Page 45 of State of Retribution (First Family #9)

A warrant was issued for Offenbach’s property in Herndon less than an hour later.

To keep things clean, the FBI was handling the raid with no involvement by Offenbach’s MPD colleagues.

The FBI would request backup from the Herndon Police Department at the last minute, in case Offenbach had friends in that department who might tip him off to the pending raid.

“What if we’re wrong about him?” Sam asked Freddie when they were alone in the conference room.

“Do you really think we are?”

“I don’t know what to think.”

“You do know,” he said. “You just hate to realize that yet another of our fellow officers has turned out to be a criminal.”

“We don’t know that yet.”

“Don’t we?”

“You seem very sure.”

“That guy has had it out for you since the minute you reported he wasn’t at that conference.

He thinks everything that’s happened to him since then is your fault.

He doesn’t take one ounce of accountability in that situation.

He even got away with punching you in the face when you refused to press charges. ”

A thought hit Sam like a bolt of lightning from above. “Freddie.”

“What?”

“Remember when we were eliminating sniper suspects, and I sent you upstairs to ask Archie to track Offenbach’s phone, and he objected because it didn’t sit right with him to treat a fellow officer like a criminal? He said he wouldn’t do it without a damned good reason.”

“It’s starting to come back to me.”

“Archie was adamantly opposed. You brought him down to the pit to tell me that himself, and I took him to the morgue to see Vanessa Marchand’s body.” The six-year-old had been shot by the sniper while leaving a city park with her father. “Remember? I told him she was my damned good reason.”

“I do.”

“That’s why he snatched Harlowe. Offenbach knew I never would’ve found him without Archie’s help.

He’d been following Archie and knew he was seeing her.

This is why!” Sam pulled her phone out of her pocket and called Avery.

“I’m now almost one hundred percent sure that Offenbach is involved.

” She filled him in on what she’d remembered.

“He also has a beef with Archie, and he’s waited all this time for revenge against both of us. ”

“This is good info, Sam. We’ll add this info to the file.”

“I’ll let Archie know what’s going on. Keep me posted.”

“Will do.”

She slapped the phone closed. “Can I admit to being a tiny bit relieved that there’s a direct connection to Archie and that Offenbach wouldn’t have grabbed his girlfriend only because of his connection to me?”

“That’s some twisted logic there, but shockingly, I get what you’re saying.”

“I didn’t want what happened to her to be my fault.”

“Sam, none of this is your fault.”

“Feels like it is, you know?”

“I get it.”

“That’s because you’re fluent in the language known as Sam Holland.”

“One of my special gifts.”

Sam made the call to Archie.

“Hey.”

“So, listen, I have an update, and it ties right back to Offenbach and the day you and I figured out he was in Atlantic City with his mistress when he was supposed to be in Philadelphia.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s exacting revenge, Archie. That’s the connection to Harlowe.”

“Sam…”

“I know. It’s horrible, but it’s not your fault.”

“Who the fuck’s fault is it, then? Here I was thinking it could be her ex-husband, and you’re saying this happened to her because of me ? How in the hell am I supposed to live with that?”

Green came into her office, brows raised, expression tense.

“Hang on, Archie. What’s up?”

“Ramsey’s wife has a white Nissan Altima with District plates.”

“Holy shit.”

“Malone is requesting a warrant for their house.”

“Did you hear that?” Sam asked Archie. “We’ve got a witness that puts a white Nissan Altima with District plates at the scene of one of the weekend homicides. We’ve tied that make and model to Ramsey’s wife.”

Understandably, Archie didn’t give a shit about Ramsey. “He… He raped her, Sam.”

Sam’s heart broke for her friend. “I’m so sorry to have to tell you this.”

“I… I don’t even know what to do with this info.”

“Don’t do anything until we know more. I wanted you in the loop as soon as we started to put this together.” When he didn’t reply, she said, “Archie? Are you still there?”

“I’m here.”

She could hear him weeping and wished she could hug him. “Archie, listen to me. This isn’t your fault. You’d be doing yourself and Harlowe a huge disservice if you blamed yourself for what a deranged criminal did to her.”

“He took her because of me . He raped her because of me . How do I not blame myself for that, Sam?”

