Fatal Deception Read online

  Farnsworth nodded in agreement.

  “But if he orchestrated this whole thing, I want to nail his ass to the wall,” Sam said.

  “Me too,” Hill said.

  The others nodded in agreement.

  Gonzo returned to the room, holding up a piece of paper. “Bingo for Gillespie. Three calls to Victoria’s phone from his the week before she was killed.”

  “That establishes a direct tie between the Patterson campaign and Victoria,” Sam said. The pieces were falling into place one right after the other. “Go pick him up.” Sam glanced at Charity, who nodded. “Cruz, pull up that picture of Colton Patterson so he’ll recognize him if they cross paths.”

  Cruz typed on his computer and spun it around to show Gonzo the picture of Colton they’d found earlier.

  “I’ll issue the warrant for Gillespie’s arrest,” Charity said.

  “Bring him in the front,” Sam said. “I want the media wondering why a top aide from the Patterson campaign is in custody. Since I fully expect him to be as forthcoming as Jerry has been, we’ll let him sit and stew overnight too. Maybe after a night in the city jail, they’ll both feel talkative. Come to think of it, I want them kept in the same cell, and I want the cell monitored at all times. Video and audio.”

  “I’ll set up the surveillance,” Cruz said. “Here’s the address of where he’s staying in the city.” Freddie handed the paper the campaign staffer had given them to Gonzo.

  Gonzo gestured for his partner, Detective Arnold, to come with him.

  “Charity?” Sam asked. “What do you think? Do we have enough to make a case?”

  “With the DNA, you’ve got Smith for the murder and kidnapping,” Charity said. “But you don’t have Patterson—or his sons—yet.”

  “Cruz, let’s go have a chat with our friend Mr. Smith,” Sam said.

  “Do you mind if I join you?” Hill asked.

  “Not at all,” Sam said. If she compartmentalized the odd personal dilemma between them, she couldn’t deny he’d been an asset on this investigation. “Tossing around the FBI acronym might help our friend Mr. Smith get how big of a shit storm of misery he’s in for.”

  “You do have a way with words, Lieutenant,” Hill said, his lips quirking with amusement.

  “So I’m told.”

  Inside interrogation room one, Smith was pacing from one end of the small space to the other. He reminded Sam of how a caged tiger might look as he radiated rage and fury that was instantly directed at her when she stepped into the room.

  “This is Special Agent Avery Hill with the FBI.”

  The mention of the FBI had the desired effect, as Smith’s eyes widened with surprise. “You can’t keep me here! I haven’t done anything.”

  “I can keep you here until the lawyer you requested arrives. Any idea when that might be?”

  “My boss said he’d take care of sending someone over. He should be here any time now.”

  “Great. We’ll bring him in as soon as he gets here. In the meantime, is there anything I can get for you? Some water? Food?”

  “I don’t want anything from you,” he said, glowering at her.

  “Okay, then.” Sam wondered if he’d be a little more contrite when ten or twelve hours had gone by without anything to eat or drink. “We’ll see you when the lawyer arrives. If you need to use the restroom, let Officer DuPont know, and he’ll escort you.”

  “Screw you.”

  “Aww,” Sam said. “I’d love to, but I’m married, and my husband is the jealous sort.”

  As Jerry gave her the finger, they filed out of the room and closed the door.

  “He’s still certain they’re coming,” Sam said. “He’s in for a long night. I’ve got some stuff to do elsewhere, but I’ll come back later to check on him. We’ll keep up the regular visits until he gets he’s on his own.”

  “If he hadn’t killed a woman in cold blood and stolen her child from the scene, I’d almost feel a little sorry for the guy,” Freddie said. “Almost.”

  “I hear ya,” Sam said. “You know what we still need is a connection between Smith and Bobby Ray. How’d they hook up?”

  “I’ll work on that,” Hill said. “Bertha gave me the name of Bobby’s best friend earlier. I’ll see what he can tell me. Jerry Smith wasn’t a name she mentioned.”

