her office to retrieve the Worthington file. When she returned, she closed the door and laid the file folder on the table. “Calvin Worthington, age fifteen, was fatally shot in Southeast on his own property fifteen years ago.” She placed a photo of the smiling young man on the table and pushed it across to Avery, followed by the medical examiner’s photo of the chest wound that’d ended his life.
“I was in my first year in Patrol, and I took the call. I’ve never forgotten his mother’s agonizing grief or the way the case seemed to go cold almost immediately. Stahl was the detective assigned to the case, and that was the first time I tangled with him. I kept asking him what was being done to find Calvin’s killer, and he told me to mind my own business and stay in my lane. He was so annoyed that a lowly Patrol officer questioned him. Later, I realized that the fact my last name was Holland made it doubly galling for him.”
“The file is rather thin for a homicide.”
“Exactly.”
He opened the file and flipped through the pages, scanning the reports. “You offered a more detailed description of events just now than the detectives who investigated it did.”
“They barely investigated it. I remember being enraged that they didn’t give it much attention, but it happened during an outbreak of shootings and domestics, and the case just got overlooked. But I never forgot Lenore or her terrible grief. When I saw her the other day for the first time in years, I knew exactly who she was and why she’d come. She said she heard I’d closed my dad’s case after four years, and even though fifteen is a lot longer, maybe I could take another look at Calvin’s. She reminded me he would’ve been thirty this year.”
“Such a tragedy. You just wonder how people survive this stuff. I look at Noah and think I’d die if anything happened to him.”
“I know that feeling, but the human spirit is resilient. Somehow, we survive things we think will break us. I know it’s nowhere near the same thing as losing a child, but a few weeks ago, I couldn’t imagine life without my dad. And here I am, breathing and functioning and living without him. Life goes on even when you’re sure it won’t.”
“I guess so. Your grief group starts tonight, right?”
“It does.”
“That’s a really incredible thing you’re doing. It’ll help a lot of people.”
“I hope so.”
“Do you mind if I keep the Worthington files to take a closer look?”
“Not at all. I’m knee-deep in the McLeod case, but I was planning to revisit Worthington after I close this one. I got the okay from the brass to devote some time to it.”
“I’ll get the files back to you tomorrow. Talk to me about Ramsey. His name has come up a few times during our investigation.”
“Is that right?” Sam asked, smirking. “He’s another of my BFFs within the department.”
“What’s his beef with you?”
“Good question. If I had to guess, it would be something like I’m female, younger than him, I have fewer years on the job and outrank him. And that would be solely because of who my father was and the fact that the chief was my uncle Joe growing up. There could be no other reason for me lapping him.”
Avery rolled his eyes. “The fact that you excel at your job has no bearing on it.”
“None at all.”
“He’s jealous.”
“Maybe, but he’s also dangerous. I think he’s trying to railroad Gonzo out of spite toward me.” She filled him in on the details of what Gonzo had done and her suspicions of how it had come to light.
“Wow.”
“There’s a meeting tomorrow at which everyone who matters in this department will beg Gonzales not to take that deal. If he does, his career will be all but over. He needs to remind people why he ended up with an addiction to pain meds.”
“Absolutely. What happened to Arnold—and to him by extension—was one of the worst things I’ve ever experienced as an LEO. I can’t imagine what it was like for him.”
“It was a nightmare. Arnold drove him crazy with his earnestness, eagerness and overall puppylike demeanor. He was the sweetest kid, and Gonzo was good with him, but half the time he wanted to gag him. He was aggravated with him that night and told him he’d let him take the lead if he’d just shut up. That’s the part that stays with