Page 65 of State of Grace (First Family 2)

He swallowed hard enough that his Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat. For a long moment, he said nothing as he stared blankly at the wall behind them. When he shifted his gaze back to her, he said, “I’d like to speak to an attorney.”

While he made the phone call to the attorney, Sam texted Freddie. Didn’t see that coming.

I know, right?

My backbone was tingling.

Ew.

No, listen, that usually means I need to pay closer attention. It’s like my intuition system or something.

Well, you and your tingling backbone were right. Something’s up.

What do you think it will be?

I have no idea. Her marriage with Bob seemed solid.

At least HE thought so. Who knows what she was up to?

“My attorney will be here in fifteen minutes.”

Sam was thrilled to hear someone was on the way. Waiting for attorneys to arrive could take half a day or longer sometimes. “I’m surprised you were able to get someone that fast.”

“He’s my brother-in-law.”

“Does he specialize in criminal law?”

Ouellette blanched at the word criminal. “No, he doesn’t, but I don’t need a criminal lawyer, because I haven’t committed a crime.”

Sam wanted to tell him he was a fool to trust something like this to a lawyer who didn’t regularly work with the police, but she wasn’t paid to hand out free legal advice. So she kept her mouth shut and read a text from Freddie.

He’s a fool to trust this to a hack.

Sometimes it freaked her out the way he read her mind. Was just thinking the same thing. But that’s not our problem. He knows something. I want to know what that is. He wants a lawyer present, so we’ll wait.

How long? I’m starving.

Sam hoped the glare she sent his way sent the message that he needed to shut up about being hungry. He was always hungry. There was never a time when he couldn’t eat a full meal, even if he’d just had one. Dreaming about the day his shit diet caught up to him gave her something to look forward to.

She received a phone call from Captain Malone and stepped outside to take it. “What’s up?”

“That’s what I’m calling to ask you. Where are we with the Tappen case?”

“We may have something, but I won’t know for sure for a bit.”

“What’ve you got?”

She explained about Ouellette and his request for an attorney.

“Interesting. If he’s worried about having a lawyer there, it must be something.”

“Your thought matches mine, which is why Cruz and I are waiting for the brother-in-law lawyer to get here.”

“All right. Let me know what it turns out to be.”

“Will do. I also gave McBride the green light to dig into one of Stahl’s unsolved cases—the disappearance of a Black female teenager that was never investigated.”

“Son of a bitch,” Malone muttered. “What the hell was wrong with him?”