“Good point,” Sam said. “McBride and O’Brien, head out to the Potomac Country Club where McLeod said he played eighteen holes on Sunday and see if you can find people to confirm he was there the whole time. Also, talk to the three people who were part of his foursome.” Sam handed them the piece of paper from her pad where McLeod had reluctantly written down the names and numbers.
“Will do,” McBride said as she and O’Brien got up to leave the room.
“I want to talk to Dan and Toni Alino,” Sam said. “McLeod told us they were his and Ginny’s closest couple friends. Both of Dan’s parents have Alzheimer’s, and she took their money knowing that.”
“This woman gets more despicable with everything new I hear about her,” Cameron said.
“Agreed,” Sam said. “And then there are people like Lenore Worthington, still waiting fifteen years later for justice after her teenage son was gunned down in his own driveway. I’d much rather be taking another look at that case than dealing with this one.”
“Me too,” Cam said. “Maybe after this one is closed?”
“That’s my hope. I’m waiting to hear from Malone that we’re authorized to revisit that investigation. In the meantime…”
“We have to figure out who killed Ginny McLeod,” Freddie said.
“Right,” Sam said. “Let’s go find the son, and we’ll start in the morning with the Alinos.”
Freddie glanced at the clock on the wall. “More likely to find the son at home than at work at this point, I’d imagine.”
Sam was surprised to see it was already five thirty. “Let’s give that a try.” Mandi had given them her brother’s addresses at home and work, as well as his phone number.
“What about Cheri and Ken?” Freddie asked.
“Are their lawyers here yet?”
“Let me check.” He left the room for a few minutes before returning, shaking his head.
“Then I guess they’re going to be our guests for the evening.”
“That ought to make them happy.”
Sam shrugged. “Not my problem. Have them escorted downstairs, and let them know we’ll speak to them after their attorneys arrive tomorrow.”
“I get to do all the fun stuff around here,” Freddie muttered as he went to see to her instructions.
Keeping Cheri and Ken on ice for the night filled Sam with a perverse feeling of pleasure, since they’d both been so agreeable to begin with.
When Freddie returned to the pit fifteen minutes later, he looked frazzled. “Pleasant folks.”
“I take it they’re not happy to be the guests of the District for the night?”
“You’d be correct, but as I mentioned to them, once they ask for an attorney, we have no choice but to wait for the attorney to arrive, and since our shift is ending…”
“What can we do? We can’t force the lawyers to come in after hours.”
“Exactly.”
“Let’s go to Arlington.” Rush-hour traffic out of the District would be hideous.
“Traffic is gonna suck.”
“You read my mind.”
As they went outside, Sam took note of the black SUV with the dark windows parked behind her car, making it so she couldn’t leave unless the SUV moved.
She walked around the SUV and unlocked her car.
“Mrs. Cappuano—”
Spinning around, she confronted the two agents, one of them an older Black man wearing a sharp suit and dark sunglasses, the other young, blond and fresh-faced. “It’s Lieutenant Holland, and here’s how this is gonna work. You’re going to stay out of my way, and don’t talk to me. Got it?”
“Yes, ma’am,” the younger agent said. “Lieutenant, ma’am.”
“It’s so nice to meet you,” the older agent said with a sarcastically polite tone that Sam respected. “I’m Vernon, and this is Jimmy. It’s our pleasure to offer you protection.”
“Fuck me to tears,” she whispered as she got into her car, started it and began backing up, giving them seconds to move the SUV before she hit it.
Chapter Fourteen
“I’ll pass on that, but what’s this about?” Freddie asked.
“People are going apeshit since Nick’s announcement went public.” Sam gestured toward the unusually large gathering of reporters outside the main door to HQ. “And now I’ve got a temporary detail.”
“Holy crap. You actually agreed to it?”
“My husband asked me nicely, and since he sounded incredibly stressed by the fact that they’d already doubled the size of the kids’ details and tripled his, I agreed to it.”
“Damn. So people are making threats over him deciding not to run?”
“Something like that. He said Brant was pissed that Nick didn’t give the Secret Service a heads-up before the announcement. But like he said, why would he think