“How can this be happening? The cops investigating this case are my friends. They’re like family to me. Why aren’t they saying it’s not true?”

“They probably haven’t had the chance because they’re trying to figure out who really killed her. Let me call Carson.”

“If I bring in a big-time criminal lawyer like him, I may as well declare my guilt at the same time.”

“You need to protect yourself.”

“If I lawyer up, Christina, everyone will think I’m guilty.”

“Baby, they already do! My phone is ringing off the hook.”

“Fuck. This is a motherfucking nightmare. And why the hell isn’t Sam returning my calls?”

“I’m sure she’s doing what she can... Oh, look! She’s making a statement outside HQ.”

Gonzo spun around and nearly fainted from the relief of seeing his boss and friend approaching the microphone.

“I have just a brief statement. This morning, the body of Lori Phillips was found in a parked car near West Potomac Park. Ms. Phillips had been strangled. You are correct in reporting that she is the mother of MPD Detective Sergeant Thomas Gonzales’s young son. You are incorrect in reporting that he is a suspect. I will repeat myself to ensure that you hear me. Thomas Gonzales is not a suspect in the murder of Lori Phillips. Whatever information you may have received from a so-called police source was erroneous. The only police source with credibility on this case is me.”

A bottle blonde from one of the local TV stations asked, “How can you investigate a case that involves one of your own people?”

“Did you just hear me say this case does not include one of my own people?”

“How was Detective Sergeant Gonzales eliminated as a suspect?”

“He has an alibi and is a decorated police officer who was recently grievously injured in the line of duty. In addition, we have a person of interest currently in custody and will have more information in the next few days. In the meantime, if you continue to broadcast and publish Sergeant Gonzales’s name in connection to this case, you’ll be opening yourself to civil litigation. I wouldn’t blame him for suing your asses off. That’ll be it.”

“When does your husband begin work at the White House?”

Sam rolled her eyes at the reporter who’d asked the question and turned away from the reporters to go back inside.

“There,” Christina said. “Do you feel better now?”

Thanks to Sam’s statement he was now able to get air to his lungs. “Yeah. But I won’t really feel better until they catch whoever actually killed her.”

Christina stepped closer to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Hold on to me, baby. Just hold on to me.”

Her nearness, her affection and her support calmed him. He put his arms around her and did as she requested. She was the only thing holding him together and the only thing he couldn’t live without.

“How will I ever be able to do my job again with people thinking I’m capable of killing someone? I’ve spent my career tracking down killers, and now they think I am one?”

“Let me tell you something I know for sure. The news cycle has a limited lifespan. In a day or two, something else will happen and people will forget all about this.”

“That might be true, but I’ll never forget.” And he’d sure as hell find out which one of his brothers or sisters in the police department had seen fit to point the finger at him.

* * *

While Freddie took Hughes to Central Processing, Sam headed for the detectives’ pit to check in with the rest of her team. The first one she ran into was Gonzo’s partner, Detective Arnold. The young officer approached her tentatively. “It’s not true, is it, Lieutenant? He didn’t kill her, did he?”

“No, he didn’t kill her, but someone wants us to think he did. And I’m starting to think that someone is in this building.”

“Seriously?”

“How else would the press be hearing from a ‘police source’ with information about the investigation?” She released the clip that held her hair, ran her fingers through the length and then resecured it. “Where is everyone?”

“Jeannie and Tyrone tracked down some of Lori’s coworkers, and they went to interview them. Carlucci and Dominguez are with Crime Scene at Lori’s place.”

“Warrant?”

“Yes, ma’am. Captain Malone was able to secure it for them.”

“Excellent.”

“I’m working the phones trying to track down the social worker who oversaw Gonzo’s case. She’s out of town for the holidays, but I left several messages on her phone.”

“Good work. Thanks for the update and keep me posted.” Sam went into her office and did a quick scan of her email, where she found a report from Lindsey detailing the findings of the autopsy. Lori had been manually strangled, but there were no usable prints on her neck. “Of course there weren’t,” Sam muttered. The semen found in Lori’s vagina had been sent out for DNA analysis that would take about forty-eight hours, and Lindsey had included detailed information about the drugs and alcohol found in Lori’s system. No defensive wounds to the victim’s hands, indicating that the fatal attack had possibly taken her by surprise. “Someone she trusted,” Sam deduced. “We need to get closer to her inner circle.”

“Talking to yourself, Lieutenant?” Captain Malone asked as he came into her office.

“Working the case, Captain.”

“What’ve you got?”

“A woman who worked hard to turn her life around found strangled in a parked car belonging to her brother. She had an elevated blood alcohol count and traces of cocaine in her system.”

“So she was off the wagon.”

“Seems that way. And all of this is happening days after she went public about Gonzo’s previous connection to the judge who heard their custody case. What I want to know is what ‘police source’ is telling the media he’s our prime suspect.”

“We’re looking into that.”

“What did Conklin find out when he talked to Ramsey?”

“Ramsey said he didn’t do it.”

“I don’t believe him. I saw him on the stairs this morning, and he told me to fuck off when I said hello to him. I reported it to Davidson, for all the good that’ll do.”

“What beef does Ramsey have with you?”

“Who knows? I worked with him on the Kavanaugh investigation and have had a couple of other brushes with him, but nothing that would cause him to do something like this. And I don’t believe for a second he had nothing to do with it. We had words this morning, I complained about him to his lieutenant and a couple of hours later my second in command is being accused of murder by an ‘inside source’? You do the math on that one.”

“It does smell fishy. We’ll stay on it. In the meantime, where are we with figuring out who really did it?”

“We’ve got a guy in custody I’m going to talk to as soon as Cruz gets him through Central Booking.” She told him about Hughes, the outstanding warrant on child support charges and the new warrant being processed to search his house for evidence in the Phillips case.

“You’re working with Baltimore on that?”

She nodded. “They’re getting the warrant and are aware that we arrested him.”

“Excellent. I’ll be sure to include ‘plays well with others’ on your evaluation. Speaking of playing well with others, Hill’s Deputy Agent Terrell is here to consult on the case.”

“Why not Hill?”

“Apparently, he had a personal matter to attend to today and was unavailable.”

“Huh, interesting.” Since the only personal life Hill had, that Sam knew of, involved her assistant, she was immediately curious. And then she told herself that his personal business was certainly none of her business. “Where is Terrell?”

“I put him in the conference room until you got back.”

“I’ll bring him up to speed on what we’ve got so far.”

“Thank you for that and for what you’re doing for the chief in the morning.”

Sam almost asked him what he meant and then she remembered promising to make the rounds on TV with the chief. The thought of it made her stomach quiver with nerves. But she’d do it for him. “The bullshit may as well be good for something, right?”