Chapter Thirteen
Sam left the director’s home less than an hour after she had arrived, placing a call to her husband as she walked to her car. “The cavalry is coming,” she said when he answered.
“What do you mean?”
“Farnsworth, Malone, Hill. They want to talk to Josh.”
“Um, okay.”
“I’m sorry I brought this situation into our home. That was a mistake.”
“Hang on. I’m going into the kitchen.” She heard him moving around. “No, it wasn’t. At the time you thought it was the right thing. You had no way to know his father would end up murdered and you’d be wondering what, if anything, Josh had to do with it.”
“I am wondering. He was off the grid for a few hours today. That’s one of the things we need to talk to him about. When we’re done, I’ll have Malone set up a new place to keep him until we figure this out.”
“I was hoping you’d say that. Brant told me he has a weird feeling about the guy. He’s been watching him like a hawk.”
“Brant is paid to trust those feelings,” Sam said with a sigh. “I fucked this up. I’m sorry.”
“Stop apologizing, babe. This is your home, too, and you can invite anyone you want to come here.”
“I shouldn’t have brought my work home with me. If it wasn’t for this goddamned suspension, I wouldn’t have had to.”
“How bad was the scene at Hamilton’s house?”
“Golf-club-to-the-face bad.”
“Jesus. How could someone get at him? Didn’t he have security?”
“Nope.”
“He was arrogant to think he didn’t need it.”
“Like someone else you know?”
“Your words, not mine,” he said with a laugh.
“I’m almost home. Do me a favor and send Scotty up to bed?”
“Yeah, will do. He’s yawning his head off anyway. See you in a few.”
She closed her phone and stashed it in her coat pocket as she pulled up to the security check point and opened the window.
“I’ve got some of my colleagues on the way over.
MPD Chief Farnsworth, Captain Malone and FBI Special Agent Avery Hill.
They’re all on my visitor list, so please let them through. ”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Scowling at that dreaded word, she accelerated through the checkpoint to her parking space.
As she took the ramp to the front door, she tried to decide how best to approach Josh.
Tell him now when it was the two of them or wait for the others.
Because she had a split second to make that call, she decided to tell him now and let him know the others were on their way to talk to him.
The agent on duty opened the door and nodded to her. “Evening, ma’am.”
“Evening.” Sam wondered what they truly thought of the way she came and went as she pleased.
It was probably better if she didn’t know their thoughts about her.
Tossing her coat over the back of the first chair she encountered, she went over to where Josh sat by himself, game controller in hand, clicking away.
“Hey,” she said as she sat with him. “Could you pause that for a second?” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Nick come downstairs and head for the kitchen. Brant stepped out of the home office and followed Nick. Sam had no doubt they both had eyes on her as she talked to Josh.
“What’s up?” Josh asked. The room had gone oddly silent without the screech of tires or manic game noise.
“I’m afraid I have some news that may be upsetting to hear.”
“The DNA isn’t a match?”
“No, it’s not that, although the results are back, and I’ll be sending them to Williamson County in the morning.”
“Then what?”
“Your father has been murdered.” She watched him carefully, gauging his reaction.
His brows furrowed, but his expression otherwise remained passive. “Murdered,” he said slowly. “How? Where?”
“He was bludgeoned at home.” She purposely omitted the weapon used in the killing. For now, only the killer and the police—and Nick, who wouldn’t breathe a word of it—had that information, and she planned to keep it that way. That tidbit could come in handy later.
Josh expelled a deep breath that sounded a lot like relief to her. “He’s dead? He’s really dead?”
“Yes.”
Propping his elbows on his knees, he bent his head and his shoulders began to shake. At first she thought he was crying, but then she realized he was laughing.
“You think it’s funny that your father was murdered?”
“Yeah, kinda, considering who he was. Nice to know he was human after all.”
“Josh, I’ve got to be honest with you. This isn’t looking all that great for you.
You were off the grid for a couple hours this afternoon, around the time the medical examiner estimates your father was murdered.
There was no sign of forced entry, which leads us to believe he knew the person who attacked him or the person had access to the house.
And when I told you the man who raised you was murdered, you laughed.
Can you see how this might be a problem for you? ”
“You think I killed him?”
“I think you had opportunity and possible motive, which are two factors we look at closely in Homicide investigations.”
“Let me save you some time and trouble. I didn’t do it.”
