer, at the end of the day, Derek’s wife would still be dead, and he’d still have questions that might never be answered to his satisfaction.

  She was getting up to head to the conference room when her cell phone rang. Glancing at the caller ID, she saw Jeannie McBride’s name and took the call.

  “Hey, what’s up?”

  “I need to see you.”

  Sam’s stomach and her good mood took another nosedive. “I’m going into a meeting, and then I can meet you. My house in an hour?”

  “I’ll be there.”

  “If I’m late—”

  “I’ll wait for you.”

  “See you then.” Sam was almost certain she didn’t want to hear whatever Jeannie had to tell her. She wanted the truth, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t a tiny bit afraid of the truth. Anything to do with her dad was a weak spot for her, especially since he’d been so grievously injured by a shooter who remained at large in a case that had gone colder than the Alaskan wilderness.

  She didn’t want to hear that he’d acted less than heroically during the Fitzgerald investigation. She didn’t want anything to ever besmirch his sterling reputation. And she certainly didn’t want to be responsible for stirring up a hornet’s nest that would cause heartburn for him or the department.

  This is a fine spot you’re in, she thought as she went to the conference room for the meeting. The expression “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” came to mind.

  “Let’s get this done, people,” she said as she walked into the room where Freddie, Hill, Gonzo, Arnold, Malone and Farnsworth waited for her along with Assistant U.S. Attorney Charity Miller. “Cruz, anything from the strip search?”

  “What strip search?” Hill asked in a testy tone.

  “Hang on a sec. We’ll get to that.”

  Cruz held up a photo of a hairy chest with three angry-looking scratches slashing from his collarbone to his sternum and a second photo that included Jerry’s head along with his chest. The bruise on his jaw was plainly evident.

  “Excellent,” Sam said, buzzing with excitement. “Gonzo, what’d you get in West Virginia?”

  “Interesting info from Mrs. Eldridge. Her husband, Will, was Arnie Patterson’s childhood friend.”

  “As in Arnie Patterson the presidential candidate?” Hill asked.

  “The one and only,” Sam said. “We’ve established a link to him too. I’ll get to that in a minute. What else, Gonzo?”

  “Denise Desposito was Eldridge’s daughter. From what the wife said, Eldridge worked for Patterson Financial Group until Denise was arrested in a Medicare scheme. After that, Will was fired, and Arnie refused to take Will’s phone calls. They never heard from him again. She says Will died of a broken heart after they lost Denise in a prison fight. Apparently, she was scuffling with another prisoner and hit her head when she fell.”

  Sam’s good mood came back with a vengeance. With each thread they pulled, the net tightened around the Patterson family.

  “Agent Hill, what’ve you got?”

  A visibly annoyed Hill recounted his visit with Dr. Saltzman and what he’d learned about Victoria Kavanaugh’s fixation on safety and security. “I also went by Bertha Ray’s house, or what’s left of it, which wasn’t much. The fire marshal said it was definitely arson. The fire took the houses on either side of hers too.”

  “You spoke with her about her son?”

  “I did. I have the name of his closest friend, and I’m planning to track him down after this meeting.”

  “Good work. So Cruz and I had an interesting day too. What I’m about to tell you cannot leave this room. You can’t mention it at home to your significant other or to any other member of the department or any other living human being. If you feel the need to tell someone, share it with your dog. We must keep a tight lid on this if we’re going to make a case against the people behind Victoria’s murder. Am I clear on that?”

  Everyone in the room nodded in agreement.

  Sam began with their visit to Congressman Tornquist and took them through the entire story, ending with the arrest of Jerry Smith. When she was done, she looked around the room at one stunned face after another.

  “So you’re saying,” Hill began, “that the Patterson camp planted someone in the Nelson camp years ago in anticipation of Patterson’s run for president and then killed her?”

  “Had her killed,” Sam said. “Big difference. Jerry Smith is the small fish in this case. He did the dirty deed, but someon
e above him set up this whole thing and ordered the hit on Victoria. That’s the person—or people—I want.”

  “Why kill her now?” Hill asked.

  “That I don’t know yet,” Sam said. “Perhaps she clammed up on them or threatened to expose them. Who knows? We need to go through the phone records again. If I can place even one phone call from a member of the Patterson family or staff on her phone, we’ve got them nailed.”

  “I’m almost certain none of the numbers matched anyone named Patterson,” Gonzo said.

  “How about a Jonathan Thayer or Porter Gillespie?” Sam asked.

  “Gillespie rings a bell,” Gonzo said. “Let me go get the file on that. We’ve only gotten through the letter E on investigating the names that came up from the phone dump.”

  Sam nodded, and he rushed from the room. She positively buzzed with adrenaline zipping through her veins like cars on the Beltway at rush hour.

  “What’s your plan with Smith, Lieutenant?” Chief Farnsworth asked from his usual post in the back of the room.

  “He’s made his phone call to Christian Patterson, letting him know he needs an attorney. It’s my belief that Patterson will ignore the request, so I’m going to let Smith stew in the interrogation room—under guard—until it sets in that he’s been abandoned. Might take most of the night for him to catch a clue, seeing as how he referred to the Patterson as family.”

  “You really think they’ll hang him out to dry?” Hill asked.

  “I’m almost sure they will,” Sam said.

  “Why would they do that when he knows as much as he does?”

  “They’re counting on his loyalty to keep him quiet,” Sam said, more certain by the moment that she was right about how this would play out. “I’ll let him sit until he gets that they aren’t coming, and then I’ll try to break him. In the meantime, I’m waiting for a warrant to get Smith’s DNA, and if it hits with what we found under Victoria’s nails, at the very least we’ve got our killer. I want the big fish, though. I want Patterson and his sons, if they were behind this.”

  “What if you can’t get them?” Farnsworth asked.

  “Then we release everything we uncovered about Victoria and everything we’ve got on Smith to the media and let the public make their own conclusions. That ought to do enough to ruin his aspirations so we don’t end up with a murderer in the White House.”