Page 127 of State of Grace (First Family 2)

“We’re looking at everyone until we find the person who killed your wife.”

“My kids didn’t do it. The boys were in Delaware with me, and Molly was in Boston.”

“Thank you for reconfirming your whereabouts.”

“Please don’t upset their lives any more than they’ve already been,” he said with a pleading edge to his voice. “There’s no way any of them could’ve done this. Pam was everything to them.”

“Thank you again for your time,” Sam said. “We’ll be in touch.”

He saw them out and was still standing in the doorway when they drove away.

“What’re you thinking?” Freddie asked.

“That he’s a father who naturally wants to protect his children and can’t possibly imagine any of them being capable of something like this.”

“No parent wants to believe they raised a murderer. Are we going to Josie Ouellette next?”

Sam thought about that for a second. “No, I want to see Paula again.” If anyone knew the scoop, it would be Pam’s best friend. “Give her a call and find out where she is.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Freddie made the call and learned Paula was at work at a doctor’s office on Connecticut Avenue Northwest. He put the directions into his phone.

They arrived twenty minutes later after navigating around frustrating traffic delays caused by construction. “I’ll never understand why they can’t do all the road shit in the middle of the night.”

“Agreed. It makes no sense to do any of it during the day around here.”

“And it irritates me.”

“I’ll add that to the list.”

“I’m going to have Nick call the mayor and ask her why they have to do road construction during the day.”

“Are you really?”

“I’ll suggest to him that he might want to ask about that.”

“I’m sure he’ll get right on it since he has nothing better to do.”

Sam shot him a look and caught him trying to hold back a laugh, which led her gaze to the sign for the doctor’s office. “Oh my God. Paula works for a proctologist? No way. My ass would have to be falling off before I brought it to a proctologist.”

He couldn’t hold that laugh in. “I’ll make a note to bring you here only if your ass is actually falling off.”

“Not one second before.”

Inside the doctor’s office, Sam noticed that none of the patients in the waiting room gawked at her, which was a welcome relief from the usual routine. If she were a patient here, she wouldn’t want to make eye contact with anyone either. Not that there was anything wrong with proctology. Of course there wasn’t.

Paula waved for them to come on back and led them to a conference room.

“We’re sorry to bother you at work,” Sam said.

“It’s okay. Whatever I can do to help you find who did this to Pam.”

“Did she talk to you at all about Mark’s children?”

The question seemed to surprise Paula. “Aidan is a teammate of her sons. He’s a big deal. Everyone expects him to go all the way with football.”

Since Aidan has an airtight alibi for the time of murder, Sam moved on. “What about his sisters?” Sam consulted her notes. “Grace, Michaela and Alexis. Did she ever speak of them?”