Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Who’s with our Littles?” she asked Nick when the meeting had concluded.
“Celia offered to stay with them when I said I’d like to come.”
“That was nice of her. I thought Tracy and Angela were coming.”
“Angela wasn’t feeling well, and Mike ended up having to work late.”
“I was hoping Derek would come, too,” Sam said of their friend Derek Kavanaugh, who’d lost his wife, Victoria, to murder.
“He said he hopes to get here eventually, but I guess tonight wasn’t possible.”
“I need to speak to someone,” Sam said. “I’ll be ready to go in a minute.”
“Take your time, babe.”
She went over to talk to Lenore, who was standing with Danita, probably comparing notes about losing their teenage sons.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Sam said, “but I wondered if I could speak to Lenore for a second.”
“Of course,” Danita said. “I’ll definitely call you for coffee, Lenore.”
“I’ll look forward to that.”
After Danita walked away, Lenore smiled at Sam. “Your group is already doing so much good.”
“I’m glad to hear that. I wanted to tell you I’ve received permission to take a look at Calvin’s case. It’ll be after Thanksgiving before I can get to it, but I’ll keep you informed.”
“I appreciate anything you can do.”
“I’ll give it everything I’ve got,” Sam said.
“That’s more than anyone has given it thus far.”
“I’ll be in touch.”
“I hope you have a blessed Thanksgiving.”
“Same to you.”
“It’s a little overwhelming to realize how many people need your group,” Roni said when they were on the way home with Nick and Scotty in one of the Secret Service SUVs.
“At times, it can be,” Sam said, “which is one of the reasons I wanted to do it. We do what we can to get justice for murder victims and their families, and then we move on to the next case. I found myself wondering what became of people like Trey Marchand, who lost his little girl in the sniper case. I wanted to know he was okay.”
“It’s nice of you to care so much.”
“Don’t tell people I’m nice, or we can’t be friends.”
To Scotty, Roni said, “Is there, like, a handbook or something that comes with her?”
“Dude, if there was, I sure could’ve used it a coupla years ago.”
Sam play-punched his arm as Nick laughed.
“But I can definitely give you some pointers, such as don’t enter any room that she might be in with my dad without either knocking or covering your eyes.”
“Don’t tell all our secrets, buddy,” Nick said.
Sam noted a hint of yearning in Roni’s expression that made her ache for the other woman’s loss.
When they pulled up to Roni’s house, she turned to hug Scotty.
“It was so great to meet you, Scotty, and you, too, Mr. Vice President.”
“Please call me Nick.”
“Er, um, Nick.”
“I hope we see you again soon, Roni,” Nick said.
“I hope so, too.”
Sam got out to hug her on the sidewalk.
“This was good for me,” Roni said. “Thank you for making me go.”
“Thank you for letting me make you. You have plans for Thanksgiving?”
She nodded. “I’m going to my parents’ house. There’ll be a big crowd there, which I hope will help.”
“I hope you’re able to enjoy that a little. I’m here for you. Anytime you need a friend. Call me, text me, come by my house on Ninth Street, stop by the office. I’m here.”
“That means so much. I’ve stopped hearing from a few people who probably don’t know how to deal with me right now, so it helps to have some new friends to lean on.”
“I’m not saying it either. I honestly don’t like a lot of people, but for some strange reason, I like you.”
Roni laughed—hard. “I am so honored.”
“You should be.”
“I haven’t laughed in weeks. You’re already batting a thousand, and you will be hearing from me.”
“I’m counting on that. Take care of yourself.”
“You, too.”
Sam got back in the car. To the agent holding the door for her, she said, “Wait a sec until Roni gets inside.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Per Sam’s request, the car didn’t move until Roni closed the door behind her. “I like her.”
“Does she have any idea how lucky she is?” Nick asked, amusement dancing in his lovely eyes.
“She does, because Mom told her,” Scotty said.
Nick laughed. “I’m sure she did.”
“As I recall, Scotty was the one who told her I hate people and that she was lucky I liked her.”
“She needed to know,” Scotty said. “I stand by my statement.”
“Spoken like a future politician,” Nick said.
“Or police officer,” Scotty said.
“Wait, what?” Nick asked. “Since when?”
“I’m just keeping all my options open.”
“I couldn’t handle worrying about both of you.”
“Mom will be too old to run the streets by the time I get there.”
Sam shot him her best perp glare. “Who you calling old?”
“You’re not old now. You will be then.”
“And I’ll still be able to kick your ass.”
“She will, pal,” Nick said. “I wouldn’t mess with her.”
The silly conversation was what they needed after airing out their pain at the meeting. “Thanks for coming tonight, you guys. Meant a lot to me to have you there.”
