Page 35 of State of Retribution (First Family #9)

T he Hector Reese story exploded with the force of ten tons of TNT, or that’s how it seemed to Sam, who was immediately at the center of a firestorm she’d never seen coming. Reese was on the cable news shows, telling the world how she’d beaten him while he was in police custody.

“Now I don’t want to say this was a racist attack, but I can’t say for certain that it wasn’t,” he said in one interview.

“Oh my God,” Freddie whispered as he stood next to her in the conference room, watching the bloodbath unfold.

“Do you know why Lieutenant Holland did this?”

“She was looking for my brother, Clarence, who’d killed his family and then ran away. She said something about her father’s shooting, but I didn’t know nothing about that, and neither did my brother.”

“Can you detail the extent of your injuries after your encounter with her?”

“I had a bruised face from where she slapped me hard, bruised ribs, and for a time, they thought they might have to remove my spleen after she punched me in the gut twice, but that didn’t end up happening. I was in a lot of pain for weeks, mostly because of the ribs.”

“Did you fight back?”

“Nah.”

“Why not?”

“My mama taught me to never hit a woman, even if she was a bitch cop.”

Sam watched the interview in a state of disbelief. Shit. Fuck. Damn. Hell.

The anchor looked into the camera when she said, in the gravest possible tone, “Our requests for comment from the MPD and the White House have gone unanswered.”

“Detective Cruz,” Chief Farnsworth said from behind them.

They spun around to face him.

“Please give us the room.”

“Yes, sir,” Freddie said, casting a trepidatious glance at Sam before he walked out and closed the door.

“Well, this is a fine mess we find ourselves in,” the chief said, his expression lacking the usual affection and humor she’d come to expect.

“I’m sorry, sir. This… It happened a long time ago…”

“I’m afraid I’m going to need an explanation, because it’s unfathomable to me that you’d assault a man in our custody.”

“It would’ve been unfathomable to me, too, before the Reese case.

I have no defense for the indefensible other than to say that I was running on pure emotion that night.

The crime scene at Reese’s home was unlike anything any of us had ever experienced.

Freddie had been shot by Clarence Reese, who was in the wind, and we’d found news clippings and other information about my dad’s shooting in the house.

I took all that into the room with Hector that night, and I own what happened.

It was wrong. I knew it then, and I know it now. ”

“We’re going to put out a statement that says exactly that and announce that you’re suspended without pay for fourteen days. You’re to go home and to have no contact with any member of this department until you return to work.”

Sam was shocked by the length of the suspension but kept that to herself. She was lucky he wasn’t firing her on the spot.

“Do you have anything you wish to say?”

“I’m deeply ashamed of my actions that night.

I’ve thought about it a lot in the ensuing years, and I’ve never been able to reconcile my behavior with the code of conduct I’ve tried to uphold throughout my career.

I lost my mind for a minute and will pay whatever price you deem appropriate.

That said, I believe something bigger is going on right now, and it may be coming from inside this building. ”

He frowned. “What’re you talking about?”

Slowly and methodically, she laid out the information she had on the working theory of how the recent murders, Harlowe’s abduction and assault, the drone attack, the shooting in Adams Morgan and the resurrection of the Reese story were related.

“In addition, I’ve been told by a reliable source that Officer Offenbach is obsessed with two things.

The first is getting revenge on me for allegedly ruining his career and marriage.

The second is drones. I’ve passed the drone thing on to Agent Hill. ”

“Wait. You went to Hill before you told me about this? What the hell , Sam?”

“I went to him as the first lady, not as a police officer. Those drones came for my family, sir, and the FBI is leading that investigation.”

“Which you directed at one of my officers without a heads-up to me!”

“Agent Hill told me not to tell anyone so it couldn’t come back around to me or the department. I was trying to protect you—and us—and to keep the investigation clean after I was given this tip. I wasn’t intending to be insubordinate in any way. You know that’s not how I roll.”

Hands on his hips, he glared at her. “After today, I’m not sure I know you at all.”

She felt as if she’d been kicked in the gut. “Please don’t say that. You know me as well as anyone does, and only a lead in my dad’s ice-cold case and Freddie being shot in the same couple of days could’ve driven me to behave the way I did with Reese. You know that.”

