SAM NEVER DID make it home. At midnight, they got the word that Wallack was asking to speak to her, so she went by herself to see what he had to say. As she approached his hospital room, she found Dr. Trulo, the department shrink, standing outside with Wallack’s wife, Leslie.
Sam approached them, feeling like she might be intruding, but she went anyway.
“Lieutenant,” Trulo said. “I’d say it was good to see you...”
Sam shook his hand. He’d gotten her through some of her lowest moments on the job and had helped her get her career back on track after Stahl attacked her. “How is he?”
Trulo frowned. “Not good at all.”
“He did it for me,” Leslie said, wiping away tears. Her eyes were red and raw, as if she’d been crying for hours. “When Curtis said he’d make me regret ever being born, Kenny believed him. He knows what that kid is capable of. Curtis wanted Kenny to suffer for breaking his mother’s heart, but he is the one who broke his mother’s heart, not Kenny.”
“That’s what we’ve heard.” To Trulo, Sam said, “Captain Wallack asked to see me?”
Trulo nodded. “He has something he wants to say to you.”
“Is now a good time?”
“As good as any. Leslie, do you want to take a break while we’re in with him?”
She nodded, using her sleeve to wipe up more tears. “Tell Kenny I’ll be back in fifteen minutes.”
“Will do.”
Trulo watched her walk away, her shoulders hunched. “They’re both going to need extensive counseling to deal with this.”
“How do you ever get over being part of something like this?” Sam asked.
“I’m not sure you do, but we can try to help them cope.” He pressed a hand to the door. “Shall we?”
The last place in the world Sam wanted to be was in the middle of Captain Wallack’s nightmare, but he’d asked to see her, so she nodded.
Trulo held the door for her. “Lieutenant Holland has come to see you, Kenny.”
The captain lay on his side, his face swollen, bruised and wet with tears.
“How you doing, Cap?” Sam asked, affording him the respect of his title.
“Not good.” He looked up at her with broken eyes. “I wanted you to come so I could say how sorry I am.” A sob hiccupped through him. “I never wanted to hurt those people.” He wiped his face, wincing when his hand connected with bruises. “I didn’t care about what happened to me, but Leslie... Curtis said he’d rape her and murder her and make her suffer. I knew he’d do it—and he’d enjoy it.” More sobs. “She’s the only person who’s ever truly loved me. I couldn’t let that happen to her. I just couldn’t.”
Sam rested a hand on his shoulder. “No one blames you.”
“I blame me. I should’ve fought back or done something to stop him...”
“He’s bigger and stronger than you, and he had a gun,” Sam said. “If you’d fought back, you’d be dead and Leslie might be too.”
“That little girl... I just...” His voice broke and sobs shook him.
“Take it easy, Kenny,” Trulo said.
“I’m so, so sorry,” he said to Sam. “Will you please tell everyone? Tell the families... I’m so sorry.”
Sam blinked back tears of her own, his agony painful to witness. “I’ll tell them.”
“You get some rest now, Kenny,” Trulo said. “I’ll be right outside, and Leslie will be back in a minute.”
Trulo ushered Sam from the room. “Thank you for coming. It was important to him to apologize to you and the department for his role in this.”
“Yeah, sure,” Sam said, feeling broken by Kenny’s grief. “No problem. At some point, we’ll need a statement from him.”
“That’s going to take some time.”
“I understand.” Sam reached out her hand.
Trulo enclosed her hand between both of his. “Thank you for what you do. It matters.”
“Sometimes I wonder.”
“You got them. You put an end to it. You saved Kenny’s life and probably Leslie’s and countless others. Don’t wonder if it matters, because it does.”
“Thanks, Doc.” Sam left him to return to HQ and the paperwork in progress, taking the heavy weight of Wallack’s grief and his apologies with her.
