Chapter Twelve
It was nearly three o’clock when they arrived in Chevy Chase.
“I used to envy the kids that lived out here,” Sam said.
“How come?”
“I thought they were lucky to live in real neighborhoods outside the city, but now I know we were the lucky ones because we had access to everything close by. They had to take a long Metro ride to get to anything good.”
“I always thought it was weird that there are two Chevy Chases.”
“Right? And don’t mistake them. There’s the DC Chevy Chase and the Maryland Chevy Chase.”
“And they’re right next to each other. Bizarre. And we’re coming to see Cheri Clark in Chevy Chase. It’s a double-C kinda day.”
“I got a lotta words I can think of that start with C that describe this day.”
“But you’re not going to share them.”
“Dingier Freddie loves my dirty words.”
“No, he doesn’t.”
“Cock, cocked—”
“Sam! Shut up.”
While she laughed at her own joke, she found a parking space three blocks from Clark’s office on Connecticut Avenue. They fought against a chilly headwind as they walked.
“That’s the second lady,” a guy said to his friend when they passed him on the sidewalk. “Hey, tell your husband he needs to run. There’s no quitting in politics!”
“Am I allowed to shoot him?” Sam asked Freddie.
“I’ll pretend not to see anything, as long as I don’t have to do the paperwork.”
Thankfully, the loudmouth didn’t pursue her, so she didn’t have to shoot him. They stepped into the lobby of a three-story office building, found Cheri Clark Real Estate on the directory and hoofed it to the third floor.
“They need an elevator in this place,” Sam said when they reached the third floor.
“Or you need to work out more.”
“Shut your face.”
His snicker would’ve made her mad if she wasn’t so winded. He might be right about needing to work out if climbing two flights of stairs made her feel like she was going to die. Not that she planned to tell him that.
The lights were off in Cheri’s office, and when Sam tried the door, it was locked. “Mother effer. If she’s not here after we drove all this way, I’m going to arrest her for wasting my time.”
“No, you’re not. I’m definitely not doing that paperwork.”
“You’ll do it if I tell you to. Find out where she lives.”
Freddie got busy on his phone and had an address within two minutes. “It’s about a mile from here.”
“Let’s go.” Back down the stairs they went, Sam lamenting that she’d climbed them for nothing, and now she knew exactly how out of shape she was. “Is there a picture of this woman?”
Freddie handed over his phone.
Sam took a good long look at a perky woman with shoulder-length blonde hair and perfect teeth highlighted by red lipstick and handed the phone back to him. “I’m glad I don’t have a job that requires me to wear lipstick all the time.”
“We’re all thankful for that.”
“You’re in rare form today, Frederico,” Sam said as they walked back to the car.
“Don’t call me that. You sound like my mother.”
“How is my friend Juliette?”
“She’s driving me crazy asking when I’m going to make her a grandmother.”
“Ah, the eternal question of mothers everywhere. You get a month, maybe two, after the wedding before the questions start.”
“It’s annoying. Elin and I aren’t in any rush to have kids, and I’m not letting anyone pressure me into it, even my mother.”
“That’s the way. Stay strong, grasshopper.”
“I’m trying, but the struggle is real. Hey…” He pointed.
When Sam saw the woman he was pointing at, she took off running.
The woman saw them coming, blanched and then spun around, attempting to run on three-inch heels. To say they had the advantage on her would be putting it mildly.
Sam caught her easily and had her handcuffed before Freddie reached them.
Because he was the less winded of the two of them, she let him take care of reciting the woman’s rights. Sam needed to get back to the gym, or join a gym in the first place.
Cheri struggled against Sam’s tight hold on her. “I haven’t done anything!”
“If that’s the case, why’d you run?” Sam asked.
“I was scared. Everyone knows how you are.”
“How am I?” Sam asked as they perp-walked her to her car.
“A hard-ass bitch.”
“Oh, that’s so mean! I’m hurt! Aren’t I hurt, Detective Cruz?”
“It’s too bad that people don’t realize you take that as a compliment.”
She loved him so much. He was the absolute perfect wingman. “I know, right?”
“I want a lawyer.”
“It’s funny, isn’t it, Detective Cruz, how often ‘innocent’ people lawyer up at the first sign of cops?”
Cheri glared at her. “I’ll tell you the same thing I told the Feds: I had no idea what Ginny was doing when she asked me to show properties to people. I was doing my job.”
“And if we were to pull your financials, we’d find that you never received any payments for doing dirty work for her, right?”
“Of course she paid me for what I did for her company. I don’t work for free. Do you?”