  “It wouldn’t be,” Sam said. “He’s from Ohio, where the Pattersons are from. He’s living here temporarily. He and Bobby will have met at a local bar or a gym or something like that. Find out where Bobby hung out and worked out. I bet that’ll lead to Smith.”

  “I’m on it,” Hill said.

  “Thanks. I’m going to split for a bit. Cruz, why don’t you call it a day? If I need you, I’ll give you a call.”

  “Sounds good. See you in the morning, if not before.”

  “Good work today, Detective.”

  “Thank you, Lieutenant. Back at you.”

  To Hill, she said, “Let me know if you find a connection between Smith and Ray.”

  “I will. Have a good night.”

  “You too.” Sam felt his eyes on her as she gathered her belongings and headed out of the pit, sending a text to Jeannie as she walked. “On my way home.”

  “See you in a few, Jeannie responded.”

  In the lobby, Sam ran into Captain Malone. “Got the warrant for the DNA,” he said. “I let Dr. McNamara know, and she’s going to take the swab now.”

  “Good,” Sam said, “that’ll give Jerry something else to worry about while he waits for the lawyer who isn’t coming.”

  “No luck on the gym warrant, unfortunately. The judge said we hadn’t given her good enough reason to issue it.”

  “That’s okay,” Sam said. “We probably won’t need it after all. I’m going to head home for a bit, but I’ll be back later to check on Jerry. I don’t think he’s going to realize until the morning that they aren’t sending anyone.”

  “Probably not. I’ll see you then.”

  “See you.”

  “Great job as always, Lieutenant,” he called after her.

  Sam stopped and turned to him. “As much as it pains me to admit it, Hill has been a resource on this case. His superiors ought to be made aware of the fact that he did very good work here.”

  “I’ll make sure of it.”

  “Thanks, Cap.”

  Pushing through the media crowd gathered outside the main door to HQ, Sam almost hoped Smith refused to roll on the Patterson family. She’d love nothing more than to have the opportunity to stand before the media and single-handedly ruin years of planning and scheming—along with Arnie’s campaign—through innuendo alone. She’d do it for Victoria. Even though she’d been in on the scheme to at least some extent, no one deserved to die the way she did.

  Sam sent another text, this one to Nick. “On the way home. Got to meet with McBride, and then I want to get to the hospital to see Ang.”

  “Be there shortly,” he responded. “Don’t go without me.”

  “Wouldn’t dream of it,” Sam said as she started the car and headed for Capitol Hill. As she drove, she debated when and what she should tell Derek Kavanaugh about what they’d uncovered. While she trusted her colleagues implicitly, she still feared a leak. It could even come from the Patterson camp, not that she expected that, but still... Derek shouldn’t hear the latest from the media.

  With that in mind, she placed a call to him. “Hi, Derek,” she said when he answered. “It’s Sam again.” She could hear Maeve crying in the background. “Do you have a minute?”

  “Sure, let me get my mom to help with Maeve.”

  She listened to him speaking in the background as he settled the baby with her grandmother.

  “I’m back.”

  “So, listen, I think we’ve got this thing figured out.”

  “Oh.” The single word conveyed a world of emotion—hope, fear, grief, despair.

  “I have to warn you, it’ll be hard to hear.”

  He let out a bitter-sou
nding laugh. “Worse than what I’ve already heard?”

  “I suppose not.” Choosing her words carefully, Sam walked him through what they’d learned and the connection to the Patterson campaign.

  “So they planted her with someone close to Nelson so they could spy on us?” he asked, incredulous. “It’s right out of Watergate, for God’s sake.”

  “That’s our hypothesis at the moment. We’re still trying to prove it. We believe we have the man who killed Victoria in custody.”

  “Who is he?” Derek asked in a small voice.

  Sam told him about Jerry Smith, the Patterson family’s go-to guy for unsavory matters such as murder.

  “If they went to all that trouble to plant her, why kill her right before the election? Isn’t this when she’d be most useful to them?”

  “You would think. Maybe she clammed up, refused to provide damaging info or threatened to expose the entire scheme. Maybe she fell in love with her husband and didn’t want to cause him harm.”

  “Yeah, sure,” he said bitterly. “That’s a likely scenario.”

