Chapter Nine #2
“No, I don’t, especially since you screwed me on the suspension thing.”
“Other people already had it. That was happening with me or without me.”
“I’ve got to go, Darren.”
“How’s the vice president?”
“Better.”
“Can you tell me anything about this situation with Hamilton’s family?”
“Nope.”
“Not even off the record?”
“Nope.”
“You’re killing me, Sam.”
“You’ll survive.” Sam slapped the phone closed and got into the car, cranking the heat as she tried to figure out her next move.
She had a million questions about the Hamilton family and the abduction of Taylor Rollings and whether the two were somehow related.
Under normal circumstances, she might head to HQ for a few hours to do some digging. But that wasn’t an option today.
She’d heard every word the chief had said, and was well aware that his patience with her was waning.
Uncle or not, he had a job to do, and her recent actions had made that job more difficult for him.
She regretted that aspect of what she’d done.
It was never her intention to cause him heartburn.
The heartburn seemed to find her whether she toed the thin blue line or not. How was that her fault?
While she took the chief’s annoyance seriously, the fact remained that her suspension didn’t extend to online research she might do on her own. With that in mind, she headed home.
Her phone rang when she was stopped at red light.
“Are you freaking kidding me?” Captain Malone said when she answered.
“Hello to you, too, Captain.”
“Hamilton’s son thinks he was kidnapped from a family in Tennessee thirty years ago?”
“That’s about the gist of it?”
“Holy fucking shit.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
“I know him a little bit.”
“Who?”
“Director Hamilton. I shadowed him for a month years ago when he had Hill’s job,” Malone said of Special Agent-in-Charge Avery Hill, who oversaw the bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division. “The shadowing was part of an inter-agency coordination effort.”
“What do you think of all this?”
Malone hesitated for a couple of seconds. “Meet me at your dad’s in thirty minutes.” The line went dead before Sam could reply.
“Well alrighty then.”
The half hour Malone had given her gave her time to stop at home and check on her patients, both of whom were sound asleep as war raged on in a galaxy far, far away. She worked the remote out of Nick’s hand and shut off the TV before tiptoeing from the room.
In the hallway, she sent a text to both their phones. I’m at Dad’s if you need me. Sure, she could tell the agents on duty where she’d be, but she refused to run her family life through the Secret Service.
She zipped up the coat she’d left on for the check-in at home and went down the ramp to the sidewalk.
To her right, she glanced at the reporters who’d had gathered outside the checkpoint, probably hoping for another glimpse of the ailing vice president.
She wanted to tell them to go get a life, but chasing the big story was their lives.
Poor bastards. What a way to make a living.
Three doors down from her house, she went up the ramp to her father’s home, entering after a brief knock on the door.
“Hi, honey,” Celia said from her post on the sofa where she was curled up with her e-reader.
“Hi there. What goes on around here?”
“Tracy and the kids were here to visit your dad. You just missed them.”
Sam took off her coat and dropped into a chair. “No sign of the flu in anyone else’s house?”
“No, thank goodness.”
“Hope it stays that way. It was nasty, but they’re both better. They’re out cold at the moment.”
“Glad to hear they’re doing better. We were so worried about Nick.”
“Me, too. What’s Dad doing?”
“He’s in his room watching the game.”
“Captain Malone is on his way over. He wants to talk to both of us.”
“What’s going on?”
“I can’t say—yet. I’ll tell you when I can.”
She raised a brow. “I thought you were suspended?”
Sam shrugged. “I am.”
Smiling, Celia shook her head. “Suspended but still in the game?”
“Something like that,” Sam said, grinning.
“Could I ask you…” Celia shook her head. “Sorry, none of my business.”
“What?”
Celia’s pretty face flushed with color. “I’m venturing into territory that’s technically off limits to me by asking if you’ve heard your mother is in town.”
“I heard that, and she wants to see me.”
“I might’ve heard that, too, and I wondered how you feel about it.”
“I’m going to see her because it’s time, not because I’m dying to mend fences or be best friends with her.”
“How come then?”
“When I was in that basement with Stahl, it occurred to me that I should’ve fixed the rift with her at some point. I thought I was going to die, and I was sorry I hadn’t done that.”
“Sam.” Celia blinked back tears. “I hate to think about that awful day.”
“So do I.”
“For what it’s worth, I think it’s good you’re going to see her and clear the air.”
“It’s worth a lot, especially coming from you.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because you’ve more than filled the mother void for me the last few years, and even if I kiss and make up with my mother, that doesn’t change anything between us. You got me?”
Celia swiped at tears. “Now look what you’ve done.”
Smiling, Sam hugged her stepmother. “Add it to the long list of ways I’m in trouble at the moment.”
Celia held on tight for a second before she released Sam. “Go see your dad. He so looks forward to your visits.”
“Send the captain back when he gets here?”
“Will do.”