Tommy now. He believes he put him in front of that gun.”
“He gave Arnold exactly what he wanted.”
“You and I know that, but you can’t tell him that. To him, he set his partner up to be murdered.”
“It’s an awful thing to live with.”
“It is, and who can blame him for doing whatever it took to survive it? Most people around here empathize with him, but not Ramsey. He’s out to ruin Gonzo’s career in some sort of misguided attempt to exact revenge on me. It’s all so screwed up.”
“I heard the reason he threatened you most recently is because someone uncovered signs of a possible extramarital affair.”
“Is that right?”
“Uh-huh.” He gave her a probing look. “You know anything about that?”
Sam made an effort to keep her expression neutral. “Not a thing.”
“He must have other enemies within the department.”
“That wouldn’t surprise me. When you act like a jackass ninety percent of the time, that comes back around on you.”
“True. What about Conklin? Was there ever anything to indicate he wasn’t a good cop?”
“Only the thing when retired Captain Wallack went missing, and his wife told Conklin, who kept it to himself for two weeks, during which Wallack’s stepson forced him to shoot innocent people.”
“Did he say why he didn’t tell anyone?”
“Because he thought Wallack, who’s a recovering alcoholic, might’ve relapsed. He said he was trying to protect Wallack’s reputation. Conklin is in recovery too. My dad was actually the one who dried him out and saved his career when things got out of control for him back in the day. Ironic, huh?”
“It’s obscene,” Avery said with a forcefulness that Sam appreciated. Good cops were appalled that Conklin had held on to secrets related to her dad’s shooting for four years. And Avery was a good cop, even if he was a Fed. “So when he didn’t report Wallack’s disappearance, was that the first time you knew him to do anything that wasn’t by the book?”
She nodded. “You’d have to ask the chief and Malone and people who go further back with him than I do, but I think it was the first time anyone ever questioned whether he was legit. I remember being shocked when I found out what he’d done and feeling sick that I had to report it. Finding out another officer has done something questionable is the worst feeling, especially when he’s the deputy chief and a longtime friend of your father’s. At least I thought he was. I’ve since found out otherwise.”
“Have you had to report colleagues other times?”
“Here and there. Most recently when one of the department’s sharpshooters, Sergeant Dylan Offenbach, was off the grid during the sniper shootings, and our investigation uncovered that he wasn’t where he was supposed to be. Rather than attending the conference he’d checked out for, he was off cheating on his wife, with whom he has five children and a sixth on the way. He accused me of ruining his life, but if you ask me, he did that all on his own. I heard he got busted down to Patrol, and he blames me for everything.”
“You’re just Miss Congeniality around here, aren’t you?”
Sam laughed at the title. “So it seems. The thing is, when I first started on the job, my dad gave me the most important advice I’ve ever gotten about how to do it right. He said if you find out something your superior officers need to know, you report it to them immediately. You don’t delay even to take a leak. You report it. I’ve always lived by that rule, even when it caused me heartburn with my colleagues. I’m not the one doing something I shouldn’t be doing.”
“And they know that. They just need someone to blame.”
“Whatever,” Sam said with a shrug. “The fact I’m a woman calling them out, not to mention the daughter of a martyred hero and the ‘niece’ of the chief, doesn’t help.”
“Not an easy spot to be in.”
“Nope, but when you try to do the right thing most of the time, you sleep pretty well at night. That’s not to say I haven’t screwed up, because I have. Show me someone who hasn’t, but I try to do the right thing, and that irritates people around here sometimes.”
“I see the same thing in our agency. People do stupid things and then can’t believe when they get caught and disciplined. That never sits well, but I just want to say to them if you hadn’t done what you did in