  “It’s as likely as any other, but we may never know for sure.”

  “You don’t expect Smith to spill on the Patterson family, do you?”

  “No. Even though they’re going to abandon him, his sense of loyalty runs deep. He won’t roll on them.”

  “So he’ll walk for what he did to Vic?”

  “I’m hoping we’ve got him nailed on the DNA, and we’re searching his room for evidence that ties him to Victoria. If we find a connection there, that’ll be enough to put him away for life. We’re still hoping to nail the people behind the scheme. We believe it’s one or both of Patterson’s sons and perhaps the man himself, but you need to prepare yourself for the possibility that we won’t get them.”

  “So he’ll go on his merry way and possibly be elected president in November?”

  “Oh, no. We’ll give the media enough to draw their own conclusions. There’s no way he’ll be president after we’re through with them.”

  “Good. That’s good.” He paused, sighed. “All because of my goddamned job. From the minute I got home on Sunday and found her, I feared it would come back to my goddamned job in some way or another.”

  “It’s not your fault, Derek. This was done to you. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “Apparently, I fell for the wrong woman.”

  “I hope,” Sam said, “when all the dust settles, you can remember the good times and try to forget the rest. There’s no point second-guessing everything. You’ll drive yourself crazy doing that.”

  “Too late.”

  “Derek, it’s really important that you not breathe a word of this to anyone—not your parents or Harry or especially your colleagues at the White House. We’re trying to build a case against the Patterson family, but if the word gets out, our job becomes a lot harder.”

  “I understand. I won’t talk about the way my wife used me to pass political secrets to our rival.” He released another bitter-sounding laugh. “They must’ve been disappointed with what she fed them. We hardly ever talked about the campaign or work, for that matter. Like I told you before, in the rare hours we got to spend together, especially lately, we didn’t do much talking.”

  “Speaking as a woman here, Derek, let me assure you, she wouldn’t have spent so much of her time that way if she didn’t really want to. Hold on to that, okay?”

  “I’ll try.”

  “Take care. I’ll be in touch as soon as I know more.”

  “Thanks, Sam, for everything. You and Nick have been great during all of this.”

  “We’ll be here for you and Maeve for as long as you need us, Derek. I promise.”

  “I appreciate that,” he said, his voice heavy with emotion as they ended the call.

  Pulling onto Ninth Street, Sam saw Jeannie’s car parked in front of her house. They met on the sidewalk by the ramp that led to Sam’s front door. Sam noticed that Jeannie looked deeply troubled, which made Sam’s stomach hurt. “Come in.”

  Jeannie followed her up the ramp and into the cool comfort of Sam’s spacious home.

  “Drink?” Sam asked.

  “I wouldn’t say no to some ice water. It’s so freaking hot.”

  “I hear it’s supposed to be for the foreseeable future. Thank God for AC.”

  “No kidding.”

  Sam filled two glasses and brought them to the kitchen table.

  Jeannie pulled out a chair and sat, focused for a long time on the glass of water.

  “Whatever it is, say it,” Sam said.

  Jeannie hesitated for a long moment, and when she looked up at Sam, her eyes were tortured. “Does the name Steven Coyne mean anything to you?”

  “Of course. He was my dad’s first partner. Killed in the line by a drive-by shooter. The case is unsolved.”

  “Right.” Jeannie took a drink of her water. “Alice Fitzgerald was his widow.”

  All the air left Sam’s body in one big whoosh. She stared at Jeannie, almost as if she hadn’t heard her right. “There’s no mention of that anywhere in the case files.”

  “According to Dr. Morganthau, your dad and everyone else involved went to great lengths to keep Alice’s connection to the department out of the media. They didn’t want all the business about Steven’s murder resurrected when she was dealing with the loss of her son.”

  Sam’s mind whirled as she tried to process this new information. “This was why he allowed Cameron to go into the military rather than pressing forward with an investigation that pointed directly at him.”

  “Yes.”

  “And Alice... I didn’t really know her, but my dad was close with a woman named Alice. Took care of her after her husband was killed.” In the deep recesses of her mind, Sam somehow knew there’d been something more to it than that, but she couldn’t remember what.