“It was cool,” Scotty said, “to hear what those people have been through. It makes you realize you’re not alone with whatever your thing is.”
“That was our goal in starting the group. I’m so glad you came and that you got so much out of it.” She paused before she added, “I hope you know you can always talk to us about how you’re feeling about losing Gramps.”
“I do, but I know it’s so hard for you, too. I don’t want to make it worse for you.”
“You couldn’t make it worse. Knowing he was loved by so many has made it easier for me to cope with losing him.
Everyone I talk to who knew him has something funny to share about him, or something meaningful about how he touched their lives.
I loved hearing the advice he gave you and how you’ll always live by his wise words. ”
“I will for sure. I want to make him proud of me.”
“He was so proud of you. He used to tell me all the time what a remarkable kid you are and how much he loved you.”
“I miss him,” Scotty said. “Every day after school, I want to go see him and tell him everything that happened. He always wanted to hear the latest news.”
“He looked forward to seeing you. You made his last years so much happier than they would’ve been otherwise.”
“I’m glad I could do that for him, but he did a lot for me, too.”
They arrived home a short time later and went up the ramp to the front door, where a Black female agent Sam didn’t recognize greeted them.
“Mrs. Cappuano, I’m Kourtney with a K, one of the agents on your detail. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“She says that now,” Sam said to Nick as she shook hands with the new agent. “Great to meet you Kourtney with a K. If you’ve talked to Vernon and Jimmy, you already know it’s not a pleasure to protect me. I apologize in advance.”
“Vernon did mention that Fuzz could be challenging.”
“Ugh, again with that nickname. I hate that name.”
“I’ve heard that as well,” Kourtney said, smiling.
“And yet no one cares that I hate it.”
“That’s above my pay grade, ma’am.”
“Don’t call me ma’am, and we’ll get along fine.”
“Yes, ma’am—I mean, Lieutenant.”
“Better.”
Nick moved her forward with a hand to her back, and she felt a thrill of excitement run through her, knowing he was ready for their end-of-the-day time alone together. She was more than ready.
“I need to call Freddie and also check in with Carlucci.”
“Make it snappy,” Nick said with a playful smile.
Motivated to get the tasks done as quickly as possible, Sam put through the call to Freddie.
He answered on the third ring. “What?”
“Did you mean, ‘What, Lieutenant’?”
“Yeah, that. What?”
“I was checking to make sure you’re okay.”
“I’m fine. You? How was the grief group?”
“It went well. People seemed relieved to have a place to talk it out.”
“That’s great. I love that.”
“You’re sure you’re okay?”
“Yep.”
“I don’t like when shit like that happens.”
He huffed out a laugh. “Neither do I, but I handled it.”
“Thank you for not getting shot or killed or any other dreadful thing.”
“I do what I can for the people.”
“Trademarked.”
“Oh right, sorry. Anything new with the case?”
“Green might have something implicating the daughter in the scheme.”
“No shit?”
“No shit.” She told him about the trips to the Cayman Island.
“How did the Feds not find that?”
“I don’t think they investigated Ginny’s kids. Just her and Ken. Green dug into a private Instagram account, something called Finsta?”
“Yeah, I’ve heard of that. Wow, that’s a bombshell.”
“Yeah, and now we can’t find her or her brother. We’ve got people looking for them, including the U.S. Marshals.”
“You think the kids had something to do with her murder?”
“I don’t know yet, but I’d say at least the daughter had a hand in the scam.”
“Why don’t we use Ken Sr. to lure them in?”
“What’re you thinking?”
“He contacts them, tells them he needs to see them, that it’s urgent, etc.”
“That might work. I’ll tell Carlucci to get with him and set it up. Good thinking. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Call me if anything pops overnight.”
“Will do.” Sam ended that call and put through another to Carlucci.
“Hey, LT. I was just going to call you. I heard from Jesse Best that the marshals apprehended Mandi and Ken McLeod Jr. at BWI, about to hop a flight to the Bahamas.”
“Were they now? Well, that’s excellent news.”
“Best’s team is bringing them in, and I was going to put them on ice until you’re here in the morning, unless you’d like us to handle it some other way. I was also planning to run their financials to get the lowdown on when they bought tonight’s plane tickets.”
“Sounds like a plan. They’ll probably lawyer up anyway.”
“No doubt.”
“Good call on the financials. I’ll see you in the morning. Call me if anything new pops.”
“Will do, see you then.”
Sam called Freddie back.
“What now?”
“What now, Lieutenant.”
“Yeah, yeah, what’s going on?”
“Best’s team got them at BWI, preparing to board a plane to the Bahamas.”
“Is that right?”
“They’ll be waiting for us in our cooler in the a.m.”
“That gives us something to look forward to.”
“Right. See you at six thirty?”
“Ugh, do we hafta?”