Fatal Flaw (33 page)

His body responded predictably.

She wrapped her hand around his cock and stroked him. “You can’t miss
one
week?”

He stopped the movement of her hand. “I’m going to see my father after the service.”

She looked up at him. “You are?”

Nodding, he tried to ignore the sudden gallop of his heart at the thought of seeing his father after twenty years of silence.

“Could I maybe come with you?”

Surprised, he stared at her. “To church?”

“To church, to see your dad, the whole thing.”

“You really want to?”

“Yes, Freddie, I really want to.”

Freddie linked their fingers. “I’d like that.”

By three-thirty, everything was ready. Food and drinks and music, all the signs of a party, and Sam was battling nerves. What if Melissa didn’t show? What if she came and Sam couldn’t get her to confess to the spate of murders?

Nick approached her from behind and got busy massaging the tension from her shoulders. He was
so
good at that and knew just where the stress collected. “I had you all loose before, and now you’re all locked up again.”

“I’m afraid I’ve played this one all wrong.”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, if she doesn’t show—”

“Lieutenant,” Freddie said when he came into the kitchen, “we just got word from her detail. She’s on the move, fifteen minutes from here.”

Sam let out a sigh of relief. “Show time.” To Nick she said, “Would you mind letting everyone know?” The house was full of cops posing as party guests. “I need to speak to Cruz for a minute.”

“Sure.” Nick gave her a quick kiss and left her alone with her partner.

“What’d I do now?” Freddie asked, helping himself to a cream puff.

“You tell me. Why do you look weird in the eyes?”

He paused midchew and stared at her. “I do?”

Sam nodded. She watched him swallow the treat and wipe his mouth with a napkin. “Everything all right?”

“I saw my father today.”

“Oh man. How was it?”

“It was…you know…kind of overwhelming. He was just as I remembered, older of course, but still him.”

Sam crossed the room and put a hand on his arm. “I can’t imagine what that must’ve been like for you.”

“This one part of me wanted to be really mad with him, you know?”

She nodded. “I can totally understand that.”

“But then there was this other part of me, the ten-year-old I was the last time I saw him, who was thrilled that all he wanted to talk about was me and my life and my work and my girl. Elin came with me.”

“Sounds like he’s making a real effort.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s good, right?”

“Sure, it is. I guess my worry is what if I let him back in and he does it again?”

Sam thought of how many times she’d let Melissa back in only to get burned again. “I think you need to let him know that if it happens again, he won’t get a third chance.”

“So I just come right out and say that?”

“Why not? You’re not ten anymore. You can set your own rules this time.”

“That’s true.”

“For what it’s worth, I think you want to give him a chance. Don’t be afraid to take a risk. The payoff could be so worth it.”

“That’s good advice. Thanks. On the plus side, my mother has decided to give Elin a chance.”

“Good for her and good for you.”

Gonzo came into the kitchen. “She’s just about here, L.T.”

To Freddie, Sam said, “Let’s close this sucker.”

Melissa had gained a significant amount of weight since the last time Sam saw her. Her once shiny dark hair had been cut to an unfortunate length that only accentuated her pudgy face. Sam wasn’t sure she would’ve recognized her old friend if she’d run into her somewhere else. She’d once been stylish, but today she wore a bulky sweater over black pants.

“Hey,” Sam said, swallowing a burst of revulsion. “Come in. I’m so glad you could make it last minute.”

“I had other plans,” Melissa said stiffly, “but I was able to change them.”

Sam’s teeth ached from the effort it took to welcome a murderer into her home. All around them other officers were pretending to enjoy food and drink.

“I want you to meet my husband, Nick Cappuano.”

Nick moved to her side and extended his hand to Melissa. “Good to meet you. Sam has told me a lot about you.”

Melissa hesitated before she shook his hand. “She hasn’t told me anything about you,
Senator,
but of course I’ve read
all
about the two of you.”

The comment was another bit of insight into what had sent Melissa over the edge. She who’d always wanted to be famous wouldn’t like that Sam was getting so much attention.

“Can I get you a drink?” Nick asked, always the gracious host.

“No. I can’t stay long.” Melissa took a measuring look around the room, as if she hadn’t been there once before on a clothes-shredding mission. “Nice place.”

“Thanks,” Nick said.

“A lot of space for two people.”