“I was thinking about how you told me before all this that you weren’t sure she was being straight with you about her past. Do you know any more about why you felt that way?”

He paused to catch his breath before he replied. “I think it was because she’d gotten out of a bad marriage she hadn’t told me about and didn’t want to talk about that in a new relationship. I know all about that now, but it has nothing to do with any of this. What’s being done to find Offenbach?”

“Everything humanly possible. The FBI is about to raid his property, and we’ve requested a warrant for Ramsey’s car and home. We suspect they’re working together on the larger scheme. It’ll happen fast.”

“How is it possible that we work with people like this? Like these two and Stahl and Conklin?”

“I wish I had an answer for that, but all I can say is in a department of more than four thousand people, they’re the minority.”

“Are they, though? Or are there more of them hiding in our midst, pretending to do the job while evil lives in them?”

“I have to believe there are more of us than them.”

“I’m not so sure anymore.”

“What can I do for you?”

“Find the fuckers who did this and make them pay.”

“We’re on it. Are you going to be okay?”

“Yeah, I guess. I don’t know.”

“Call me if you need me? Promise?”

“I will.”

“I’ll check on you in a bit and will keep you posted.”

“Thanks for calling, Sam.”

“I’m so sorry I had to tell you this.”

“I know.”

“You won’t do anything crazy, will you?”

“No, but I’d like to.”

“That won’t help anything. You know that.”

“I get it. I need to check on Harlowe.”

“Okay, talk to you soon.”

The call ended, and Sam closed her phone with a deep feeling of apprehension overtaking her as she hoped Archie kept his promise to stand down and let the Feds apprehend the colleague who’d attacked the woman he cared about.

Archie placed his phone on the counter and stood there, staring out the window, in complete shock that the investigation into Harlowe’s kidnapping and assault had led straight back to him.

He remembered that day during the sniper investigation when Sam had asked him to track Offenbach’s phone.

He’d told her he needed a damned good reason to investigate a fellow officer, and a hunch wasn’t enough.

She’d taken him to the morgue to see the body of the six-year-old girl who’d been struck down by a sniper’s bullet.

“She’s my damned good reason,” Sam had said. “Track the fucking phone.”

He’d done it because he trusted Sam more than just about any other detective he worked with—and he worked with all of them.

It’d been the right thing to rule out a possible inside job, but Offenbach had been severely punished by the department with demotion in rank and pay and by his wife, who’d filed for divorce and full custody of their children.

“Archie?”

He spun around to face Harlowe, crushed by what’d been done to her to exact revenge on him for doing his fucking job.

She studied him intently, her brow furrowing with concern. “What’s wrong?”

If he told her, she’d leave. If she left, he’d never get over losing her.

Nothing said he had to tell her the truth, but how would they go forward with a lie of that magnitude standing between them? He wouldn’t be able to live with himself.

All those thoughts cycled through his mind in a matter of seconds as she stood there looking at him, as if seeing a ghost or a stranger.

“You’re scaring me.”

“I just heard something. From work. It upset me.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

He shook his head. “I can’t.”

“Oh, is it confidential, then?”

“No.”

She came closer to him, rested her hands on his chest and looked up at him with trust, faith and affection. He wished he deserved any of those things from her.

“You’ve been so kind to me, and now you’re upset. I want to help you the way you’ve helped me.”

Overwhelmed by emotions he’d never experienced before, he dropped his head to her shoulder and then startled when her hand encircled the back of his neck.

“I want to be there for you.”

Agony filled his heart as tears flooded his eyes. “If I tell you, you’ll hate me.”

“What? No! I could never hate you.”

“Yes, you really could, and you will.”

She pulled back from him, forcing him to meet her gaze. “Tell me.”

He shook his head as tears rolled down his face. This sweet, beautiful woman had been kidnapped, beaten and raped because of him . She’d never forgive him. He’d never forgive himself.

She brushed away his tears. “Is it about me?”

He diverted his gaze because he couldn’t bear for her to see the truth.

“Archie… Talk to me. Please. I want to know.”

While continuing to stare unseeing at the window, he said, “Last year, we had a sniper killing people randomly.”

She blinked a couple of times as she thought about what he’d said. “I think I remember the news about that.”