Page 59 of State of Retribution (First Family #9)

“ I ’ve spent the last two days trying to track down Hector Reese,” Gonzo said, “hoping to find out more about who put him up to going public when he did—even though we know who did it. Interestingly, after being all over the airwaves for days, he’s disappeared, which is probably intentional. I’ll stay on it.”

“Thanks for trying.” Sam wasn’t surprised to hear that Reese had made himself hard to find after putting the incident with her on blast and filing suit against her and the department. “Maybe contact the attorney who filed the lawsuit.”

“I’ve left two messages for him.”

“Per your request, Lieutenant,” Detective Charles said, “we’ve compiled as much information as we could find on both men. Who do you want to hear about first?”

“Offenbach,” Sam said when her team was seated around the conference room table.

“Detective O’Brien will brief us on him,” Charles said. “Matt?”

He stood and took the video controller from Charles.

A smiling photo of Offenbach from the MPD website came on the screen.

“Dylan James Offenbach, age thirty-seven, a twelve-year member of the MPD until this week, when he was put on administrative leave for making threats against the president, the first family and his MPD colleagues. He’s the eldest of three sons born to David and Ellen Offenbach.

Incidentally, his father was a sharpshooter in the Marine Corps and retired as a colonel.

“Prior to his tenure with the MPD, Dylan did four years in the Marine Corps, where he was ranked as an expert marksman, which is the highest ranking they give. In addition, he was a certified instructor from the Armed Defense Training Association. Offenbach graduated first in his class from the police academy and holds a Distinguished Expert designation from the National Rifle Association, which is the highest rating the organization grants.”

“Those were all things I didn’t know about him,” Sam said.

“He married his high school sweetheart, Laura Taylor, when they were twenty-one. The two had six children before divorcing last year. The kids are Micha, age 11, Mathias, 9, Miranda, 8, Madeline, 6, Maddox, 4, and Maverick, 1.”

“Those poor kids,” Freddie said. “Having to grow up with this tied to their name.”

“They have a lovely mother,” Sam said, “who’s in the process of changing her name and theirs to her maiden name. I’m sure she’ll protect them from their father’s crimes as much as she can. Dr. Trulo will help her find therapists for herself and the kids. I think they’ll be okay in time.”

“I hope so,” Freddie said.

Matt handed Neveah the controller and took a seat.

“James Ramsey,” Neveah said, “age forty-seven, a nineteen-year veteran of the MPD, with thirteen of those years in the Special Victims Unit.

Before joining the MPD, he did six years in the Army, where he drove a tank in an infantry unit.

Ramsey had ten years on the job before he made detective and sixteen years in before he made sergeant.

According to several officers who entered the department around the same time as Ramsey, it was assumed he was passed over for promotions due to his aggressive communication style with colleagues and members of the public.

“One officer referred to him as the bull in the china shop of SVU, indicating he was a poor fit for the unit. An SVU colleague described him as a liability who often made bad situations worse for the victims they worked with. He’d been written up numerous times for inappropriate conduct.

“At the time of his capture at Offenbach’s farm in Herndon, he was facing numerous felony charges from when he rammed the lieutenant’s Secret Service SUV, as well as the disruption of Tom Forrester’s funeral and other miscellaneous charges pertaining to ransacking the lieutenant’s office and threatening her with assault.

Until last year, he’d been married to Marlene Ramsey for thirty years.

In addition to their son Shane, who was killed in a shootout with MPD after being accused of numerous crimes, including sexual assault and murder, they have a twenty-eight-year-old daughter named Kerry, a twenty-five-year-old son named William, and a twenty-two-year-old daughter named Rachel. ”

As Sam listened to the rundown on Ramsey, she felt for the family that’d been put through hell all because of a man who couldn’t handle not succeeding at work the way he thought he should have.

It was so exhausting, but thankfully, he was now permanently gone, as he’d spend the rest of his life in prison for threatening to kill the president.

If there was any silver lining to the words assassination threat , that was it.

“You guys did a great job with these reports. If you forward them to me, I’ll send them to Avery Hill to share with his team. You never know what detail will make a difference to the investigation.”

