Page 187 of State of the Union (First Family 3)

“Sergeant! Your son is holding a woman hostage in Rock Creek Park and is asking to speak to you. Do your job.”

“Shane.”

“Dad… They’re trying to pin this on me. You have to do something.”

“The DNA doesn’t lie, Shane,” Malone said. “Nobody is pinning anything on you.”

“Why?” Sergeant Ramsey asked with less bravado than Sam had ever heard from him. “Why would you do this, Shane?”

“To get back at you, the mighty SVU detective who can’t keep it in his pants. Like father, like son.”

“What?”

“You heard me. I know what you did to Mom, cheating on her while preaching to me about the right way to treat a woman. I learned it all from you, Pops.”

“No,” Ramsey said, sounding horrified. “I never taught you to rape and murder.”

“You couldn’t find the guy who did it,” Shane said, laughing now. “All that swagger and talk of power. I was raping women right under your nose, Daddy-o, and you had no way to stop me. Who’s the powerful one now?”

“Let the girl go, Shane,” Ramsey said. “Let her go and turn yourself in.”

“You said you’d always have my back. Was that another lie?”

“Let her go, Shane.”

“I’ve got a clear shot,” Officer Offenbach, the sharpshooter, said through the earpieces they were all wearing.

Sam glanced at Malone. As the senior officer on the scene, it was his call.

Malone ended the call with Sergeant Ramsey since his pleas for Shane to let the woman go were only making the situation more fraught.

“Take him,” Malone said.

A shot rang out, shattering the silence.

The bullet struck Shane in the forehead.

The frantic screams of the woman as she went down with him echoed through the wooded area. Officers rushed in, one wrapping his coat around the hysterical woman.

Sam went to the woman, helped her up and walked her toward the path. “You’re all right.”

Shane Ramsey’s brain matter was all over her, reminding Sam of when that had happened to her after Clarence Reece was shot inches from her.

The woman was shaking so hard, she could barely move.

“Let us help you,” Malone said to the woman. “Would it be all right if I carry you to the ambulance?”

The woman gave a quick nod.

Malone carried her down the path and delivered her to the waiting EMS. When he turned back, Sam noted his ashen complexion.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

Hands on his hips, he hung his head and shook it to say no. “I just ordered the killing of one of my officers’ sons. I’m definitely not all right.”

“He was going to kill her. You did the right thing.”

“His father will make my life a living hell.”