“If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard those words, I’d be rich.”
“This time, they’re true. I wanted nothing to do with him.
That house was the last place you’d ever find me.
Ask anyone who knows me. I haven’t been there in years.
I had nothing to do with him being murdered, but I’m not sorry he’s dead.
He was a narcissistic asshole who made my life a living hell.
You won’t see me crying at his funeral.”
Strangely enough, Sam believed him, but they’d still have to establish his whereabouts for the missing hours to exclude him as a suspect. “I need to get in touch with your mother. Can you tell me where she might be?”
“I take it she wasn’t at home.”
“There was no one there but your father.”
“I don’t know where she is. I haven’t talked to her in a couple of weeks.”
“Would you mind calling her now?”
As he reached for his phone on the coffee table, the Secret Service admitted Farnsworth, Malone and Hill.
“Don’t tell her your father is dead. We’ll take care of that. I need to know where she is.”
While he made the call, Sam got up to greet the others. “He says it wasn’t him, he hasn’t been to the house in years and won’t cry at the funeral. I asked him to reach out to his mother, which he’s doing now.”
Listening to his side of the conversation, Sam deduced that his mother was relieved to hear from him.
“I don’t know what medication he was talking about,” Josh said.
“I’m not on anything.” After a long pause, he said, “I don’t know.
Whoever knows with him? What’re you up to?
” He listened. “Is she okay?” Another pause.
“It’s going around. I know some other people who’ve had it.
” He wrapped up the call telling his mother to tell his grandmother he hoped she felt better and saying he’d call again soon. “Love you, too.”
Josh looked up at Sam. “She’s at my grandmother’s in Chantilly. My grandmother is sick. It sounds like she has the same thing your family had.”
“Did she say how long she’s been there?” Sam asked.
“You can’t honestly think she had anything to do with my father’s murder.”
“I didn’t say anything about her having something to do with it. I asked if she said how long she’s been there.”
“No, she didn’t, but I got the sense she’s been there a while. My grandmother is pretty sick.”
“Do you know your grandmother’s address off the top of your head?”
He eyed her for a long moment before he rattled off the address.
Sam wrote it down in her notebook.
“Mr. Hamilton, I’m Chief Farnsworth with the MPD. I’ve made arrangements for you to be escorted home now that the perceived threat to your safety has been neutralized.”
Josh glanced at Sam and then at the chief. “Perceived? There was nothing perceived about it, and when word gets out that he’s dead, his henchmen will be looking for me.”
“I think it’s possible you’ve been watching too much television,” Farnsworth said.
“You were afraid of your father. Lieutenant Holland went to extraordinary lengths to keep you safe, and now your father is no longer a threat. We believe it’s safe for you to return to your own home at this time, providing you remain local and available during our investigation. ”
“I disagree.” He stood and turned to face the chief. “Lieutenant Holland told me the DNA results are back. I’d like to know those results before I go home.”
“And we’d like to know exactly where you were after you left the hotel this afternoon,” Malone said.
“I told Lieutenant Holland. I walked around. I ended up in Rock Creek Park and took a fall, which is why my coat was dirty and torn when I got here.”
“Rock Creek Park isn’t exactly around the corner from Arlington,” Avery said.
“I walked for a long time. I was scared he was going to find me, so I went to the park. I thought I could hide there until I figured out what to do next. I’d left my wallet in the hotel, so my options were limited.”
“Did you see anyone? Talk to anyone?”
Josh shook his head. “I didn’t talk to anyone. I just walked.”
“Take a seat and let us make a plan,” Sam said.
Seeming resigned, he returned to his seat on the sofa, the controller in hand, but the game remained frozen on pause, like his life since Friday.
She turned to her commanders. “What do you want to do?”
In the kitchen, Nick kept an eye on the goings on in the other room.
He trusted Sam’s instincts about people implicitly, but he didn’t like having Josh Hamilton in his house and neither did the Secret Service.
After hearing about the APB that had been issued for Hamilton earlier in the day, Brant had gone so far as to ask when he would be leaving.
Nick’s cell phone rang and he withdrew it from his pocket to check the caller ID, taking the call from Christina, his former chief of staff. “Hey, what’s up?”
“I’m sorry to bother you when you’re sick. I’m trying to get in touch with Sam, but her phone is going to voicemail.”