SAM APPROACHED THE murder board and pointed to photos of each victim as she spoke of them. “Jamal Jackson, age fifteen, picked off in the Penn Branch neighborhood. He has a mother and two older sisters who adored him. Melody Kramer, age thirty-one, taken down in Eckington while walking on Quincy on her way home. She was married to Joe and had recently learned that she was expecting their first child after trying to get pregnant for a long time.
“Sridhar Kapoor, age thirty-five, a doctoral student in chemistry at Georgetown, hit on P Street Northwest while walking home with his wife, Rayna, after a night out with friends. She was too despondent to speak to us. We’ll need to get her statement today. And Caroline Brinkley, age twenty-six, shot in the back on Woodley Road Northwest sometime after three o’clock this morning while walking home from her job at a K Street lounge. Dr. McNamara believes it took close to thirty minutes for her to bleed out. According to Caroline’s father in Minnesota, she was a hard worker who was back to school and trying to better herself.”
Sam made eye contact with everyone in the room—Freddie, Gonzo, Jeannie, Archie, Malone and the captain from the Gang unit. What was his name again? “Every one of these four people was alive this time yesterday. Jamal was at an IMAX movie at the Air & Space Museum because he was fascinated with space. Melody was walking on air because she and her husband finally had a child on the way. She joked about going to happy hour for a friend’s birthday and how it wouldn’t be quite so happy now that she couldn’t have a drink. Sridhar was brilliant. A chemistry doctoral student at Georgetown. Think about what that probably entailed. And Caroline... Doing what thousands of other people do in this city every day—walking home from work. She had a can of pepper spray rolled into her hand so she could fend off any would-be assailants.”
Sam took a moment to let that poignant detail register with the others.
Jeannie looked down at the table while Freddie stared at the back wall where Malone stood next to Chief Farnsworth.
“Witness accounts indicate we’re looking for a black sedan,” Sam said.
“I took the liberty of printing up a list of all the cars that meet that description in the DC, Maryland and Northern Virginia area,” Jeannie said, holding a half-inch thick report.
“We’ll start in the city and work our way out.” To Malone and Farnsworth, she said, “We’re going to need help from Patrol and overtime approved for our people.”
“Done,” Farnsworth said. “Whatever you need to catch these bastards before they can hurt anyone else.”
“I don’t think this is over yet, whatever it is,” Sam said.
“I’d tend to agree with you,” the Gang captain said.
His name sat on the tip of her tongue. “What’s your theory, Cap?” she asked.
“This feels like some sort of initiation ritual,” he said. “We’ve seen it before. I’ve got my team talking to their contacts and seeing what they can find out.”
“While I agree that’s a theory, to me this feels more professional. I’d like to look into a possible military or law enforcement angle.”
“What’re you thinking, Lieutenant?” Jeannie asked.
“Whoever is doing this is one hell of a good shot if they can take someone out from a speeding car and hit with deadly accuracy each time. There were no stray shots. In each case, there was only one, and it did the trick. Something tells me we’re looking at more than your average gangbangers here.”
“I’d tend to agree,” the Gang captain said. “But we’re going to put our ears to the ground anyway and see if we hear anything.”
Sam nodded in agreement with his plan. “Please keep us in the loop.”
“Will do.”
“Archie, what’ve you got from the Georgetown and Woodley shootings?” she asked.
“We’re still sifting through our footage as well as the security footage we’ve pulled from multiple other sources in all four neighborhoods. It’s a big job, and we’re moving as fast as we can.”
“I’ll let you get back to it,” Sam said.
Nodding, he said, “I’ll let you know the second we find anything useful.”
“Appreciate it.”
He left the room, and Sam returned her attention to her own team. “We need someone to sift through the social media accounts of all our victims,” Sam said.
“I did it overnight,” Gonzo said, producing a written report that he handed to her.
Sam raised an eyebrow in his direction.
“Couldn’t sleep,” he said with a shrug that had her wondering if he was okay. “I didn’t see anything that stood out on any of their accounts. All routine mundane stuff. Nothing that would get them murdered.”