  “That’s what Dr. Morganthau said.”

  “Surely Chief Farnsworth knew about the connection to Coyne. And Captain Malone. Deputy Chief Conklin.” Sam’s heart beat fast as she thought back to the day her father was shot and the terrible argument they’d had over the Fitzgerald case. “This was why he told me to leave it alone. They all knew. They were taking care of one of their own. Jesus, Jeannie. If this got out, a lot of careers and reputations would’ve been ruined. No wonder he’s so mad at me.”

  “It’s possible,” Jeannie ventured, “that the others didn’t know who the mother was. How closely in touch would they have stayed with Alice after her husband was killed? Perhaps only your dad knew she’d remarried and that it was her son who was missing.”

  Sam pressed fingers to her suddenly aching temples. “It’s becoming clear to me that I might’ve gotten very lucky when you and Tyrone lied to me. What if we had dug into what we’d learned? What if we’d pursued this further and it got out that my dad intentionally protected a murderer—if Cameron was in fact the murderer? My dad’s reputation would be ruined. Hell, mine might’ve been too.”

  “I’m sorry to have to tell you this. I knew it would be upsetting to you.”

  “It’s certainly not your fault. I’m rescinding the suspension. You and Tyrone are back on duty tomorrow. I’ll make sure you’re paid for today.”

  “You don’t have to do that, Lieutenant. At the end of the day, we did lie to you.”

  “I’m going to forget that happened and count on the fact that it’ll never happen again.”

  “It won’t. I’ve learned my lesson, and so has Will.”

  “What do I say to my dad?” Sam asked as she heard the front door open and close.

  “Babe?” Nick called. “Are you home?”

  “In here,” Sam said.

  He was pulling off his tie as he came into the kitchen, stopping short when he saw she wasn’t alone. “Oh, hey, Jeannie. How are you?”

  “Fine, Senator. And you?”

  “My name is Nick,” he said with a smile, “and I’m great now that I’m home from an endless day o
f boring hearings.” He took a closer look at Sam. “What’s wrong?”

  Jeannie stood and carried her glass to the sink. “I’ve got to get going, Lieutenant. Call me if there’s anything I can do.”

  “I will, thanks. See you tomorrow.” As Jeannie left the kitchen, Sam called after her. “Wait! I didn’t see the ring.”

  Looking sheepish, she turned around and held out her left hand to show off the sparkler.

  “Wow,” Sam said. “It’s gorgeous. Tell Michael I said he did good.”

  “I will.”

  “It’s beautiful, Jeannie,” Nick said, kissing her cheek. “Congratulations to you and Michael.”

  Jeannie nearly swooned from the kiss and the kind words from Nick. He had that effect on women, even those happily engaged to someone else.

  “Thank you both so much. You’ve been such good friends to us. I hope you’ll be able to dance at the wedding.”

  “We wouldn’t miss it,” Sam said.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  When the front door clicked shut behind Jeannie, Nick sat down at the table and reached for Sam’s hand. “Why is your hand freezing?”

  Still in a state of shock over what Jeannie had told her, Sam struggled to find the words. “I...I heard something. About my dad. It was... Sort of upsetting.”

  “What is it?”

  “If I tell you, you can’t ever repeat it. Ever.”

  “Of course. That goes without saying. Tell me, baby.”

  In a halting recitation, she filled him in on what Jeannie and Will had gleaned from their visit with the retired medical examiner.

  “Whoa,” Nick said when she was finished.

  “Yeah, exactly.”

  “What do you do with this info?”

  “That’s a very good question. Do I go to my dad and say, ‘I know what you did, and I get why you did it, but Jesus, Dad. You took one hell of a risk with your career and your reputation’?” She kneaded the tension from her temples. “I suddenly have a splitting headache.”

  “Do you think there was more to his relationship with Alice than you know about?”

  “Possibly. Remember what Tracy said about my mom moving out of the house during the Fitzgerald investigation. It doesn’t take much imagination to figure it had something to do with Alice.”