SAM GOT OUT of the SUV and was met by a scrum of reporters wanting an update on the Beauclair case. They also shouted questions about Nick’s trip and whether she was going with him. She took one minute she didn’t have to give them a brief update on the case.
“We’re making headway in the Beauclair case, and I expect to have more for you later today.”
“Are you going on the vice president’s trip to Europe?” one of the TV reporters asked.
“Info about his trip is available from his office, and you may as well stop wasting your breath asking me about him, his job, his travels. I’m never going to answer those questions. Have a good day.”
“Lieutenant! Wait!”
Sam ignored their cries for more info and darted inside HQ, breathing a sigh of relief when she reached the relative safety of the lobby. Her relief was short-lived, however, when she encountered Malone engaged in a screaming match with Ramsey, who had his back to her. This day got more interesting by the minute. Sam wished she had some popcorn to enjoy while she listened to Malone rip Ramsey a new one.
“Get over it, Sergeant. The USA declined to press charges.”
“Because she’s married to the fucking vice president, not because she didn’t do it!”
“I’m going to tell you this one more time—if you can’t keep your grievances out of this building, you won’t work in this building. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yeah, you do, and it’s no surprise to me that she’s probably sucking your dick too.”
“That’s it. Get out.”
“I have rights. You can’t just kick me out.”
“Get out,” Malone said in a tone Sam had never heard before, “or I’ll have you arrested. Your choice.”
“You’ll be hearing from my union rep.”
“I’ll look forward to it.”
Ramsey spun around to leave and came face-to-face with Sam, watching the show.
She smiled and waggled her fingers.
Like a bull seeing red, he charged her.
She darted out of the way in time to avoid him barging into her, but the forward momentum took him right through the window next to the door, which shattered on impact. Glass rained down upon the red-faced sergeant, who quickly became the subject of interest to the reporters and photographers stationed outside the door.
“That’ll be the lead story on the six o’clock news,” Sam said to Malone.
“Walk away, Lieutenant,” he said through gritted teeth. “Just walk away.”
For once, Sam did as she was told, whistling a jaunty tune as she made her way to the detectives’ pit. Her day had already been made, and she had a good feeling it was about to get even better.
* * *
FREDDIE, CAMERON AND JEANNIE arrived at the pizza shop, Rolling in Dough, which had a lunchtime line out the door.
“What’s the plan?” Cameron asked.
“Let’s call for backup,” Freddie said, eyeing the layout of the restaurant. “I want someone minding the back door before we go in.”
Jeannie made the call, and while they waited for Patrol, they kept a watchful eye on the restaurant. “This is our guy,” she said, calling up a photo of a skinny white man with blond hair on her phone. “Danny Baker. He’s got a long list of priors, mostly petty stuff, but he’s been working his way up the criminal food chain.”
“He has that in common with his buddy Klein,” Freddie said.
When the Patrol officers arrived, Freddie asked them to cover the restaurant’s back door in case Baker was stupid enough to run. Freddie hoped he would, so they could take him into custody and get him into interrogation. Being arrested, processed and interrogated at HQ tended to loosen even the tightest of lips.
With everyone in position, Freddie gave the go-ahead. He walked in first, excusing himself as he worked around the line of people who grumbled about line cutters. Flashing his badge, he shut them up as he went up to the counter. “Detectives Cruz, Green and McBride, Metro PD. Looking for Danny Baker.”
The wide-eyed woman working the register spun around and focused on a lanky guy in the back who was spinning dough. “Danny!”
He looked her way, saw cops with badges, dropped the dough to the floor and bolted for the back door.
Freddie jumped the counter, crashed into a woman carrying a tray of large sodas and took down Baker, in the span of about ten seconds.
Hearing the commotion inside, the Patrol officers opened the back door and looked in to find Freddie, knee in Baker’s back, cuffing him as he recited his rights. All in a day’s work.
“Nice takedown,” Cameron said when he and Jeannie caught up.
“What’d he do?” an older man with a beer belly and a comb-over asked. He wore a flour-stained red apron with the restaurant’s logo on it.
“I didn’t do nothing!” Baker said as Freddie hauled him to his feet and turned him over to the Patrol officers.
“Get him downtown and let me know when he’s in interrogation.”
“Is he in big trouble?” the man asked.
“Remains to be seen but running from cops is never a good idea.” Freddie’s stomach let out a loud grumble. “You got a large pie I could buy?”
The man boxed a pizza right out of the oven and handed it to Freddie. “On the house, if you wouldn’t mind getting outta my kitchen.”
“Don’t mind at all. Thanks.”