“Thanks for closing that loop,” Sam said.
“No problem.”
“Let’s divide up the black sedans in the District and start there.” To Malone, she said, “I’d like to borrow Beckett and O’Brien from Patrol to help us today. Detective Green starts tomorrow,” she said of Cameron Green, the detective she’d hired from Fairfax County after working with him on a case earlier in the summer. He would replace Detective A.J. Arnold, who had been killed in the line of duty last winter.
Sam fully expected the arrival of Arnold’s replacement to reopen the wound they had carried with them since the night he was killed right in front of Gonzo, his partner. That could be why Gonzo suddenly wasn’t sleeping well again. She’d have to keep an eye on her sergeant and close friend.
“Sure,” Malone said. “We can make that happen.”
“Before we head out,” she said to her team, “I want to make sure you’re paying extra-close attention to your surroundings. If these guys are looking to make a big score, a cop would be one hell of a prize. Watch your backs.”
They replied with “Yes, ma’am,” and “We will.”
Jeannie handed sheets of paper to Freddie, took a stack for herself and Gonzo and made another pile for the two Patrol officers Sam had requested.
“I’ll give the rest to Captain Hernandez,” Jeannie said of the Patrol commander.
“Ask him to make this their top priority and to keep us informed.”
“Yes, ma’am. Will do.” Jeannie left the conference room.
“Someone needs to brief the media,” Malone said. “They’re foaming at the mouth for info about the shootings.”
“They’re always foaming for something,” Sam replied. “Can you handle it today? I’m too much of a distraction these days.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
“Cruz, let’s get to it.”
“I’m with you, Lieutenant.”
* * *
THEIR FIRST STOP was the George Washington University Hospital where they found Rayna Kapoor in a fifth-floor room guarded by a Patrol officer Sam didn’t recognize. She produced her badge, and Freddie did the same. The officer took a close look at them, as he was required to do. She took advantage of the opportunity to glance at his name tag, which said Keeney.
“How is she?”
“Not great. They gave her something to help her sleep, but she’s awake now and hysterical from what I can hear.”
“Is anyone with her?”
He shook his head. “I asked if she wanted me to call someone for her, and the nurses did too. She said she wants Sri. No one else.”
Sam steeled herself to contend with Rayna’s heartbreak before knocking on the door and entering the room where the blinds were drawn. Other than a small light over the bed, the room was dark. Rayna lay on her side, her arms wrapped around a pillow as she sobbed helplessly.
“Rayna,” Sam said, speaking softly. “I’m Lieutenant Holland, Metro PD, and this is my partner, Detective Cruz.”
“I know you. I’ve seen you.” She spoke with a distinctive British accent. “You catch all the killers. You’ll catch my Sri’s killer.”
“I’ll do my very best.”
She wiped her face with the sheet. “He can’t be dead. It’s not right. He was fine.”
“Can you tell us what happened?”
Rayna pressed a button to raise her bed slightly. “We... We were out at a club with some friends. People we know from school. It was our first time going out with them or going to a club. Sri, he said we needed to learn how to have fun, that no one should study as much as we do. I didn’t want to go, but I went because he asked me to. Why didn’t he listen to me? I knew we shouldn’t have gone.”
“Why did you feel that way?”
“I don’t know.” She stared at the far wall where the nurses had recorded her information on a dry-erase board. “I had a feeling we shouldn’t go.”
“Had something happened to make you feel that way?”
“Nothing in particular. I get these feelings.” Rayna rubbed her abdomen. “Here. Often they turn out to be sound. I wish this wasn’t one of those times.” She broke down again, her sobs echoing through the small room.
Sam felt awful for pushing her to recount the most traumatic moment of her life, but she needed to know. “So, you were walking home...”