Nick put his arm around Sam. “We hope it won’t be just the two of us for long.”

“I thought you couldn’t have kids,” Melissa said, seeming unhappy to hear otherwise.

The last thing Sam wanted to do was discuss her fertility struggles with this woman. “I thought so too. I found out otherwise recently.”

“Were you
pregnant?
”

Nick tightened his grip on Sam’s shoulder. “Briefly.” It still hurt so badly to think about the baby they’d recently lost. “How are your children?”

She shrugged. “With their father.”

“You don’t see them?”

“Occasionally. I heard your dad got shot.”

Boy, she was really going for the jugular. “Yes.”

“Did you get the guy who did it?”

“Not yet,” Sam said, forcing herself to keep her tone friendly.

“That must really get the goat of a rock-star detective like you.”

“It doesn’t make me happy that he’s stuck in a wheelchair when the person who shot him walks free.” Sam crossed her hands to keep from grabbing Melissa by the throat and beating the confession out of her. “How’re your parents?”

“Same as always,” Melissa said without missing a beat. “Carping at me about one thing or another. Nothing I ever do is good enough for them. Same old story.”

“My dad said he saw your mom recently in the grocery store.”

“She didn’t mention it.”

“Are you sure you don’t want something to eat or drink?”

Melissa turned away from them all of a sudden, startling Sam and Nick as well as the other cops in the room who were instantly on alert. “I have to go.”

“So soon?”

“I shouldn’t have come here.”

“Why not?”

“Because the last thing I want to hear about is your happy life with your handsome senator husband and your successful career. It’s enough to make me sick.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way.”

“Tell me something—why didn’t you want to be friends with me anymore?”

“Um, well, I got tired of you breezing in and out of my life like our friendship meant nothing to you.”
Oh and the fact you tried to steal from me was a bit of an issue too,
Sam thought, but chose not to say.

“It meant everything to me!” The room went silent as the others gave up the pretense of pretending they weren’t watching the two women intently. “You were the one person I always thought would be there for me no matter what, but you were just like everyone else. People pretended to be my friend, and then they’d just abandon me. I expected better from you.”

“I’m sorry I let you down.”

“That’s all right,” Melissa said with a deceptively angelic smile. “But I can’t let you have it all when I have nothing.”

“Melissa—”

She whipped off the bulky sweater to reveal a vest full of wires that Sam instantly recognized as a bomb. Melissa held the detonator above her head, waving it erratically.

“Clear the room,” Sam screamed. “Run!” No one moved, except Melissa who spun around to find a dozen weapons aimed at her.

“Isn’t it amazing what you can buy on the Internet these days?” Melissa asked.

“Sam,” Nick said, his voice tense. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

“No.”

“Samantha—”

“See what it feels like to have nothing?”
Melissa’s eyes glittered with insanity and rage and defiance. “I showed that rat bastard Jed Trainer what it feels like to lose everything. He made me
promises.
He never intended to leave her, the perfect little wife and mother. Too bad she was frigid in the bedroom. I showed him what he was missing.”

Sam forced air into her lungs as her heart beat erratically. Fifteen, no twenty, of her people were in the house. She couldn’t let them all be killed. Her mind raced with scenarios, but she couldn’t seem to get past the fact that Melissa Morgan was standing two feet from Nick with a bomb strapped to her chest.

“What did James Lynch do to you?” Sam asked, hoping to buy some time to figure a way out of this.

“He and his wife
ruined
my marriage. They said I came on to him, and my husband believed them and left me.” Melissa’s eyes glittered with evil. “Poor Jimmy cried like a baby when I forced him into that pool.”

Melissa continued to wave the detonator over her head, almost taunting Sam to come after it. “What’s the bad-ass star detective going to do now? If she can’t find the person who shot her own father, I hope none of you are counting on her to get you out of this alive.”

A shot rang out and blew Melissa’s left hand right off her arm.

She let out an inhumane shriek as blood spurted from the stump.

Nick lunged for the detonator as Gonzo took Melissa down at the knees.

“Call the bomb squad and the EMTs,” Sam ordered as she bent to free the weapon she’d stashed under her pants leg before the “party.”

“Already done,” Jeannie said from the kitchen. Assistant U.S. Attorney Faith Miller stood next to her, looking shell-shocked. Sam had asked her to be there to witness the confession she still planned to extract from Melissa.

