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“I’m afraid we can.”
“What’s being done to neutralize the threat?”
“Everything possible.”
That was, Sam realized, as much as he was going to tell her until Nick arrived to fill in the blanks. She got up and headed toward the closed door that sealed her off from just about everyone she loved. “Let me out.”
The door slid open soundlessly, admitting her to the big room where the others were scattered about on sofas and chairs, waiting. They sat up a little taller when they saw Sam come in.
Scotty rushed over to her, his distress obvious. “What’d they say, Mom?”
She put an arm around him, hating the worry she saw in his expression. “Dad is fine. He’s on his way home from Iran and due to land at Andrews around eight. He’ll be brought right here when he arrives.”
“Did they say why they rounded us up like cattle?” Skip asked, nudging his wheelchair closer to her.
“All they would say is that they received a credible threat against the vice president and his family. Apparently, Nick authorized them to round us up out of an abundance of caution. Anyone who might be watching us knows what you guys mean to us and what it would do to us if something happened to any of you.”
“What about Spence?” Angela said, sounding as fearful as Sam had felt before she knew where Nick was.
“He’s on his way here with a Secret Service detail.”
“Oh, good,” Angela said on a long exhale. “That’s good.”
“They’re also notifying Gonzo as to where Alex is.”
“One thing I’ll add,” Graham O’Connor said, “is that whatever this is, it scared the hell out of them or we wouldn’t be here. I used to sit on the committee that oversees the Secret Service, and they don’t do anything without a damned good reason.”
Celia ran her hands up and down her arms as if chilled. “What’re we supposed to do in the meantime?”
“We wait,” Sam said. “That’s all we can do.”
CHAPTER THREE (#u3e246bd7-aa16-5261-8947-fcb0bbd09212)
“RUN THROUGH IT again for me, from the top,” Chief Farnsworth said to Freddie and Beckett, who’d been summoned to his office upon their return to headquarters.
“Sam and I were working the scene,” Freddie said, “trying to determine whether or not we were dealing with a homicide, when we saw Beckett arguing with four suits that we immediately identified as federal agents. We went over to see what was going on and to help Beckett.”
“They were demanding I allow them in because they urgently needed to speak to Mrs. Cappuano,” Beckett said.
“They called her that?” Farnsworth asked, rubbing his chin.
“Yes, sir,” Freddie said, still trying to process what’d happened.
“Then what?”
“The lieutenant and Detective Cruz approached the tapeline to see what was going on, and the agents busted through the tape and took her. They carted her off to a waiting SUV and were pulling away before we could catch up to them.”
“We tried,” Freddie said, still gutted that she’d been taken when he was standing right there, unable to do a thing to stop it. “But they moved with lightning speed to get her out of there.”
“One of the SUVs stayed back to make sure we couldn’t follow them,” Beckett added. “He blocked the road to keep us from leaving in cars.”
“And you’re sure they were actually federal agents?” Farnsworth asked.
Freddie’s gut clenched with anxiety. “That’s the thing, sir. They said they were Secret Service and flashed their badges, but I couldn’t get a close enough look at them before they were grabbing her and taking off. The whole thing happened so fast.” He’d have nightmares about how easily she’d been plucked out of his grasp and the way he’d frozen with indecision, as if he weren’t a highly trained police officer. “I didn’t know what to do. If I pulled a weapon on them and they were actually federal agents, that’d be a disaster. But I just keep asking myself, what if they weren’t federal agents? What if she’s been kidnapped?”
“She hasn’t been,” Gonzo said as he joined them in the chief’s office. “I just got a phone call from an Agent Dan Cooley, who is the Secret Service agent in charge of the detail that was sent to retrieve the lieutenant. I did a run on him. He’s legit.”
“Why did he call you?” Freddie asked.
“Because they’ve gathered up the entire Holland and Cappuano family and taken them to a safe location. My son was with Angela when they picked her up, so he’s with them, and they wanted me to know.”
“Where are they?”
“He couldn’t tell me anything other than they are safe and under protection of the United States government.”
“What the hell?” Freddie asked. “How long are they going to keep them in this safe place?”
“He wouldn’t tell me that either.”
They all looked to the chief for answers he didn’t have. “Do we know the whereabouts of the vice president?”
“I poked around online,” Gonzo said, “and the most recent mention I could find was a formal dinner he attended yesterday in Iran, which was covered by a White House pool reporter. There’s been no mention of him since.”
“I suppose no news is good news,” Farnsworth said. “If something had happened to him, we would’ve heard about it by now.”
“I suppose so,” Freddie said, “but clearly something is going on with him that has the Secret Service in full-on freak-out mode.”
“Let’s do a little digging to see if we can find anything online and get Archie’s team involved,” Farnsworth said, referring to Lieutenant Archelotta’s IT squad.
“I’ll take care of that, sir,” Gonzo said.
“What’re we thinking about the floater in the river? Is it Ruby Denton?”
“We’re waiting for Dr. McNamara to make a positive ID,” Gonzo said. “We’ll know more in the next few hours.”
“Let’s get out there and work that case,” Farnsworth said. “CSU is doing a grid search now, but let’s treat it like a homicide until we know it isn’t.”
“Yes, sir,” Gonzo said for all of them.
They left the chief’s office and returned to the detectives’ pit, passing other officers who gave them quizzical looks. Apparently the word was out about Lieutenant Holland being snatched from a crime scene by Secret Service agents.
“I thought she wasn’t under their protection,” Beckett said, keeping his voice down.