They left out the back door and returned to Cameron’s sedan, which he kept immaculate. Freddie hoped he’d be allowed to scarf down some pizza in the car, because he wasn’t inclined to wait until they got back to the house. He needed food, and he needed it now.
“That was a hell of a leap,” Jeannie said when they were back in the car.
“I’m motivated to close this case before the wedding.” Freddie dived into the pie as he realized he’d forgotten to grab napkins. Oh well, that’s what T-shirts were for. “You want a slice?”
“I’d love one.”
Freddie handed over a slice to her in the front seat. “Cam?”
“I’ll wait until we get back.” He looked in the rearview mirror. “Don’t get it all over my car.”
“I’ll try not to.” Freddie ate three slices in the time it took to drive across the city. They were two blocks from HQ when he took a call from his mother. “Hey, what’s up?”
“The news is reporting that Sam was grazed by a bullet. Is she okay? Are you?”
“We’re both fine.”
“Oh thank goodness. I tell you—sometimes I’m afraid to look at the news, knowing you’re out there in the middle of the madness.”
“Right now, I’m eating pizza in the back of my colleague’s car after a very satisfying arrest. All is well.”
“Two more days, Freddie. I can’t wait to dance at your wedding.”
“Neither can I. Hey, Mom, can you do me a favor and grab my tux? I haven’t had a chance to do it yet, and Elin is going to kill me if I don’t get it soon.”
“I’ll take care of it, honey. Let me know if there’s anything else I can do to help.”
“I will, thanks.”
“Love you.”
“You too.”
“Is Mama Cruz feeling anxious?” Jeannie asked.
“Just a little.” Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something happening outside the main doors. “What’s up over there?”
“Let’s go find out,” Green said, taking the first available parking space.
“Holy crap,” Freddie said when he saw Ramsey lying in a sea of shattered glass. “I really hope Sam had nothing to do with this.” Still carrying the pizza box, he made his way around the building to the morgue entrance with Jeannie and Cameron in pursuit. They found the LT in her office, cheerfully attending to administrative tasks. Her cheerfulness put Freddie on alert. “What’d you do now?”
“What’re you talking about?”
“Ramsey and the shattered glass. Don’t tell me you had nothing to do with that.”
“You’re so suspicious.” Sam told them what’d happened.
Freddie hooted with laughter. “I knew it had something to do with you!”
“I didn’t do anything. I just happened to be standing there.”
Freddie laughed so hard tears filled his eyes.
“Quit your laughing and tell me you got Baker.”
“We got him, and he should be in interrogation any minute.”
“Excellent. Let’s get this wrapped up. But first, give me a piece of that pizza.”
* * *
SAM MADE SURE Hope Miller, one of the identical triplets that served the District as assistant U.S. attorneys, observed the interrogation along with Captain Malone.
Baker was so nervous his hands shook and his pale cheek twitched.
Good, she thought. That’ll make this a hell of a lot easier than it is with the arrogant ones who aren’t afraid of anything. She could work Baker’s fear to her advantage.
“Danny Baker,” she said upon entering the room with Cruz right behind her.
Baker nearly jumped out of his pants.
The Patrolman who’d been watching over him stepped out.
While Freddie engaged the recording device, Sam said, “I’m Lieutenant Holland, and I believe you’ve met Detective Cruz.”
Baker’s brows narrowed with displeasure at the sight of Freddie.
After she recited the details of who was present for the record, she said, “You’ve been apprised of your rights in this matter?”
“Yeah.”
“I heard you tried to run from my officers. Why’d you do that?”
Baker crossed his arms and returned her steely stare with one of his own. “I want my lawyer.”
Sam and Freddie stood. “We’ll go talk to Victor, then, and see what he has to say about what went down at the Beauclairs’ house,” Sam said. “But then again, we already know he had a traffic altercation with Cleo Beauclair and decided to pay the rich lady a visit. We’ll see what he has to say about how he got you involved. Of course, if he cooperates with us, that’ll leave you out in the cold, but that doesn’t matter to us. As long as we find out what happened that night in Chevy Chase.”
“Wait.”
Sam had her hand on the doorknob. Suppressing a smile, she turned back to note that what little color Baker had in his cheeks was gone now. Raising a brow, she waited for him to speak.
“What do you want to know?”
“You’ve requested an attorney. We’re not able to speak further with you.”
“I don’t want a lawyer. I’ll tell you what you want to know.”
Sam and Freddie returned to the table.
“Detective Cruz, please note for the record that Mr. Baker has rescinded his earlier request for an attorney.”
“So noted.”
“Will you again apprise Mr. Baker of his rights in this matter?”