Nick gently placed the detonator in Sam’s hand.

She knelt down next to Melissa who continued to scream as tears rolled down her face. “I bet that hurts.”

“You fucking bitch!” she sobbed. “You know it hurts!”

Sam reached out and put her hand on the wound, pressing hard to stop the bleeding and inflict maximum pain.

Melissa’s screams got even louder.

“You want it to stop hurting?”

“Yes,” Melissa said in a pleading tone. “Make it stop hurting.
Please make it stop.
”

“Tell me what you did to Crystal and Mr. Jeffries and your parents.”

“I won’t tell you. I’d rather be dead than go to jail.”

“No one’s going to die today,” Sam said, pressing harder. “So start talking or keep hurting.”

Paramedics appeared at the door, but Sam shook her head to keep them from coming in until she had what she needed to close the case.

“Give me something for the pain!”

“Not until you tell me what you did.”

“I hit Crystal with a hammer and pushed Mr. Jeffries over. It was so easy to pay them back for what they did to me.” A sob hiccupped through her as tears and snot wet her face. “My parents had it coming. They wouldn’t leave me alone. You had it coming too. You ignored me!”

Sam kept up the pressure on the wound. “What did Carl Olivo and Danny Alvarez do to you?”

“He fired me just because I took a little of his precious money. Do you know how much that place makes every day?”

Sam had what she needed so she released her hold on Melissa’s mangled arm. The other woman’s eyes bugged, and she let out a soundless scream as the blood began to flow again. Sam signaled to the paramedics to take over.

Turning to the others in the room, she said, “Who fired that shot?”

All eyes shifted to Freddie.

With his weapon still in his hand, his arm hung limply at his side, his eyes big with shock. It was, Sam knew, the first time he’d discharged his weapon in the line of duty.

“Freddie.”

“I shot her hand off.”

“Yes, you did, and you saved all our lives. Everyone in this room owes you a debt of gratitude.”

He got even paler, so Sam took the weapon from him, jammed it into the back of her jeans and pushed Freddie into a chair, holding his head between his knees. “Breathe.”

“I can’t believe I shot her hand off.”

Sam looked over and met Nick’s gaze.

He sent her a small relieved smile.

The house was soon crawling with detectives, bomb-squad officers and department brass. Sam and her team retold the story at least six times until the chief was satisfied he had a complete picture of what’d transpired.

“I understand Lieutenant Stahl wasn’t happy you missed another hearing,” Farnsworth said, clasping his hands behind his back.

“Yes, sir. Busting my chops seems to be his primary job description since he landed in IAB.”

“I took care of this latest situation, but see what you can do to stay out of his crosshairs going forward.”

Imagining Stahl’s reaction to Farnsworth’s interference made Sam want to giggle, which she went to great lengths to hide from the chief. “I will, sir.”

“Detective Cruz,” Farnsworth bellowed.

“Sir. Yes, sir.”

Poor Freddie was still pale and shaky, but Sam was bursting with pride over what her protégé had done.

“You believe the shot was justified?”

“Yes, sir, I do. The way she was waving that detonator around, she was going to kill us all.”

Farnsworth held out his hand. “I’ll need your badge and weapon.”

Freddie’s mouth fell open. “Sir? Why?” With trembling hands he turned over his badge.

Sam pulled his gun from the waistband of her jeans and gave it to the chief.

“Routine investigation,” Farnsworth said. “I expect that not only will you have them back in no time, but I see a commendation in your future. Well done, Detective.”

“Oh, um, thank you, sir.”

“Detective Gonzales also showed incredible bravery,” Sam said to Farnsworth. “He tackled her with no thought to his own safety.”

“Well done, Detective,” Farnsworth said to Gonzo, who seemed embarrassed by the praise. “Have your reports on my desk by twelve hundred tomorrow. Good work, everyone.” Pointing to the door, he added, “Lieutenant, the media awaits a statement.”

“Would you mind asking Darren Tabor to come in?” Sam said. “I owe him a favor.”

“As you wish, Lieutenant,” Farnsworth said with a fond smile for Sam. “On behalf of the department, I apologize to you and the senator for bringing this madness into your home.”

“Thank you, sir.”

He shook hands with every member of Sam’s team on his way out the door.