“She isn’t,” Gonzo said, “but from what the agent in charge told me, they received a threat against the vice president and his family, so Nick authorized them to bring everyone in.”
“Wow,” Beckett said. “What kind of threat would lead to that?”
“Could be anything,” Freddie said. “No sense speculating at this point. I’m sure it’ll be all over the news before too long.”
“Nothing has been released yet,” Gonzo said. “I checked.” His phone rang, and he checked the caller ID. “It’s Chris. I’ve got to take this and tell her our kid is under Secret Service protection.”
“Good luck with that,” Freddie said.
Gonzo walked away from them to take the call.
“This is seriously effed up,” Beckett said.
“Yeah, it is, but she’d want us to focus on working the floater case, so that’s what we’re going to do,” Freddie said. Though he was still rattled and furious about the scene at the river, Sam would want them to do their jobs and not worry about her. She’d say she could take care of herself, but after what happened in that basement with Stahl and Marissa Springer, he hoped that wherever she was, it wasn’t sparking memories of that grim episode.
Gonzo’s raised voice caught Freddie’s attention. “I don’t know how long, babe,” Gonzo said. “All I know is what the agent in charge told me.” After a pause, he added, “No, they wouldn’t release him. They’re under orders to keep everyone in the safe location for the time being. He’ll be fine, Chris—of course he will. He’s with Angela, Sam and Tracy. They won’t let anything happen to him.” Gonzo sighed deeply. “Of course I don’t like it, but what am I supposed to do about it? I have no idea where the safe location is, and even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to get in there.” He paused. “Yes, honey, of course I will. Try not to worry. He’s with people who love him. Okay. I love you too.” After he ended the call, he sat at his desk, head in his hands.
“She’s not happy, huh?” Freddie asked.
“That’s putting it mildly. She’s hysterical.”
“Do you need to go home?”
“Nah, I can’t leave with the LT God knows where and a floater to contend with.”
“I could hold down the fort if you need to go check on her.”
“I’ll call her back in a little while to make sure she’s okay. In the meantime, since we’re both without partners for the rest of our shift, let’s go see what Lindsey has found out about our body.”
Freddie took note of the casual way Gonzo said he was without a partner. Since Detective Arnold was killed over the winter, Gonzo had been working on his own or with Freddie and Sam. The department had yet to fill the vacancy in their squad that Arnold’s death had created, which was fine with Freddie. He couldn’t conceive of anyone else sitting in Arnold’s cubicle and didn’t want to think about the day, probably in the not-too-distant future, when they’d have to accept a new person into their group.
Freddie didn’t like change, especially the kind of change that resulted from one of his closest colleagues being murdered.
“You okay?” Gonzo asked as they walked together to the morgue at the other end of the headquarters building.
“Yeah. I was just thinking about Arnold, actually.” He hoped he wasn’t making a mistake by mentioning Gonzo’s late partner. Only in the last month or two had Gonzo seemed more like his old self again, after watching his partner be gunned down right next to him and slipping deep into grief in the aftermath.
“What about him?”
“Just about who they might get to fill his spot.”
“No idea.”
“I hope it doesn’t happen soon. I don’t want to see someone else in his cube.”
“Gonna happen eventually.”
“I hope eventually is in the far-off future.”
Gonzo had nothing to say to that, but then, he didn’t say much about Arnold these days. Despite his silence on the matter, Freddie knew Gonzo’s late partner was never far from his mind.
They entered the morgue, where an antiseptic scent greeted them.
“This is gonna be bad,” Gonzo said. “You ready for that?”
Freddie’s stomach turned. This was one of the worst parts of a difficult job. “As ready as I ever am.”
“What’ve you got, Doc?” Gonzo asked as they entered the sterile room where Lindsey and her deputy, Byron Tomlinson, were examining the body—or what was left of it.
Freddie choked back a wave of nausea when he got his first look at the bloated lump of flesh that had once been a human being. The only thing about the body that still looked human was a knotted, slimy clump of long hair.
“Female, approximately eighteen to twenty-five,” Lindsey replied.
“How long was she in the water?”
“I’m estimating seven to ten days.”
“Which would fit the time period that Ruby Denton has been missing,” Freddie said.
“We’ll need dental records to confirm the identity,” Lindsey said. “But one thing I can tell you is whoever she is, she was well cared for at one time in her life.”
“How can you tell?” As far as Freddie could tell, she was a lump of decomposing flesh.
“Her teeth are gorgeous. Probably had orthodontics.”
For some reason, that detail made Freddie unreasonably sad for the parents who’d soon hear their child was in the morgue.
“Is there anything else you can tell us?” Gonzo asked.
“I can’t be sure, but there’re possible ligature marks here.” Lindsey pointed to the neck area.
“So she might’ve been strangled.”
“It’s a theory.”
“That and the teeth are more than we had ten minutes ago,” Gonzo said. “Keep us posted on the ID.”
“Can you see about getting me Ruby’s dental records?”
Freddie’s stomach turned again at the thought of asking her parents for such a thing.
“Yeah,” Gonzo said. “We’ll take care of it.”
“What’s the plan?” Freddie asked on the walk from the morgue back to the pit.
“Let’s talk to Ruby’s parents.” Gonzo checked his watch. “And then we can call it a day.”
As they went into the pit, Detectives Jeannie McBride and Will Tyrone were returning from a call.
“What’ve you got?” Gonzo asked them.
“A double suicide,” Jeannie said.
“You’re sure that’s what it was?” Gonzo asked.