“I acknowledge the extraordinary circumstances leading up to that encounter, but I cannot and will not condone violence. This is a PR disaster, Lieutenant. Not only are we guilty of assaulting an incarcerated man, but he’s calling it a racially motivated attack.”

“His race had nothing to do with it. He had information I wanted. That was all it was about. Not once in my entire career have I ever been accused of doing anything that was racist.”

“Until now.”

That hurt. “I really hope you’ll fully question the timing of this news coming out in the context of everything that’s happened this week.

Who else knew about the incident with Reese besides me and Malone?

Who told them about it? Was it the officers working in the jail that night?

I’m not denying I did this, but why’s it being resurrected now? It’s all related, Chief.”

Another thing occurred to her. “He called me a cunt cop. He’d returned to Clarence’s house with his brother.

They knew we were watching the place, but they came anyway, looking for ten grand in cash that we’d impounded from the basement.

His sister-in-law and three little kids, including a baby, had been murdered with a baseball bat in that house, and instead of helping us get justice for them, Hector cared only about protecting the brother who killed them.

You might want to add that to the statement, so people know who I was dealing with that night. ”

“I’ll take that under advisement. In the meantime, you’re to go home. Immediately. You’re to speak to no one from this department, and you’ll stay out of all investigations if you know what’s good for you.”

Not once had he ever spoken to her in that particular tone. It broke her heart.

“I have the Nelson trial starting a week from Monday, and final preparation for that with Faith Miller.” Sam was one of the primary witnesses in the federal case against Christopher Nelson, son of the former president, who’d conspired to ruin Nick’s chances for higher office by, among other things, torturing and killing Sam’s ex-husband. The hits just kept on coming.

“Take care of that and nothing else.”

“I’m sorry, sir.”

“So am I.”

With that, he turned and left the room to go clean up her mess.

The BlackBerry rang, and she pulled it out of her pocket to take the call from Nick.

“Babe… what the hell is going on?”

“I… I’ve been suspended for two weeks.”

“No.”

“I can’t talk right now. I’ll be home shortly.”

“I love you.”

“That helps. See you soon.”

She ended the call, put the phone in her back pocket and then took a seat at the table because she didn’t trust her legs to transport her to the office to get her things and then to the morgue to get out of there.

The whole building would be abuzz over her downfall, many of them probably celebrating that someone had finally succeeded in cutting the cocky lieutenant down to size.

Ten full minutes passed with her staring intently at the murder board that had four new victims as well as one who’d survived a similar attack. She didn’t blink or move and barely took more than a few breaths as she studied each of them, looking for something that wasn’t there.

A knock on the door had her blinking and snapping out of the stupor. “Yeah?”

“Are you okay?” Freddie asked.

Sam kept her back to him. “I’m suspended for fourteen days.”

“What? Sam… No way.”

“I can’t talk to you or the others. Let Gonzo know he’s in charge. I’m going home.” When he didn’t move, she said, “Go, Freddie. Take care of it for me, please.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Sam gave him a few minutes to put out the word and then got up to leave the room.

She felt her shocked colleagues watching her as she went into her office to gather her things and as she closed the door without locking it, since Gonzo would need access.

“Take care of each other,” she said as she walked toward the morgue, aware of Vernon shadowing her.

“You’re suspended?” he asked softly.

“Two weeks.”

“I’m sorry.”

She shrugged. “It’s my own fault.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

Lindsey saw them and came to the door. “What’s going on?”

“I’m out for two weeks. I’ll see you on the other side. I hope.”

Lindsey’s pretty face registered her shock. “Sam…”

“I have to go, Linds. Take care.”

Vernon waved off Quigley and held the back door of the SUV for her. “It feels horrible right now, but I have to believe this too shall pass.”

Sam felt hollowed out inside, as if her very soul had been extracted.

Despite her close ties to the chief, Jeannie and Malone, there was a good chance she could lose her job—and she’d probably deserve that.

She couldn’t imagine who she’d be without it.

“I guess we’ll find out if this storm will pass. ”

She rode home with her gaze fixed on the city she’d worked for her entire adult life. If she allowed herself to think about what might happen, she’d start crying and never stop.