Rayna nodded and wiped her face again. “We were walking on P Street. I wanted to take a cab, but Sri said the fresh air would be good for us after being in the club. He talked me into walking. ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘It’s a beautiful night.’ He’s very convincing when he sets his heart on something.” Her face crumpled when she seemed to realize she had spoken of him in the present tense. “He... He was talking about a big presentation he had to make this week at school. There was a loud noise and everything happened at once. He staggered and fell onto me, and I went down with him. I couldn’t tell what was happening until I felt the blood. There was so much blood.” She shuddered and hiccupped as another sob erupted from her chest.
“When did you realize he’d been shot?” Sam asked.
“I didn’t know that until the police came. They told me that’s what happened.”
“Were you injured in the fall?”
“I sprained my wrist,” she said, raising her arm to show Sam the brace she wore.
“Did you see the car or anything that might help us catch the people who did this?”
She shook her head. “The police said they came from behind us. I never saw a thing.” Glancing up at Sam, she said, “Will you find them? Will you make them pay for taking my sweet husband from me?”
“I’ll do everything I can. I promise you. Is there someone we could call to be with you? A friend or your family or anyone?”
“No. My family and Sri’s are in India. The only close friend either of us has here is each other. That was all we needed.”
Sam couldn’t imagine being so alone in the world. “Surely the people you were with last night would come if you asked them to.”
“I don’t know them well enough to ask for that.”
“If you write down the name and phone number of a friend, I’d be happy to make the call for you.”
Rayna thought about that for a minute, and then reached for the pad. “Sri made me memorize the phone number of his lab partner in case I couldn’t get in touch with him. He got so absorbed in his work that sometimes I had to call her to reach him.” She wrote down the woman’s name and number.
Sam handed the notebook to Freddie, who left the room to make the call, and then she gave her card to Rayna. “I have to ask... You say your family is in India, but you speak with a British accent.”
“Sri and I were educated in the United Kingdom. That’s where we met. Our families sacrificed a lot to give us the best of everything, and we were looking forward to doing the same for them after we finished school. Now...” She sighed deeply. “I don’t know what I’ll do.”
“If you think of anything that might be helpful to the investigation, please call me anytime. And if I can do anything at all for you, feel free to call.”
“You’re very kind. Thank you.”
“I’m sorry this happened to you and your husband in our city.”
“So am I. We really loved it here. We were happy.”
Sam wanted to tell her it was going to be okay, that she would survive this, but how could she be sure of either of those things? “I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you. Everyone has been so kind.”
“I’ll leave you to get some rest.” Sam stepped out of the room and encountered Keeney, noting his eager expression and handsome young face. The job hadn’t broken him yet, but it would. It always did.
“Are you all right, Lieutenant?”
“Yeah. Tough one.”
“I don’t know how you guys in Homicide can handle what you see every day. I wouldn’t be able to do it.”
“You’d be surprised what you can do when you have to.”
“I guess.” He shrugged. “I give you credit, and I admire how good you are at it.”
“Thank you.” Drained after her conversation with Rayna, Sam leaned against the wall and put her head back, taking a minute to regroup. In the distance, she heard whispering at the nurse’s station, probably directed at her. A lot of whispering had been directed her way in recent weeks, and she ignored it the way she always did.
“I don’t know how you can deal with that either,” Keeney said in a low tone intended only for her.
“I deal with it by ignoring it.” She thought about how she wished she could pop into a cubicle while she was here and ask for a pregnancy test. Hell, she could stop by their doctor friend Harry’s office and ask him to do it for her. But doing either of those things would require her to share her suspicions with someone, and it had been hard enough to bring Shelby in on it.
She probably ought to tell Nick, but the thought of disappointing him—again—had her deciding to wait until she knew for sure. Harry could put her out of her misery, but they had a case to work and no time to waste with a shooter on the loose and a city on edge.
They had to operate under the assumption that the shooter wasn’t finished with them yet, so there really was no time to tend to her personal business. Not today anyway.
Freddie rejoined her a few minutes later. “The lab partner is on her way. She was glad we called. She said she’s been frantic wondering where Rayna was and if she was all right.”
“I’m oddly relieved to know that someone cares about her.”
“Me too. Where to from here?”
“I want to talk to Danita Jackson again.”