“I have a question,” Charles said. “You mentioned that Ramsey and Offenbach planned to make Ruby Ridge look like a Cub Scout meeting. What does that mean?”

“Oh God,” Sam said with a groan. “Way to make me feel old.”

Charles smiled. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. We studied this in my criminal justice program in college.

It refers to an eleven-day standoff in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, involving the U.S.

Marshals and the FBI and a self-proclaimed white separatist named Randy Weaver.

The marshals had been serving a warrant on Weaver, who was holed up with his family and a friend and refused to surrender.

In the end, a marshal was killed, along with Weaver’s wife and son.

The agencies involved were criticized for their handling of the incident, and it set off a national debate on the use of force.

That, coupled with a similar standoff in Waco, which was even worse, was cited as the motivation for the Oklahoma City Bombing. ”

“Jeez,” Charles said.

“Aren’t you glad you asked?”

“Not so much.”

“Needless to say, avoiding a similar disaster has to be top of mind to Avery and the others on his team,” Sam said.

“Have you heard any more about what’s happening in the Shenandoahs?” Gonzo asked.

“Not yet, but Avery promised to keep me in the loop if he could.”

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m glad we’re not involved in this mission,” Freddie said.

“Agreed,” Sam said. “For once, I’m more than happy to leave it to the Feds.”

Avery hated to admit that Ramsey had struck a nerve with his reference to Ruby Ridge.

Lessons from that standoff and the one in Waco were hardwired into the DNA of every FBI agent and U.S.

Marshal. The last thing any of them wanted was to be associated with something like that.

But this situation was shaping up to have many of the hallmarks of those earlier events, with a target who’d been preparing for this showdown his entire life.

He'd read the detailed reports from Sam’s team, and the additional things he’d learned about Offenbach and his mad skills had Avery more on edge than he’d been before.

Offenbach had all the advantages, especially since he’d been visiting the Shenandoah camp since he was a child and probably knew every square inch of it.

Avery’s team could prepare for a year, and they’d never catch up to the lead Offenbach had on them.

Even though there were hundreds of them, including FBI and ATF agents as well as U.S.

Marshals and Virginia State Police, versus one of him, that meant there were also hundreds of opportunities for something to go terribly wrong.

They wanted Offenbach taken alive to stand trial, but they knew the likelihood of him emerging from this mission alive was slim.

If he wasn’t killed in a shootout, he was apt to take his own life rather than be arrested.

At the mobile command center located a mile from the entrance to the camp, Avery gathered his team to go over the plan one more time before they executed it early the next morning.

“What’re we doing about drones?” Avery’s deputy, George Terrell, asked.

Avery looked to his tactical response coordinator.

“Drone-detection technology and infrared cameras deployed over the site haven’t revealed any devices.”

“He knows how to keep them off the radar,” George said. “Are we prepared for him to use them defensively?”

“We have our drone unit in DC on standby to deploy if needed.”

“I’d say they’re needed,” George said. “If he’ll send them to the White House, why wouldn’t he use them against us?”

“George makes a good point,” Avery said with a sinking feeling. What else hadn’t he thought of? “Let’s get them here and have them ready, just in case.”

While the others disbanded to see to last-minute preparations, Avery glanced at his deputy. “Good call on the drones.”

“I read the info Holland’s team sent over. He scares the shit out of me, Avery.”

“Yeah, me, too.”

Avery returned to his hotel room shortly after midnight, exhausted and as stressed as he’d been in a long time.

The first thing he did was text Shelby to see if she was still awake since he hadn’t talked to her all day.

He hated missing a whole day with his family and would give anything to be tucked in at home with them rather than preparing for a mission that felt doomed from the start.

He wasn’t sure why he felt that way. Offenbach was one guy. Avery was bringing an army. It was that one guy’s extraordinary skills that made this the most dangerous thing he’d ever be a part of, and that was saying something, considering the things he’d done in his career.

Shelby responded a few minutes later while Avery was splashing cold water on his face and trying to shake the feeling of dread that’d followed him through the long day. I’m feeding Miss Maisie.

Avery called her.

“Hi, honey,” she said softly. “How’s it going?”