Page 44 of State of Retribution (First Family #9)
Avery seemed momentarily rendered speechless by the Conklin news. And then he said, “I’m struggling to piece together how the murders, the kidnapping and assault on Ms. St. John, the Reese interview and the reporter call would be related to the drones and the shooting of Agent McFarland.”
“I’ll take that.” After taking a second to collect her thoughts, Sam said, “It’s a crazy thing, being a woman on this job, especially one with a pedigree inside the department.
From the day I first stepped foot inside this building, I’ve encountered two kinds of male colleagues.
The first, including everyone in this room, is the supportive kind, the sort who lifts up everyone, regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation or any other factor outside the quality of their work.
“On the other side of the equation are the men who feel threatened by strong, capable women who outperform them on the job and in life. They simply can’t handle it.
Lieutenant Stahl was one such officer. Detective Ramsey was another.
It’s possible that Conklin was a third, although he gave off the vibe of being supportive. Who knows what he really thought?
“Another, in my opinion, is Officer Dylan Offenbach, who blames me for getting caught having an affair when he was supposed to be at a conference. His lies were uncovered during the sniper investigation last year. We investigated every person in a hundred-mile radius who had the ability to pick people off from a moving car. When we looked for him, we found he wasn’t in Philadelphia at the conference he was checked out to attend, but at a hotel in Atlantic City with a woman who wasn’t his wife and the mother of his soon-to-be-six children.
Lieutenant Archelotta was part of that investigation.
At my request, he tracked a fellow officer’s phone.
That’s what confirmed our suspicion. Offenbach lost his rank as a sergeant.
His wife filed for divorce and full custody of their children.
It’s come to our attention, from a source who’d know, that Offenbach is obsessed with drones. The source used the word ‘obsessed.’
“I believe that the people behind this plot knew I planned to spend Easter with my family at Camp David. That was mentioned at the White House press briefing last week when the president’s press secretary, Christina Gonzales, was asked what the first family had planned for Easter.
So they started killing people, knowing my first priority upon returning to work would be to meet with the families.
They knew I’d want to help my friend, Lieutenant Archelotta, investigate the kidnapping and assault of his friend.
I did everything they expected me to, because they’ve been paying attention to how I do the job for years.
They wanted me out of this building, working a new case, consoling family members, tracking down leads and doing what I do so they could fire the warning shot that hit Agent McFarland. ”
“Why do you call it a warning shot?” Avery asked.
“I was standing to the left of Agent McFarland. He was hit in his right arm. It’s my belief that they missed me on purpose, knowing that having one of my agents go down protecting me would provoke a massive response.
They hoped it would break me. If that young agent died protecting me while I’m out running the streets as first lady, that might be the end of me on the job.
I’d also add that if Offenbach is behind this, he’s considered the most accurate marksman around.
There’s no way he’d miss if he wanted to kill Agent McFarland. ”
“So the goal isn’t to kill you?”
“I think they’d rather run me out of here in disgrace. They want me ruined. Killing me wouldn’t be anywhere near as much fun for them.”
“Why send drones to the White House?”
“They wanted me scared. They knew the drones had no chance of reaching the White House, but they wanted us freaking out about them and launching massive investigations to determine where they came from. They succeeded in that. Into that chaos came the Hector Reese interviews and the call from an alleged reporter trying to dig up more dirt from my past. Where are we with investigating Offenbach?”
“We’re awaiting a warrant to raid his property in Herndon,” Avery said.
“Where is he today?” the chief asked Malone.
“He took a personal day.”
“Interesting timing,” Gonzo said, echoing Sam’s thoughts.
“And the dump on Ramsey’s phone?” Sam asked.
“His attorneys are fighting the request,” Malone said, “and the judge has scheduled a hearing for Monday.”
“ Monday? ” Sam asked, incredulous. “No sense of urgency?”
“I mentioned the urgency to the judge’s clerk, who told me it was the first available spot on the calendar.”
“I still don’t get why they had to kill four people,” Avery said.
“The only connection we can make is that they were killed to draw me out into the field where they could continue their sick plan. We’ve had a break on that part of the case with a witness to the second murder coming forward to identify a white Nissan Altima with District plates as the car the murderer was riding in.
He was walking behind the victim and saw the whole thing go down.
We’ve put out the info to Patrol, and Detective Green is working on getting a full list of every white Altima registered in the District. ”
Cameron looked up from his phone. “My contact at the DMV said he’d have the list of owners to me within the hour.”
“I don’t know about you,” the chief said to Hill, “but I want that warrant for Offenbach’s property, and I want it right now.”
Hill nodded. “You read my mind.”