Chapter Three
With the statement seen to, Sam placed a call to Detective Cameron Green, who answered on the second ring.
“Lieutenant, I heard from Captain Malone. I am so very, very sorry. Your dad was a great man, and I enjoyed getting to know him over the last couple of months.”
“Thank you. I was wondering if you could make a call to the family business on our behalf.” Cameron’s family owned the Greenlawn Funeral Homes, which were highly regarded in the region.
“Consider it done.”
“It’ll be a big deal, so you might want to warn them.”
“Understood. Don’t worry about a thing. I’ll have someone at your father’s home within the hour to take care of everything.”
“I appreciate it.”
“If there’s anything else I can do, anything at all, please let me know.”
“There is one thing…”
“Name it.” Sam debated whether it was the right thing, but in the end, she decided it wasn’t up to her to decide.
“If you could track down Cruz in Italy and let him know, I’d appreciate it.
Please emphasize I do not want him to come home, but I did want him to know.
” Her partner, Freddie Cruz, was on his honeymoon, but he’d been close to her father.
“I’ll call him myself. What about Sergeant Gonzales?” Gonzo had recently checked into rehab to contend with an addiction to pain meds and PTSD from the shooting death of his partner, Detective A. J. Arnold, earlier in the year.
“Can one of you check with his fiancée, Christina, to see how we should handle that?”
“Will do.”
“Thanks, Cameron. If you need help, call on the others in the squad.”
“We’re on it, don’t worry about a thing. I wish there was something I could say to you. I only knew him a short time, but I feel richer for having had him in my life.”
“That helps.”
“Call me if you need anything else.”
“I will.”
Sam closed the phone and ducked her head inside to let the others know that Darren had been given the statement, that someone from Greenlawn would be there shortly and she was going home to speak to Scotty. “I’ll be back.”
She was halfway down the ramp to the sidewalk when her sister Tracy called for her to hang on. Sam turned to face her sister.
“You don’t have to do all this yourself, you know.” Tracy smoothed Sam’s hair, tending to her the way she had for Sam’s entire life. Though Skip Holland had loved all his daughters fiercely, that he shared a special, deep bond with Sam, his youngest, was no secret to anyone.
“Yeah, I kinda do, so if you guys wouldn’t mind indulging me…”
“I don’t mind, and Ang won’t either, but you have to let us help you. We need that.”
“Fair enough. How pissed is Celia?”
“She’s shocked and grief-stricken. She won’t hold it against you.”
“As awful as it was, it was the right thing to do.”
“I agree, and he would, too. I don’t know how he withstood it for as long as he did.”
“I need to go home and tell Scotty before he wakes up and sees it on his phone.”
“I called Brooke, and I have to pick up Abby and Ethan from a sleepover at Mike’s brother’s house. I’m dreading having to tell them.”
“Same. Poor Scotty has already had enough loss in his life.” After his mother and grandfather died when he was very young, Scotty had ended up in foster care before landing in a state home in Virginia, where Nick had met him on a campaign stop.
“He’ll be okay with all of us around to support him.”
Sam hugged her sister. “I’ll be back shortly. Make sure someone is with Celia, and we should call her sisters. And Mom.”
“I’ll take care of that.”
Sam nodded and left to go home. As she covered the short distance between her father’s home and her own, her phone rang incessantly. She let it ring. She couldn’t do another thing until she’d talked to Scotty.
Nate, the agent working the door, opened it for her. “My sincere condolences, Mrs. Cappuano. Your father was a wonderful man.”
“Thank you so much. I agree.” Sam went into the kitchen where Shelby was making breakfast for Alden and Aubrey. The sight of their adorable little faces brought tears to Sam’s eyes. She kissed them both as Shelby looked on with concern. “How’d you guys sleep?” Sam caressed their soft blond hair.
“Okay.” Aubrey gave Sam a knowing look. After what she’d endured, she knew disaster when she saw it. “Can we go to the park later?”
“Maybe. Let’s see what happens, okay?” Sam didn’t want to add to their grief by sharing hers with them. Not yet anyway. “I need to run upstairs and shower.”
“Do what you need to, Sam.” Shelby’s big blue eyes were tearful and full of compassion. Sam expected nothing less from her. “We’re all set here.”
She gave Shelby a quick hug before leaving the kitchen to trudge upstairs where Debra stood watch outside Scotty’s door.
Giving the agent a grim smile and receiving an empathetic look in return, Sam went into her son’s room and shut the door behind her, taking a second to gather the fortitude she would need for this.
It killed her that what she was about to tell him would devastate her son, but he was too old to be treated like a baby.
If she had her way, nothing would ever hurt him again, as unrealistic as that was.
She went to his bed and sat on the edge of the mattress, reaching out to run her fingers through the silky dark hair that was so much like his father’s.
Though they didn’t share DNA, father and son had several physical similarities that gave them the look of family.
“Hey, bud.” She gave him a gentle nudge.
He groaned. “Go away. It’s Sunday. No school.”
“I need to talk to you.”
His eyes opened, immediately on alert. “Don’t tell me something happened to Dad.”
“No, not Dad.” Her throat closed, and she had to look away from his sweet, earnest face or risk losing it.
“What, then? Just say it. You’re freaking me out.”
“Gramps.”
“No.” He shook his head. “No.”
“I’m so sorry to have to tell you this. But the good news is he went peacefully in his sleep, and he’s free now.”
Tears rolled down Scotty’s handsome face as his chin quivered.
Sam held out her arms to him. “Come here.”
He sat up and fell into her outstretched arms, sobbing his heart out. “I’m not ready for this.”
“I know, sweetheart. None of us are.”
“You believe he’s free?”
“I do.” Sam spoke the truth even as she ached on the inside.
“You didn’t know him before he was shot.
He was so big and brawny and brave. At his funeral, there’ll be lots of photos of him in uniform, and you’ll see what I mean.
” She pulled back from him, wiped the tears from his face and smoothed the hair that stood on end after sleeping.
“His great big life was so greatly reduced after he was shot, and it was hard for us to see him like that. I can’t begin to imagine what it was like for him to be so trapped physically while being completely aware mentally. ”
“That had to suck so bad.”
“It did, and that’s why I believe he’s in a better place now, a place where paralysis doesn’t exist, and people are made whole again.
” She kissed his forehead and continued to run her fingers through his hair, which she didn’t get to do often enough these days for her liking.
“I hope it makes it easier to bear to think of him as free.”
“It does.”
“He was so proud of you and loved you so much. You amused him endlessly and made his last few years so much richer. He would say, ‘That kid is too much. I love him to pieces.’”
“I loved him, too.”
“He knew that. He would tell me your visits were the highlight of his days. You were very faithful to him, and we all appreciated that.”
“I loved talking to him. That’s why I was always over there. I liked having a grandpa again.”
“I know, and I’m so sorry you have to lose someone else you love. You’ve already had way too much loss in your life.”
“Yeah, but I was lucky too because I got to have them for a short time, and they loved me.”
“Yes, they did, and that’s a good way to look at it. Are you okay?”
“I will be.”
“Do you promise you’ll talk to me about anything you’re feeling?”
“If you do the same. This is way harder for you than it is for me.”
“I promise, and it’s hard for all of us.”
“How’s Celia?”
“She’s hurting, as you can imagine.”
“I’ll go see her.”
“I’m sure she’d love that.”
“Does Dad know?”
She nodded. “The Secret Service got word to him on Air Force Two, and he called me.”
“He must be freaking out that he’s not here when we need him.”
“He is, but he’ll be home soon.”
“I’m so glad he’s coming home.”
“So am I.” That, Sam thought, is the understatement of my lifetime.