Page 68 of State of Affairs (First Family 1)

Wincing, she turned her head so Sam could see a wound in her neck.

Sam immediately put pressure on it to stop the blood gushing from it. The other woman cried out in pain. “Sorry. I know it hurts. What’s your name?”

“Shanice Williams.”

“Hang in there for another minute, Shanice. Help is on the way.”

“What’ve we got?” Freddie asked when he joined her with a sheet they used to cover the young woman.

“Two vics, one probably DOA.” She nodded to the knife. “Bag that and then see if he’s got ID on him.”

Freddie stored the knife in an evidence bag and then went back to the male victim to find his wallet. He opened it, found the man’s driver’s license and took a photo of it. “Eduardo Carter, age twenty-three.”

“Such a waste.”

EMTs arrived a minute later and worked feverishly to stabilize the woman and prepare her for transport.

To Freddie and Gonzo, who’d also joined them, Sam said, “Let’s start a canvass of the area and see if anyone saw or heard anything. Find out if we’ve got cameras nearby, and get me that footage. Get Crime Scene here to do a full analysis.”

They left the alley to see to her orders while Sam stayed with the young woman until she was loaded into the back of the ambulance.

“Where’re you taking her?” Sam asked the EMTs.

“GW Trauma.”

“Is she going to make it?”

“She’s stable even though she lost a lot of blood.”

Since she was stable, Sam would talk to Shanice in the morning, after she’d been treated for her injuries. Sam joined Cruz and Gonzo to knock on neighborhood doors, looking for witnesses, but they couldn’t find anyone who’d admit to having seen anything. After an hour of working both sides of the avenue and putting up with shocked people who recognized her, she checked in with Lieutenant Haggerty, the Crime Scene Unit commander.

“We’re not finding much of anything,” Haggerty said. “I sent the knife to the lab for analysis.”

“Keep me posted on what the lab has to say.”

“Will do.”

They waited until Dr. Byron Tomlinson, one of the deputy medical examiners, arrived on the scene with his team.

Byron squatted to take a closer look at Eduardo’s wound. “Fancy meeting you here,” he said to Sam.

“What’s that mean?”

“Didn’t think we’d be seeing you out here anymore.”

“You thought wrong.”

“I see that. No detail?” he asked, looking around for Secret Service agents.

“Just do your job, Byron, so I can do mine, okay?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And don’t call me that.”

He chuckled at her testy tone even as he moved forward with his exam of the victim. “Looks like one stab wound straight to the heart. No defensive wounds to his hands,” Byron said as he placed bags on them to preserve evidence. Byron and his colleagues transferred the young man’s body to a gurney and loaded it into the back of their truck. “I’ll shoot you a report the minute I have it.”

“Thanks.”