While Freddie recited the modified Miranda warning, Sam turned her most potent stare on the man, who squirmed under the heat of that glare.
“Start with how you got involved,” she said.
“Victor. He called me. He said he had a line on some easy money and could use some help. I wasn’t doing anything, so I went with him.” Baker swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his skinny neck.
“Did you know he planned to rob, rape and murder these people?”
“No! He never said nothing about any of that. He said easy money.”
“Tell me how it went down, from the second you got there until the second you left, and don’t leave anything out.”
“We got there around four thirty, and Victor, he pulled a gun on the rich lady. He asked who was in the house, and she said her kids and the maid was there. He saw she was wearing one of those panic buttons and took that from her. He told her to get rid of the woman or he’d kill them both. She told the maid she was fired for stealing and told her to get out. The lady was upset, but the rich lady told her to get out before she called the cops.”
“Where were you when this was happening?”
“Outside the kitchen door listening. The maid left, and the rich lady told us she was gone. Victor said he wanted money. She said she didn’t have any, but she could ask her husband to get some on the way home. Victor told her he didn’t want to wait for the husband. That’s when she said she had kids upstairs and couldn’t leave them. Victor told her to go get them. We’d bring them with us. She said she didn’t want to get them, that she didn’t want to involve them. He told her to get them, or he’d kill her and her kids. She went and got them.”
“How did you get to the bank?” Sam asked.
“We took her car, and Victor sat in the front with her. She didn’t want to go in the bank without the kids, who were crying, but Victor told her she didn’t have a choice and she was wasting time. The two of them went in the bank while I stayed with the kids. They were in there a long time, and the kids were driving me crazy asking for their mother. They finally came out, and Victor was pissed because she’d only been able to get a hundred grand. We went back to the house to wait for the husband. Victor said he was the fat cat. She sent the kids upstairs and told them not to come down for any reason.”
Sam’s stomach ached imagining the ordeal the children had been through with two strange men with guns telling their mother what to do in their home. “What happened then?”
“Victor said we should have some fun with her while we waited for the husband.” Baker rubbed at the sweat that beaded on his upper lip. “He made me do her first.”
“He made you?” Sam asked, incredulous.
“He held a gun on me, so yeah, he made me.”
“Did he make you get a boner too?” Sam asked, thoroughly disgusted.
“The rich lady was hot,” he said with a shrug.
“What happened after that?” Sam asked through gritted teeth.
“Victor did her too. He was still doing her when the husband came home and freaked out. She was screaming and crying.” Baker shook his head, as if trying to rid himself of images that she hoped would haunt him for the rest of his life. “Victor told me to tie him up. He said he’d give us anything we wanted, but we had to leave his wife alone. Victor hit him in the face with the gun and said he wasn’t the one with the power now, and he needed to shut the fuck up.”
Sam’s stomach turned as she listened to what Cleo and Jameson had endured at the hands of two half-wits who’d targeted them because they were rich.
“The guy begged him not to hurt her. He said he’d give us a million dollars if Victor would stop. Victor stopped and told him he had four hours to get the money. The guy said he’d need more time. Four hours, Victor said. The guy made calls, and we waited. The money didn’t get there, so Victor started beating the guy up, broke his fingers, had another go with the wife. It kinda went like that until Victor got sick of waiting and said we should take the money we already had and burn the place so there wouldn’t be any evidence left behind.”
Sam laughed at that. “You forgot to burn the dishes you used when you ate their food. I guess Victor isn’t as smart as you thought. So where is he?”
Baker’s mouth fell open. “You said you had him.”
“I lied. Where is he?” When he didn’t reply, Sam stood and slapped her hand on the table. “Where the fuck is he?”
Baker jumped a foot, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his skinny neck. “He’s hiding out at my place.”
“Is he armed?”
Baker nodded.
Sam pushed a notebook and pen across the table. “Write down the address, draw me a picture of the place, tell me where he’s apt to be and don’t even think about fucking with us. You’re already looking at murder one, arson, kidnapping, sexual assault, to start with.”
“I didn’t do none of that stuff! Victor made me.”
“Tell it to the judge.” She got up to leave the room.
“Wait! You said you’d help me if I told you what happened!”
“I lied about that too.” After leaving the room and letting the door slam shut behind her, she took deep breaths of the fresh air in the hallway.
Hope and Malone came out of observation.
“That was brutal,” Hope said bluntly. “Go pick up Victor so we can lock them both up for the rest of their lives.”
“I want SWAT on this,” Malone said fiercely. “So there’s no chance this son of a bitch can escape.”
“I’ll make the call,” Freddie said.