“I thought Realtors got paid when something sells,” Sam said, “not when they show properties. But you must be unique.”
“We had an arrangement. I showed properties, and she paid me. How is that illegal?”
“We’ll talk about that when your lawyer shows up.”
Sam drove them back to headquarters in traffic that’d gotten worse while they were in Chevy Chase. By the time they arrived at HQ, she was feeling extremely cranky and out of sorts. “Get her processed,” she said to Freddie.
“Processed?” Cheri said on a screech. “You can’t charge me for showing properties!”
“Nope, but we can charge you for hampering a homicide investigation and resisting arrest.”
Her face lost all color as her mouth fell open. “How did I hamper a homicide investigation?”
“You made us chase you.” Sometimes, this job was fun. Giving entitled people like Cheri a comeuppance was Sam’s kind of fun. “Take her to Central Booking, Detective Cruz.”
“You can’t charge me with anything.”
That made Sam laugh out loud. “You want to set her straight on that, Detective?”
“I’ll take care of it.” Freddie led the woman toward the entrance while Sam hung back for a better view of the massive media presence outside the main door.
“Jesus,” she muttered, unnerved by the intense interest in Nick’s announcement.
Speaking of the devil… Her phone rang with a call from him.
“I’m not sure if I should continue taking your calls.”
“You absolutely should.”
“What’s up?”
“The whole world has gone mad over the announcement.”
“I’m seeing that in a massive media presence at HQ.” Sam’s anxiety spiked into the red zone. “In what way are you seeing it?”
“In the say-it-isn’t-so way. Brant said they’d like to put a couple of agents on you for the next few days until it dies down.”
“No.”
“Sam, please? This is the kind of thing that brings out the lunatics. You have to let me protect you.”
“I’m fine. No protection needed. But please pass along my thanks to Brant for his concern.”
Her comment was met with dead silence.
“Hello?”
“I’m here,” he said in a tense tone.
“You’re pissed.”
“Kinda.”
“You know how I feel about being followed by security, Nick. I am security.”
“And you know how I feel about you. What if someone decides to kidnap my wife and hold her hostage because I decided not to run for president?”
“No one would do that. I know you’re popular, but that’d be crazy.”
“If you could see some of the emails my team is getting, you’d know it’s not so crazy.
They’re being super hateful about me choosing not to run.
Brant was a bit upset I didn’t give him a heads-up before I released the news.
In fact, it never occurred to me it would matter to them.
The Secret Service has doubled the kids’ details. ”
Hearing that, Sam felt sick. “Seriously?”
“Dead seriously. Please, Sam… Just this once, please do what I’m asking you to do.”
He sounded so stressed that her overwhelming resistance became less important than his peace of mind. “Fine. One agent who stays the hell out of my way.”
“They work in teams. You get two, and I’ll pass along your request.”
“This is a one-time thing, Nick. And only until the story dies down.”
“Thank you.”
“I must really love you.”
“God, I hope you do, because at this rate, we’re going to end up back in the Secret Service bunker.”
“Don’t even say that.” Sam cringed, recalling being stuck in the underground bunker for days while the Secret Service assessed a credible threat against their family.
“I’m not the one saying it. I had no idea people were this invested in me running. I’m truly shocked by the reaction.”
“I hate to say I told you so, but…”
“You love to say you told me so.”
“Yeah, I kinda do. It’s even more fun to say to Freddie.”
Nick laughed. “Poor Freddie.”
“Poor you. Are you okay?”
“I guess. It’s bizarre to be the subject of this kind of attention.”
“I assume if they doubled the kids’ details, they doubled yours, too?”
“Tripled.”
“God, Nick…”
“It’s fine, babe. They’re on it, and everything’s okay as long as you and the kids are safe.”
“And you. Please don’t take your own security lightly. People are nuts.”
“Trust me, I know. Where should I send your detail?”
“HQ, but tell them to stay outside. I’ll be here for a while. Tell them I’ll mostly ignore them, and they’re to do the same to me, if they know what’s good for them.”
“Will do,” he said on a soft chuckle. “Love you.”
“You owe me big for this.”
“I owe you big for a lot of things, and I swear I’ll make it up to you.”
“Can’t wait. See you soon.”
“Watch your back, babe. It’s my favorite back in the whole world.”
“Will do. See you.”
“Bye.”
Sam hated to end the call, but she had too much to do to hang inside the morgue door, talking to her husband like they were a couple of middle schoolers in the throes of first love.
Even if that was how it felt. She’d been in love before him, but her feelings for him were on a whole other level than anything she’d experienced with anyone else.
