Page 47 of State of Retribution (First Family #9)
J ake Malone walked down the hall like a man on a mission, ducking into the sharpshooting unit and shocking the officers with his unusual presence. They sat up a little straighter when a captain walked into the room, which gave him momentary satisfaction.
“Where’s Nicholson?” he asked of the captain in charge of the MPD’s SWAT unit.
“At the range with the new recruits,” one of the junior guys said. “He’s been there all week.”
“What about Fitzgivens?”
“He’s in the office.”
“Thanks.” Malone continued to the back of the big open area and gave a knock on the door before letting himself into the sergeant’s office.
“Morning, Cap. What’s up?”
“Where’s Offenbach?”
“Out on personal leave.”
“Was that scheduled?”
“No, sir. He called out this morning and said he had something he needed to take care of.”
“Did he say anything else?”
“Not to me, sir.”
“Okay, thank you for the info.”
“Cap.”
Malone turned back to him.
“Do you think he’s involved in this shit?” Fitzgivens asked.
“I do. You did the right thing passing on what you knew. Thank you for that.”
“No problem. He’s been unraveling since everything happened… I’ve tried to keep an eye on him, but he doesn’t make it easy. He’s sneaky, deceitful and often nasty. It wouldn’t break my heart to see him gone from the job.”
“All good to know. Keep me posted if you hear anything more from him.”
“Yes, sir.”
He headed straight to update the chief with the latest information, but was waylaid in the lobby by Gonzales, frantically waving him toward the Homicide pit.
“What's going on?”
“Ramsey and Offenbach released a video.”
“Send someone to get the chief. He’ll want to see it, too.”
“O’Brien went to get him.”
Farnsworth walked into the conference room five seconds after Malone. “What’ve we got?”
“Watch this,” Cruz said grimly as he pressed Play on the video that appeared on the large screen at the front of the room.
Ramsey and Offenbach wore tactical gear. Night-vision goggles were propped on their heads, and their faces were painted in camo colors.
Ramsey spoke for them while Offenbach looked on gleefully.
“On behalf of the thousands of men and women of the Metropolitan Police Department who don’t want the fucking first lady working with us, we’re here to put you on notice that she needs to go.
She’s only serving herself by surrounding us all with Secret Service and chaos that hampers our ability to do our jobs. ”
The video cut to footage of the street outside HQ, lined with satellite trucks and reporters screaming questions about the president.
“We’re not sure who she thinks she is to bring this madness to our department, but we’ve had enough of her. We don’t care what it takes or who else has to die to rid us of this menace, but we won’t stop until she’s gone.”
Footage of Sam on the job flashed on the screen, of her leaving the homes of their murder victims and on city sidewalks, including the one in Adams Morgan where Agent McFarland was shot, played at a dizzying speed, indicating they’d been following her as she went through the motions in the cases they’d created for her to investigate.
Why hadn’t the Secret Service noticed they were being followed?
Probably because as a cop, Offenbach knew how to evade detection.
“In addition to causing chaos in our workplace, she’s gone out of her way to ruin the careers of her colleagues. She’s taken the people we love from us. So we’re coming after her and the people she loves.”
A shot of the Easter Egg Roll on the White House lawn was shown that zeroed in on Nick, placing red crosshairs on his forehead.
Holy fuck . They were threatening the president’s life.
“Ending her reign as first lady would’ve been child’s play for us.
It would’ve been so easy, it’s laughable.
Next time the opportunity presents itself, we’ll be ready, but we hope she makes it a little more challenging for us.
” The camera zoomed in on Ramsey’s and Offenbach’s faces.
“You fucked with the wrong people, Holland. How does it feel to have someone fucking with you, you fucking arrogant bitch? An eye for an eye, princess. We’re coming for you. ”
“Oh my God,” the chief said. “Make sure Agent Hill and the Secret Service are aware of this.”
“We’ve notified them, sir,” Gonzales said.
“And Holland?”
“She saw it, went into her office and closed the door.”
“Let’s go talk to her,” the chief said.
Sam couldn’t get the sight of those red crosshairs on her husband’s forehead out of her mind.
That he could’ve been murdered because of two madmen she’d tangled with in the past was almost too big for her to process.