* * *
FREDDIE DROPPED SAM off at the Secret Service checkpoint just after two a.m. Writing up the twists and turns of this one had taken hours, and Sam was emotionally drained after seeing Wallack and personally calling the family members of each victim to notify them that an arrest had been made. Naturally, they wanted details, and she’d told the story so many times she’d probably dream about it.
Talking to Wallack and the families had drained the euphoria of closing the case right out of her. At the end of the day, six people were gone and many others changed forever, regardless of whether they got the guys or not.
“Just remember that you’re to be here at eight on Saturday night,” Sam said to Freddie when they were outside her house. After the week they’d had, it was a relief to change gears, to focus on something positive.
“I’m not coming.”
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll be here.” Elin had been in on the plans from the beginning and would get him where he needed to be. Poor Freddie thought he’d be able to dodge them. Ha!
“You need a ride in the morning?” he asked.
“Pick me up at zero six-thirty. Don’t be late.”
“You’re a gigantic pain in my ass, you know that?”
“Is that any way to speak to your superior officer?”
“It’s the only way to speak to my superior officer.”
Endlessly amused by him, she said, “Night, young Freddie. Get some sleep while you can. You’ve got a big weekend ahead of you.”
“I still hate you.”
“No, you don’t, and that’s where you went so terribly wrong.” Laughing at her own joke, Sam shut the door and headed for the ramp.
Eric, the agent on duty, opened the door for her. “Good evening, Mrs. Cappuano. Or I guess I should say good morning.”
“Thank you, Eric.” Sam imagined the Secret Service agents had some interesting conversations about the odd hours she kept and how she ran around without their protection. But right now, she couldn’t be bothered to care about anything other than getting to her bed and her husband as quickly as possible.
She went upstairs, nodded to Darcy, on duty in the hallway, and ducked into her room, closing the door behind her. In the bathroom, she shed her clothes and took a quick, cool shower to rinse the filth of the case from her skin. The shower made her feel better, and as she brushed her teeth, she looked at the mess on her face and decided it seemed a little less swollen than it had been earlier.
A minute later she crawled into bed naked, sighing as her head hit the pillow. They’d done it. Thank God it was over.
She turned her head to gaze at Nick, sleeping soundly for once, probably thanks to the weight that had been lifted from his shoulders with the release of their statement earlier. She hadn’t had even five minutes to delve into how it had been received. Because she couldn’t be this close to him and not touch him, she rested her hand on his arm, and his eyes flew open, his face lifting into the grin that made her heart beat wildly.
“I’m glad it’s you.”
“Were you expecting someone else?”
Smiling, he put his arm around her and pulled her in close to him. “My wife is the jealous type, so be quiet. If she hears you’re in here, she’ll stab you with her rusty steak knife.”
“She sounds like a bitch.”
“Nah, she’s a badass cop who catches murderers for a living. You don’t want to mess with her.”
She grasped his hand. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“I’d have been disappointed if you hadn’t.” He kissed her. “Congratulations.”
“Thanks.”
“I take it the funeral home plan paid off.”
“Yep, we got our guy.”
“Just one? I thought there were two.”
“One of them was being forced by the other one to participate. He handed us our case against the ringleader. And we found Captain Wallack, the former stepfather of the ringleader who’d been forced into doing the shooting. That poor guy. His life will never be the same.”
“Did you find out why they did it?”
“Because the ringleader got fired from the city for fleecing his timesheet. It was all about revenge.”
“Which is cold comfort to the families and Angel.”
“Yeah. That’s the hard part. They’re glad to know we got the guy responsible for shattering their lives, but their lives are still shattered even with the perp in jail.”
“You did your job. And you did it well. Try to celebrate that.”
“I might need something to take my mind off the sadness that always creeps in after we close a case.”
“What kind of distraction did you have in mind?”
“The kind only you can provide.”
“Come here, babe.” He rolled her under him and kissed her. “Hold on to me. I’ve got you.”
Since there was nothing else she’d rather do, she wrapped her arms and legs around him and let him make everything better—the way only he could.