Chapter Twenty #2
Wilton’s office was on the second floor, tucked into a corner at the end of a long hallway. Inside, they encountered one of Sam’s favorite things, this time in triplicate—three receptionists. Awesome. Could this day get any better?
She showed her badge while Freddie did the same. “Lieutenant Holland, Detective Cruz, Metro PD, here to see Congressman Wilton?”
“Do you have an appointment?” one of them asked. She was blond, blue-eyed, perky and efficient.
Sam could tell that by looking at her. “No, we don’t have an appointment, but then again, we don’t need one when we’re investigating a homicide. Please tell the congressman we’re here, and that it would be better for him if he doesn’t waste our time with unnecessary delays.”
The woman started to say something but wisely thought better of it and picked up the phone. With the mood Sam was in, it would give her great pleasure to arrest the woman for interfering in her investigation.
“Don’t even think about it,” Freddie said under his breath. “I’m not doing all that paperwork.”
“Stop being a killjoy.” She absolutely loved how well he knew her, but it was a little disconcerting that they’d reached the point where he was reading her mind.
That could become a problem if she wasn’t careful.
Her mind was a scary place to be, and no one needed to know the full extent of what went on there.
The door behind the row of receptionists opened and out strode a tall, handsome, dark-haired man who Sam recognized as the congressman.
“Come in,” he said.
Now that was the kind of cooperation she expected but rarely received on the job. He scored five points right off the bat for cutting through the bullshit and ushering them into his small but elegant office and offering them seats in his visitor chairs.
“How can I help you?”
“We’re investigating the homicide of Tara Weber.” Sam watched him carefully, looking for any sign of emotional reaction to hearing the late woman’s name.
“It’s a terrible tragedy. Tara was a great person.”
“We understand that you were involved with her?”
“A long time ago.”
“How long ago exactly?”
“Almost a year maybe.”
“Can you be more specific? When was the last time you were romantically involved with her?” Sam didn’t want to come right out and ask the guy when he last slept with her, but she would if he didn’t take the hint.
He picked up his phone. “May I?”
“Of course.”
While he poked at the screen, she cooled her heels, waiting for him to determine the actual date of their last get together.
“February 1. We had dinner, spent the night together, and I never heard from her again after that, despite repeated efforts on my part to see her again. I know now that was because she was also involved with Nelson.” This last part was said with a tinge of bitterness.
“Congressman, is there any chance her son is yours?”
The question clearly shocked him. “I thought the baby was Nelson’s?”
“We have reason to believe that’s not the case.”
“I… I have no idea what to say. She told me she was on birth control. We talked about how we both were clean. I told her I could prove it. She said that wasn’t necessary.
I thought… I thought we were starting something, you know?
It never occurred to me that I’d never see her again after that last night together. ”
“Would you be willing to submit to a DNA test to determine the baby’s paternity?”
“Um, yes, of course. If he’s mine, I want to know that.”
“We’ll set that up. Can you confirm that you had no further contact with her after February 1 of this year?”
“Yes, I can confirm that, and you’re welcome to check my phone if you don’t believe me.” He handed it over to Freddie, who looked at the text message history.
“Do you mind if I look at your emails, too?”
“Be my guest. I have nothing to hide where she’s concerned. I was interested in more with her, but apparently that didn’t work both ways.”
Sam appreciated the man’s forthrightness, another thing that was rare in her line of work. People tended to hedge, even when they had nothing to hide, which only made them seem guilty even when they weren’t. People were stupid that way.
“I hope you understand that we have to ask where you were the day Tara was killed.”
“I was right here, in committee hearings all day. My assistant can give you my schedule for that day and any other day in question.”
“That day would be great.”
He picked up the desktop extension and requested the information while Sam watched him, looking for cracks in his armor and seeing none. After he ended the call, he glanced at her. “How soon can I find out if the baby is mine?”
Sam gave him Lindsey McNamara’s number and asked him to get in touch with her about giving a sample of his DNA. “It can take a couple of weeks to run DNA, but we’ll see what we can do to expedite it.”
“This is… It’s crazy. I’m in a new relationship, and it’s going well. This…” He seemed at a loss for words.
“Would be something that happened before you met the new person in your life.”
“True, but a baby…” He took a shaky deep breath and released it. “That’s… Well…”
“It’s only natural you’d be shocked, Congressman. Most people have nine months to prepare for a child.” The scenario reminded her of how Gonzo found out about his son, Alex, months after the child was born.
“Yes, exactly.” Running his hands through his hair, he seemed to be trying to wrap his mind around the possibility.
“I should mention that our investigation has revealed that Ms. Weber dated a number of men during the months that followed the end of a long-term relationship.”
“So you’re saying there’s also a good possibility the baby isn’t mine?” His expression was a mixture of relief and sadness, as if he couldn’t decide which he preferred—being the baby’s father or not.
“I’m saying nothing is definite until it is.” In other words, she wanted to say, don’t get your hopes up in case the baby isn’t yours.
“I understand.”
Sam stood to leave. “We’ll be in touch about the DNA test.”
He stood to walk them out. “The sooner the better.”
“I understand.”
When he opened the office door, the assistant appeared with a printout of his schedule from the day Tara was murdered.
Sam took it from her. “Thank you. We appreciate the cooperation.”
“Whatever we can do.” Wilton handed her a business card. “Will you keep me posted? My cell number is on there.”
Sam reciprocated, giving him one of hers. “Will do. If you think of anything else that might be relevant, call me. No detail is too small.”
He nodded. “I will.”
Sam and Freddie left the congressman’s suite and headed for the main security checkpoint to retrieve their weapons.
“Call Lindsey and tell her she’ll be hearing from Wilton.”
While Freddie made the call, Sam let her mind wander from one detail of this case to the other, looking for new threads to pull. They were almost back to the car when her phone rang with a call from Cameron Green. “What’s up?”
“I wanted to let you know I talked to Archie about the dump of Tara’s phone and we’re still waiting for the phone company to respond.”
“I’m going to call Malone and have him put some pressure there.”
“He’s already taking care of that, and Agent Hill has been exerting pressure as well with the phone company and the dating app.”
“It’s good of him to help. Sometimes the FBI gets faster results than we do.” A fact that rankled her.
“The dating app is pushing back hard, due to member privacy concerns.”
“Isn’t that rich? A woman is dead, possibly because of someone she met on their app, and they’re worried about protecting the privacy of a potential killer?”
“I know, but we’re looking for one person out of a pool of men she dated, so I can sort of see their point.”
“You can’t see their point and be on my side, too.”
Green laughed. “My apologies.”
“Don’t let it happen again.”
“I’ll see that it doesn’t. Are you guys getting anywhere?”
“Not really. We met with another of the guys she was involved with around the time the baby would’ve been conceived. We gave Congressman Wilton of Seattle the shock of his life when we indicated that her baby could be his.”
“I can only imagine how shocking that would be.”
“Anything in the vetting documents?”
“Nothing we don’t already know.”
“Ugh!” Sam recalled her plan to dig for dirt on Ramsey. “In the morning, report to my office fifteen minutes before your tour begins. Tell McBride, too, but only the two of you.”
“Okay…”
“I’ll tell you why in the morning. You guys can call it a day.”
“All right. I’ll be there early.”
“See you then.”
Sam glanced at the clock, which was inching closer to seven thirty. If she didn’t head home soon, she wouldn’t get to see the twins before they were tucked in for the night. She looked at Freddie. “Go home. We’ll pick it up in the morning.”
“I’ll see you then.” Freddie took off toward the Metro, eager as usual to get home to his new wife.