Page 129 of State of Affairs (First Family 1)

Chapter Twenty-Six

“Where does she live?” Sam asked Cam when they were loaded into her car and headed out of the parking lot.

“Arlington.”

“Shit, fuck, damn, hell. That means we have to notify Arlington PD to request backup. Make the call, Cam.”

While he took care of that, Sam turned on her lights and siren and headed for the Memorial Bridge. She’d told Vernon they’d be moving fast. She hoped the Secret Service agents could keep up. On the ride across the Potomac into Northern Virginia, Sam tried not to think about the wide array of things that could’ve happened to Dani Carlucci.

“Are you scared?” Freddie asked in a low voice as Cam worked the phone in the back seat.

“Unsettled. Something has to be wrong for her to not return my calls. If I wasn’t so caught up in my own shit right now, I would’ve realized it sooner.”

“Don’t blame yourself. You’ve had a crazy few days.”

“It should never be so crazy that I don’t notice when one of my detectives goes missing.”

“You don’t know she’s missing. Anything could’ve happened.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”

One thought niggled at her mind, sending a chill of fear to her bone marrow. What if some lunatic wanted to get at her, but couldn’t get near her due to the Secret Service, so they struck at someone close to her? Sam’s mouth went dry, and her pulse skyrocketed as anxiety gripped every cell in her body. Was Ramsey right? Was she selfish to think she could continue on like nothing had changed? Was she putting her team at risk simply by showing up to work the way she always did?

She’d felt queasy before, but now she felt downright nauseated.

That she could’ve put one of the detectives she loved like family in danger was unimaginable.

“You’re spinning,” Freddie said. “Don’t do that until we know what’s up.”

“Hard not to. If this has something to do with me and Nick…”

“Sam. Stop. Take a breath.”

“Arlington is sending backup,” Cameron said.

They rode in tense silence for another twelve endless minutes before pulling into a townhouse complex that was less than a mile from where Nick had lived at the time of their first night together. Thinking about that was way better than considering what they might find at Dani’s place.

“There’s her car,” Cam said, gesturing to a dark blue Honda Accord.

Knowing her car was there only made Sam more nervous. Did that mean they could rule out her taking off for some R and R and forgetting to check in? She wasn’t due back to work until tonight, so she wasn’t technically AWOL, but all of them knew they could be called in at any time. As Sam always told them, murder stopped for nothing and no one. Their plans were always being upended by the case of the moment, and Dani had never given her any reason to believe she didn’t understand the expectations of the job.

Two Arlington cruisers were already in the lot when they arrived.

Sam went over to brief the officers on what was going on and asked them to be ready to provide backup if needed.

Cameron knocked on Dani’s front door, which was painted a shiny black. The townhouse itself was white with black shutters that matched the door. “Dani, open up! It’s Cam.” He knocked some more, but there was no answer.

A shout from behind them had Sam reaching for her weapon and spinning around to see a tall, frantic-looking blonde woman practically dragging an older man behind her as they came across the parking lot.

“You’re her lieutenant,” the woman cried. “I can’t reach my sister, and I asked the super to let me in! It’s not like Dani to not answer her phone. Something’s wrong. Is that why you’re here?”

“We were concerned too,” Sam said, realizing the presence of the sister and the super would move things along.

The woman, who Sam could now see bore a resemblance to Dani, began to cry. “I’m so afraid something terrible has happened.”

She went to the woman, the way she’d want Dani to if her sisters were panicking about her. “Let’s not jump to any conclusions.”

“She thinks the world of you,” the woman whispered.