me know when you do?”
“I’ll do that. If you think of anything else that might be relevant, please call me back on this number.”
“I will.”
“Thanks again.” Sam ended the call with the usual satisfying slap of her flip phone and sat back to ponder what she’d learned from Janet. Then she picked up the phone on her desk and put through a call to Patrol, trying to remember who had taken Hernandez’s place after his arrest. She had no idea.
“Patrol. Officer Baker.”
“This is Lieutenant Holland. Could you please ask someone to pick up Kenneth McLeod at his brother’s home in Chevy Chase?” Sam recited the address. “He’s apt to be confrontational, but I don’t expect him to be armed or dangerous. Read him his rights and tell him he’s being charged with interfering in a homicide investigation.”
“Yes, ma’am. We’ll get right on it.”
“Thank you.”
Sam hung up and thought it through from every angle. The call to Janet had been illuminating in more ways than one. Not only did she know for sure that Mandi and Ken Sr. had lied to her, she also knew Ken Jr. was most likely innocent of any involvement in his mother’s death. She just needed Archie to confirm that for her.
An hour later, the man himself appeared at her door. “I’ve got the cell phone data you requested.”
“Gimme,” Sam said.
He handed over several pages that had names on the top. “I did the daughter, the son, the husband and Ginny’s phone too.”
“Perfect, Archie. Thanks.” As Sam tried to read what was written on the page, the words swam before her eyes into a mixed-up jumble of letters and numbers. Goddamned dyslexia reared its ugly head at the worst possible times. She glanced up at Lieutenant Archelotta. “Give me the gist?”
“Sure, no problem. I could find no record of a call from Ken Jr.’s phone to his sister’s on Sunday afternoon. His phone only shows pings from his home and a nearby park on Sunday.”
Wow, Sam thought. So much for Mandi’s efforts to pin the murder on her brother.
“There was a two-minute call from Ken Sr. to Mandi that was made at one twenty. She was at school when she received the call.”
“And where was he when he made it?”
“At his house.”
“And not on the golf course like he told us. Hot damn. That means not only did he lie, but the three friends who told us he was playing golf with them all afternoon lied too. We’ve got a lot of people to arrest.”
“Sounds that way.”
Captain Malone came to the door. “We’re getting ready to start the meeting with the AUSA and Gonzales. You coming?”
Sam glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that it was one minute before nine. “I’m coming.” She gathered the cell phone info to take with her. “Thanks for this, Archie. You just made my case for me.”
“Happy to help.”
“You always do,” she said with a warm smile.
“Good luck with the meeting,” Archie said. “I think it’s madness they’re going to charge him with a crime after what happened to Arnold. A lot of people think that.”
“Appreciate that. I know he would too.”
Archie nodded and took off toward the stairs to go back to his kingdom on the second floor.
Sam walked with Malone to the chief’s conference room. “I think the husband killed Ginny, and the daughter helped him after the fact. I also believe the two of them know where the money is.”
“I heard the Feds expended a big effort trying to find it.”
“They focused their efforts on Ginny and Ken Sr. They never investigated their kids, which Green did, and that’s what led to Mandi’s trips to the Caymans.”
“That’ll make for a rather nice headline, especially with the FBI investigating us at the moment.”
“That thought never occurred to me, Captain.”
His bark of laughter echoed through the hallway. He gestured for her to go ahead of him into the conference room, where Chief Farnsworth, Assistant U.S. Attorney Faith Miller, Gonzo and Christina waited for them with Nick’s lawyer friend Andy Simone.
Sam was surprised to see Christina there too. “Morning, everyone.”
“Morning,” Gonzo said.
He looks good, Sam thought. Really good. Like the Tommy he was before disaster struck.
Captain Malone shut the conference room door and sat next to Sam across from Tommy and Christina. The chief and Faith sat at either end.
“Faith,” the chief said, “this is your meeting.”
“Thank you for coming in, Sergeant,” Faith said. “As you know, we’re here to discuss the possibility of a plea deal pertaining