held it out of her way while she worked and found the now-warm bottle of water she’d bought earlier from a vending machine in the break room. Chugging half of it, she grabbed a pad and pen and went into the conference room to get the meeting with Hill over with.
“I’m here. What do you want?”
He grinned as he stood to close the conference room door. “Charming, as always.”
“Charm is my middle name.” Sam always hated to admit, even to herself, that Avery Hill was a fine-looking man with light brown hair he wore swept back off his forehead, prominent cheekbones, golden eyes and a South Carolinian accent that could make even the most stalwart of panties go damp. Her friend Shelby Faircloth, Avery’s new wife, was one lucky woman. Not that Sam ever gave him a thought when he wasn’t right in front of her face, but she never failed to notice how handsome he was.
“What can I do for you, Agent Hill?” she asked, using her sweetest, most solicitous tone.
“I want to talk to you about some of your favorite people—Stahl, Conklin and Hernandez.”
“Oh joy. My favorite old boys’ club.”
“Before we do that, though, I wanted to tell you my team is doing some digging into your mother-in-law. Nothing to report yet, but we’re finding some interesting things.”
“That doesn’t surprise me in the least. She’s scum.”
“It might take a while, since we’re doing this between other things.”
“That’s no problem. Whatever it takes.”
“So about the reason we’re here… I’m sorry to do this to you, Sam. I truly am.”
She shrugged. “I’m starting to get past the initial shock of Conklin and Hernandez, and I’m well past the realization that Stahl was always a dick.”
“We’re reviewing their past cases and digging deep into whether Conklin and Hernandez’s involvement in your dad’s case was a one-off or if there was a pattern.”
Sam’s stomach dropped. “Jesus. It never occurred to me that Dad’s case could be the tip of an iceberg. The thought of there being more makes me feel sick.”
“You and a lot of other people around here. I want you to know—we’re not looking to discredit this department as a whole. Only the people who deserve to be discredited. We’re well aware of the great work you and many others are doing here every day.”
“Thank you for that, but I certainly know that not everyone approaches the job the same way you and I do.”
“When you think back to working with Stahl and Conklin, what stands out?”
“Stahl was always a pain in the ass because he could as the LT. And when he moved to Internal Affairs, it was even worse. He was drunk on his own power. He tried to make an issue out of overhearing Detective Arnold make a joke about how he hadn’t been invited to my wedding.”
“What kind of issue?”
“An IAB hearing kind of issue. He never missed a chance to bust my balls any way he could think of. It was nonstop. When he was my actual boss, it was a full-on nightmare for me.”
“Did you know why?”
“Nope. I assumed it had something to do with my dad. They came up through the ranks together, never really got along, butted heads, etc. So when Stahl had Skip’s daughter under his command, he made sure to fully maximize the opportunity.”
“That must’ve been fun.”
“All kinds of fun that occurred at the same time I was married to passive-aggressive Peter, and my father had been recently paralyzed in a shooting on the job. Neither my boss nor my husband gave me an ounce of slack during that time. Let me tell you, those were the good old days.”
“Sounds like it. Did you suspect Stahl of cutting corners when he was your LT?”
“All the time. He was constantly telling us to hurry up, get him something, didn’t matter what it was. Mostly, we ignored him, but he was relentless in his efforts to close cases at any cost.”
“Do you think he manufactured evidence or anything like that?”
“Not that I could ever prove, but his methodology was always questionable.”
“How so?”
“He would skip over people the rest of us wanted to interview and tell us to focus on the most likely suspect, but I’ve found the most likely suspect isn’t immediately obvious.”
“Can you think of any cases that might’ve been glossed over or handled badly by Stahl, Conklin, Hernandez or anyone else, for that matter?”
“As a matter of fact… Hang on a second.” Sam left the conference room to go into