“Let’s go.”
To Keeney she said, “Let us know if anything changes here or when they release her.”
“Will do, LT. Hope you catch the bastards fast.”
“Me too.”
They left the hospital and headed for the Jackson home, located a few blocks from where Jamal had been shot.
On the way, Sam said, “Stahl is offering to take an Alford plea.”
“That’s a bunch of crap,” Freddie said bluntly. “Crap” counted as a swear word to him. “What’re you going to do?”
“They told me to take twenty-four hours, talk it over with Nick and my dad, but I want to hear him say he did it.”
“Can’t say I blame you after what he put you through.”
“A trial would be ugly—for me, Nick, the department.”
“Who cares? You’re the one who was in that room with Stahl, and you’re the only one who matters when it comes to making this kind of decision.”
His fierce support made her smile. “Thanks.”
“Whatever you decide, we’ll have your back.”
“That means a lot.”
Danita’s two-story townhouse had pots of flowers on the porch and other blooms lining the sidewalk. “You can tell a lot about people by how they take care of their homes,” Sam said to Freddie as they approached the gate to the white picket fence that surrounded the small front yard.
“True.”
“Danita, she takes care of her place. She puts in the time to make it pretty and welcoming. If she takes that kind of time with her home, imagine the effort she’s put into her children.”
“I don’t think I’m going to have kids.”
Sam stopped short and spun around to face him. “What? Since when are you not having kids?”
“For a while now, actually. Elin and I have talked about it. She mostly agrees with me.”
“About what?”
“That we don’t want to bring kids into this crazy world. What happened to Jamal... If that ever happened to a kid of mine...” He shook his head. “All my life I’ve heard it said that God doesn’t give you more than you can handle. That would be way more than I could handle. It would ruin me.”
This was not the time or the place—in front of a grieving family’s home—to have this conversation, but they were having it anyway. “You’re letting the job color your thinking. To us, this shit happens far too often, and it does happen too often. Way too often. But we see the worst of it. We don’t see the millions of other people who go through their lives without ever having something like what happened to Jamal happen to them. Millions, Freddie. The odds of your child being randomly gunned down on a street are astronomical. He’s more likely to win the lottery than be killed the way Jamal was.”
“It’s not just Jamal. It’s so much more than that.”
“Believe it or not, I get it. I really do. I worried incessantly about Scotty and something happening to him before he had Secret Service protection. I still worry about it, even with the army that surrounds him. I think about all the things that could happen, but you know what?”
Freddie tilted his head. “What?”
“The pure, sweet joy he brings to our lives is so much greater than the sum of our fears. He’s the best thing to ever happen to either of us, and I wouldn’t trade the love I feel for him for all the peace of mind in the world. I would hate for you to miss out on the unbelievable experience of being a parent because you’re afraid of what might happen. But even more than that, I’d hate for you to let fear run your life. You’d miss out on one of life’s greatest joys, Freddie. Don’t deny yourself that because of the awful shit we see on this job. Please don’t.”
He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “You make good points, as always.”
“Normally I’d have something to say to that, such as, of course I do, but this is too important for jokes. Promise me you won’t rule it out entirely before you’re even married.”
“I promise I’ll talk to Elin some more about what you said.”
“Fair enough.” Sam glanced at the white house with the black shutters. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Hey, Sam?”
She turned to face him again. “Yeah?”
“Thanks. For what you said and everything. I know it’s a tough topic for you.”
“It was tougher before I had Scotty,” she said, again trying to forget about the possibility she might be pregnant. “He’s made a lot of things that were wrong right again.”
“He’s a great kid.”
“Yes, he is, and you’d have great kids too. You’d be a wonderful father.”
“You really think so?”
She rolled her eyes at him. “Yes, Freddie, I really think so and so does everyone else who knows you. My dad told me once that the worst thing I could do is bring the job home with me. Don’t do that. You’ll always regret it if you make decisions for your own life based on the shit we see out here.”
“Point taken.” He flipped the latch on the gate and gestured for her to go first.