If you’d asked her before him if soul mates existed, she would’ve scoffed. Now she knew better.
“Everything okay?” Lindsey asked.
Sam realized her friend had been standing there for a minute, watching her.
“Uh, well, the world’s gone mad over Nick’s announcement, and now I’ve got a detail.”
“No way. It must be bad for them to insist on that.”
“I guess it is. Who knew that people would feel that he owes them something?”
“Jeez… That’s insane.”
“Yep.”
“So you’ve got a detail.”
“I’ve got a detail, but I told Nick to tell them to stay the hell out of my way.”
“In those exact words, I presume.”
“What other words should I have used?”
Lindsey’s eyes lit up with silent laughter.
“I gotta go deal with Ginny McLeod’s fake Realtor, who ran from us when she saw us coming but doesn’t see how that impeded a homicide investigation.”
“With the mood you’re in, I presume you’re going to enjoy setting her straight.”
“You presume correctly, Doc. By the way, Haggerty’s team found an implement that’s most likely our murder weapon.”
“Is that right? Ragged edges?”
“Super ragged, and the only one in the house that’d been wiped completely clean and then stashed in a downstairs bedroom closet.”
“Ah, damn, so it’s no help to you.”
“It’s something we didn’t know before—that the perp took the time to clean the murder weapon thoroughly and hide it in the house while Ginny bled out on the floor. That makes it a little more cold-blooded than it initially seemed.”
“I don’t envy you any of your cases, but this one…”
“It’s a bitch, and so was she. We met with her daughter, who was in tears telling us everyone in her life has turned on her. In addition to her own family, she scammed the parents of the kids’ friends.”
“Good Lord. She was a sociopath.”
“Indeed. It’s hard to work up the same level of enthusiasm for getting her justice that I usually feel.”
“I don’t blame you. Not that anyone deserves to be murdered, but…”
“Exactly. See you later.”
“Let me know if I can help.”
“Will do.”
Sam made her way to the pit and went straight to Cameron Green’s cubicle. “Could I please see the Fed reports about the role of the Realtor?”
“Yep.” He sifted through meticulously labeled manila folders, found the one she’d requested and handed it to her.
“You make us all look like slackers.”
The young detective looked up at her, seeming stunned. “I, um…”
“That was a compliment, Green.” She rolled her eyes. “Sheesh. You’re a very good detective.”
“Oh, well, thanks. I enjoy it.”
“That shows. Give me the highlights on our friend Cheri.”
“She’s a pretty successful Realtor in Northwest. Some of the biggest transactions in the last year were handled by her on both sides—buyer and seller.
She’s very active in civic organizations like the Rotary, chamber of commerce, etc.
Her business is booming—or it was until Ginny McLeod’s scheme was uncovered, and people started accusing her of being in bed with Ginny.
She swore, under oath, that she had no idea what Ginny was doing when she asked Cheri to show properties to some of Ginny’s clients. ”
“By the time Ginny had brought hundreds of people to see a run-down former warehouse, wouldn’t Cheri have been a little curious about what was going on? Especially when no one ever bought anything.”
“That’s what the Feds wanted to know, too, but Cheri said Ginny asked her to show the properties and paid her to do it. She didn’t ask any questions about why.”
“Do you find that hard to believe?”
“Extremely, and so did the Feds. But Cheri never deviated from her story over the months the Feds spent investigating both her and Ginny. I took a look at her recent financials, compared them to a year ago and found her business is down fifty percent year over year. The affiliation with Ginny has hurt her, despite her persistent claims that she had nothing to do with the scam.”
“I hate these women,” Sam said.
“A lot of people do.”
“So many haters that finding a murderer in this crowd is going to be almost impossible.”
“Something will break if we keep digging.”
Freddie came into the pit, looking annoyed. “A pleasant lady, Ms. Clark is. She’s processed and waiting in interview two.”
“And the lawyer?”
“Has been called. Said he’d be here in the next couple of hours.”
“That must’ve pleased her,” Sam said.
“Not so much.” Freddie ran his fingers through his hair. “She’s furious and talking about calling the media to report harassment.”
“Let her,” Sam said. “We can tell the world how she ran from cops who wanted to ask her a few questions. Last time I checked, innocent people don’t run from cops.”
“Truth,” Freddie said.
“Green, do a deeper dive into Cheri’s finances. If there’s anything to find, find it.”
Green nodded. “On it.”
“While we wait for her attorney, let’s get everyone in the conference room to go over what we have and next steps.”