Her hands refused to stop shaking, so she had them tucked under her legs as she stared blankly at the stupid filing cabinet.
Gonzo and Vernon had taken care of notifying the people who needed to know about the threat, and appropriate action would be taken to shore up security for their entire family until Ramsey and Offenbach were caught.
In the meantime, she was filled with dread and sick to her soul to know that people had been murdered and another viciously assaulted because she and Archie had done their jobs. It was almost more than she could bear to consider.
A knock on the door preceded Farnsworth and Malone walking into her office.
Malone shut the door behind them.
“Sam,” the chief said, his every emotion contained in that one word.
She continued to look straight ahead at the filing cabinet, fearing that if she did anything else, she might come undone.
“You should go home,” Malone said. “Be with Nick and your kids.”
“No. That’s what they want.”
Another knock on the door.
Malone got up to admit Captain Norris from Public Affairs.
“The media is going mad over the video from Ramsey and Offenbach. They’re asking for a statement from Holland.”
“They want a statement?” Sam finally looked at them. “I’ll give them a fucking statement.” She got up and walked past her stunned superiors as she headed out of her office and toward the lobby with purpose as they—and Vernon—ran to keep up with her.
At the main door to HQ, she stopped and turned to them. “I want to do this myself.”
“We need a minute to prepare coverage,” Vernon said. “We’re on the highest alert after the release of that video.”
“You have two minutes. Use them well.”
While she waited, she stared straight ahead, preparing to do battle with the kind of evil she’d faced down once before with Stahl.
They thought they could intimidate her. After Stahl wrapped her in razor wire and threatened to set her on fire, it took a lot more to scare her than it used to.
Although the use of the crosshairs on Nick’s forehead had been highly effective in scaring the living shit out of her.
But she wouldn’t ever let them see that.
“Vernon?”
“One more minute, ma’am.”
“Are you sure you want to go out there alone, Sam?” the chief asked.
“I’m one hundred percent sure.”
She vibrated with tension as she waited for the go-ahead from Vernon. His two minutes were long up by the time he said they were ready for her.
Sam pushed through the double doors and was briefly taken aback by the massive gathering of media—one of the largest she’d ever seen.
As usual, they shouted questions at her from the second they saw her come through the doors.
“Have you seen the video?”
“Are you going to resign?”
“Are you endangering your coworkers?”
“Have you spoken to the president?”
“Why do your coworkers hate you?”
Sam waited until they got them all out before she began to speak.
“Earlier today, in a meeting with my team, we began to zero in on the two officers who released the video as being potentially responsible for the recent murders of four innocent people and for the attack on a beautiful young woman who’d begun to date one of my colleagues.
We were looking at them for the thwarted drone attack on the Easter Egg Roll at the White House, as well as the shooting of Secret Service Agent McFarland in Adams Morgan this week.
“Before the video was published, questions were raised about how all those seemingly random things could be tied to two disgruntled officers. I reflected on my career within the MPD and how, from the start, I’ve encountered two different types of men on the job.
The first kind, which includes the men on my team and many others I interact with on a daily basis, are supportive of their female colleagues.
They don’t treat us as less qualified to be there or as if we’re taking a spot on the force that should’ve gone to a more qualified man. ”
As she spoke, she heard the door behind her open and glanced back to see Jeannie McBride and Lindsey McNamara come out to stand behind her.
The gesture filled her heart to overflowing with love for her friends.
“The other kind of man is the one who’s threatened by our very presence in this building, mostly because they know they’ll never be as good at the job as we are.
They’ll never achieve the level of success we’ve known or the rank I and others have earned.
They’ll blame my success on the fact that my last name is the same as the department’s former deputy chief.
They’ll claim that every win I’ve ever had on the job is because I’m related to him, because the chief was my father’s best friend.
They’ll go so far as to infer that I slept with the chief, a man who was a treasured uncle to me growing up, to achieve my rank.
As if that’s all it takes to hunt down murderers, to get justice for victims and to protect the people who live here and those who visit each year. ”
The door behind her opened again, and she glanced back to see Erica Lucas, Neveah Charles, Gigi Dominguez and Dani Carlucci come out.
Their show of support threatened to derail her as a huge lump formed in her throat that she cleared away so she could continue.