Page 23 of State of Grace (First Family 2)

“Oh, we will. Don’t worry.”

When Sam walked around the van, she found Detective Dani Carlucci peering inside the window. Tall, blonde and curvy, Dani had recently scared the crap out of Sam by going unresponsive. When they’d gone to check on her, they’d found her seriously ill from food poisoning. Sam hadn’t seen her since she’d come back to work. “Hey,” she said. “How you feeling?”

“Better. Not one hundred percent yet, but good enough to come back to work.”

“Salmonella is the worst, from what I’ve heard.”

“I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, except Detective Ramsey.”

Sam laughed at the mention of their nemesis. “We wish all forms of dysentery on him.”

“Indeed. What’ve we got?”

Sam brought her up to speed on what she’d learned so far, waving to the Crime Scene Unit commander, Lieutenant Haggerty, as he arrived, going through the details again with him.

“Lieutenant,” Smyth said, “the locksmith is here.”

“Thank you, Officer Smyth. Let’s get the onlookers moved out of here before we open the doors.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

The locksmith recognized Sam but didn’t make a big deal out of it, which earned him points with her. He went right to work and had them inside the van five minutes later. When the doors opened, the foul odor came rushing out, making Sam and the others gag.

“Gnarly,” the locksmith said, summing it up with one well-chosen word.

Inside the van, the bound, gagged body of a blonde female had been placed on the floor of the second row of seats and covered with a blanket. If not for the smell, she might never have been noticed.

Carlucci took photos with her phone while Sam leaned in for a closer look at the victim. With the duct tape on the woman’s face, Sam couldn’t see much. However, she noted the woman’s purse, computer bag and suitcase were all still in the car, which more or less ruled out any sort of robbery motive. The only thing that she didn’t see were the car keys. After donning latex gloves, she found the woman’s wallet in her purse and found her license. Holding it up under the car’s dome light, she noted the woman’s smiling face. Her name was Pamela Tappen.

“Let’s bag up her possessions and get them to the lab for processing.” After they’d done that and sent the items to the lab via a Patrol officer, Sam said, “Let’s wait for the ME, and then we can head to the Tappens’s house to see what we can find out about Pamela.”

“I’m with you, LT,” Carlucci said.

The Tappen family lived in a three-story townhome that was connected to a dozen others. The façade was white with black shutters, and the stairs had been sanded for ice.

“What I want to know,” Dani said, “is how she got so stinky when it’s so cold. Wouldn’t the cold act almost like a fridge?”

“Bodily fluids,” Sam said bluntly.

“Ugh, so she was alive in there for a while?”

“It’s a theory.”

Sam rang the doorbell and noted it was a regular, average doorbell and not the ridiculous symphony orchestra she’d encountered at the Thorn mausoleum. A fiftysomething man came to the door wearing an apron that said Kiss the Chef. He had a towel thrown over his shoulder, and the aromas of garlic and basil he brought with him made Sam’s mouth water.

The man did a double take when he saw who was on his front porch.

“Mr. Tappen, I’m Lieutenant Holland, and this is Detective Carlucci. We wondered if we could speak to you for a moment.”

“Of course, but what’s this about?” he asked as he stepped aside to admit them into the nicely kept home.

“Do you own a white Honda Odyssey minivan?” Sam asked.

“I do. That’s my wife’s car.”

“What’s your wife’s name?”

“Pam.” All at once, he seemed to realize that police being at his door could mean only one thing. “Is something wrong with her?”