Page 44 of State of the Union (First Family 3)

“We aren’t sure, sir, but that’s what the bosses at the time were seeing. Jeannie confirmed Stahl only met once with LaToya Deasly, and then she never heard from him again. His reports include detailed notes on multiple meetings and follow-ups that never happened.”

He stood so abruptly that he startled her. “Come with me.”

Sam stepped aside to let him lead the way straight to the chief’s office. She nodded to Helen, the chief’s admin, as they went by. That she looked more spooked than usual did nothing to settle Sam’s nerves.

Malone walked right into Farnsworth’s office.

Sam closed the door behind them.

“Tell him what you told me,” Malone said.

“Gonzo asked Archie to look for anything he could find on Worthington and Deasly, and he found these reports in the archives. They were separate from the case files that we pulled when we reopened both investigations.”

“If they were archived,” Farnsworth said slowly, “that had to be done by a captain.”

“Yes, sir.”

He glanced at Malone. “What is this, Jake?”

“I don’t know, sir, but we’re going to look into it, starting with everyone who was a captain eleven years ago.”

“One of them is dead,” Sam said.

“There’s no way your father had anything to do with hiding Stahl’s bogus paper trail,” Farnsworth said, his gaze heated.

“Maybe it’d be easiest to go to the source,” Sam said. “Ask Stahl why he created bogus reports and who helped him hide them. He’s facing life in prison with nothing else to lose, and knowing him, he’d love to take someone else down with him.”

“What do you think?” Farnsworth asked Malone.

“It couldn’t hurt anything to try. But who’s going to be the one to go there?”

“It can’t be me,” Farnsworth said. “I’m the one who fired him and had him charged.”

“He and I have too much history,” Malone said, “and it can’t be Sam, for obvious reasons.”

“Gonzo?” Sam asked. “He didn’t work for him for long and doesn’t have history.”

“Yeah, that’d work,” Malone said, “if we agree that he’s doing all right with the trial going on and everything.”

“I’ll ask him and see what he thinks,” Sam said.

“Give him an out if it’s too much right now,” Farnsworth said.

“I will.”

“The media is crawling up our asses looking for a statement about the Deasly case,” Farnsworth said.

“I’d like Detective McBride to make that statement,” Sam said. “This was her bust, and she should get the credit.”

“That’s fine with me,” Farnsworth said, “but I’ll go out with her to take the inevitable questions about why it took us so long to find Carisma.” He handed her a sheet of paper. “Public Affairs drafted this statement to get things started, and I approve of the language. Ask Detective McBride to start with this.”

“I’ll get her,” Sam said, “and talk to Gonzo about Stahl.” As she headed for the door, she avoided eye contact with the captain while wondering how big of a deal this was going to turn out to be for her and her team. Whatever the fallout, she wouldn’t have done a damn thing differently, not when it meant her actions and Jeannie’s had freed nine little kids and a young woman from hell on earth.

Chapter Nine

“You need to stop fuming, Jake,” Joe said when they were alone. “Back in the day, you and I would’ve done the same thing Holland and McBride did.”

Jake sat, exhaling a deep breath. “The two of them are insubordinate as all hell, and you know it.”