“I think it’s a good idea to have her there when you tell Molly,” Sam said. “Why don’t you make that call now? Please put it on speaker.”

  Sam had to listen as Bob told his wife’s best friend that Pam had been murdered. Her friend’s heartbroken screams of disbelief echoed through the conference room.

  When the woman had finally calmed to the point of soft sobs, Bob said, “Is Tom home, Amy?”

  “He’s right here.”

  “Can the two of you go to be with Molly when we tell her the news?”

  “Yes, of course. We’ll go now.”

  “Call me when you’re close.”

  “I will. You’re sure it’s her, right?”

  “Yes, we’re sure.”

  “God, who could’ve done such a thing to Pam? She was the best person I ever knew.”

  Sam wished she had a dollar for every time she heard a murder victim described that way. There were, of course, exceptions, such as recent homicide victim Ginny McLeod, who’d alienated nearly everyone in her life by stealing from them before she was murdered by her husband. “We’ll do our best to get you some answers,” Sam said.

  The people who loved Pam were in the earliest stages of realizing that the answers they craved wouldn’t bring back the person they’d loved.

  While they waited for Amy and her husband to get to Molly Tappen, Sam asked the most pressing question she had for them. “Was she having problems with anyone in her life? Personal, work, neighbors, friends?”

  All three were shaking their heads before she finished asking the question.

  “Everyone loves her,” Justin said. “My friends like to hang out at our house because she makes us cookies and listens to their problems.”

  His use of the present tense to describe his mother gutted her, as it always did. It would be a while before he spoke of her in the past tense.

  “She avoided drama like the plague,” Bob said. “She’d dropped friends who’d brought drama to her life.”

  Sounds like a girl after my own heart, Sam thought. “Would any of them have been angry enough about being dropped to do something like this to her?”

  Bob shook his head. “That happened years ago. We haven’t seen any of them in ages.”

  “We’re going to need a list of her closest friends, work colleagues and others she interacted with on a daily or weekly basis, with their contact information and addresses if you have them. Can you work on that while we wait for Amy to get to Molly’s?” Sam pushed a yellow pad and pen across the table to Bob. “Also, who else has keys to the van?”

  “Just Pam and I did. The boys have another vehicle they share.”

  “Okay, work on that list, and I’ll be back.”

  * * *

  Sam stepped out of the conference room into the chaos of a Crime Scene investigation unfolding in her office. Looking to avoid that, she went to the cubicle belonging to Detective Dominguez and called Nick on the BlackBerry.

  “Hey, babe. How’s it going?”

  “Another rough one. A beloved wife and mother found bound and gagged in her own minivan. She’d apparently been there for days by the time she was found.”

  “She wasn’t reported missing?”

  “No, she wasn’t. I guess it wasn’t unusual for her to go silent when she was working at a conference, which was what she did for a living. Her company supported conference events.”

  “And she didn’t talk to her family at all?”

  “Nope.”

  “That’s weird.”

  “See, I thought so, too. I can’t for the life of me picture going a whole weekend without talking to you or Scotty or the twins. Or even my sisters and my dad, when he was still here.”

  “I’d hunt you down before I’d go a weekend without talking to you. I’d be twitching after twelve hours.”

  “Same, but we’re strange that way.”

  “I like our kind of strange. It works for me.”

  “Me, too. How are things there?”

  “I just checked the kids, and everyone is asleep. In other news, I’m already getting serious pushback on my comments from earlier, but I’m not backing down from them. We absolutely must attack the mental health element behind the violence in this country.”

  “I couldn’t agree more.”

  “It hasn’t been made public yet, but the gunman had a history of violent episodes that had led his family on more than one occasion to ask to have him held for psych evals. He was never held for longer than seventy-two hours because he refused treatment every time. And then he managed to get his hands on a gun and do what he did today. The people closest to him believe his goal was to be killed by the police, which is what happened.”

  “The thing I never understand is if he’s looking to end his own life, why does he have to take innocent people with him?”

  “I don’t understand that either. If he wanted to kill himself, as horrible as that is, I suppose that’s his right, but he certainly didn’t have the right to take others with him.”

  “No, he didn’t. My heart is hurting for all the families that were forever broken by his selfish actions.”

  “Are you going to head up my mental health task force?” Nick asked.

  “I’ve been thinking about that, and I’d like to be involved, but I don’t think I can be the chair. Maybe we should ask Dr. Trulo? As the department psychiatrist for close to thirty years, he’s seen it all and would be better positioned to oversee it.”

  “That’s a brilliant idea. If you text me his number, I’ll give him a call.”

  “You’ll give him a heart attack if you call him. At least let me warn him.”

  Nick’s soft laughter made her smile as only he could. “Go ahead and give him a heads-up that he’s going to hear from me.”

  “I’ll do that, and I’ll send you his number.”

  “Thank you. Are you there all night?”

  “Probably not, but for a while longer. Oh, and get this… We think Ramsey tossed my office.”

  “How did he get into your office?”

  “He must’ve picked the lock somehow. Everything is on the floor. A total mess. Malone has Crime Scene processing it.”

  “Why do you think it was him?”

  “Because he was skulking around and cornered me in the vending area.”

  “Cornered you. What does that mean?”

  Sam immediately regretted sharing that detail. “He tried to start something with me, but I definitely got the upper hand, and then Malone came along and told him to fuck off.”

  “Jeez, Sam, that’s the stuff that gives me nightmares.”

  “I was never in any danger.”

  “Sure, you weren’t. That guy can’t stand you.”

  “He might’ve stepped into it big-time by being in the building when my office was trashed. I’m just hoping he was sloppy about it, and CSU can tie him to it.” Even if that would mean another of her colleagues had ended up in trouble that somehow involved her. It wasn’t her fault that Stahl had wrapped her in razor wire and threatened to set her on fire, or that Conklin had sat on info relevant to her dad’s unsolved shooting for four years, or that Detective Offenbach had been off having an affair when he was supposed to be at a conference.

  “I hate to think of you having enemies within the department.”

  “I suppose it goes with the territory, especially if a woman is good at a job that’s traditionally done by men.”

  Lindsey came into the pit and stopped short at the sight of CSU working in Sam’s office.

  “I need to run, babe. I’ll be home as soon as I can.”

  “Be careful. Your husband loves you.”

  “Love you, too.”

  Sam ended the call and stood, waving Lindsey over to the cubicle.

  “What. The. Hell. Sam?”

  “Someone trashed my office. I discovered it about ten minutes after Ramsey cornered me in the vending area to tell me his wife is divorcing him and somehow that’s my fault.”

  “Holy crap. How in the hell is that your fault?”

  “Someone sent him anonymous proof of an affair through interoffice mail. I guess the word has gotten out and back to his wife somehow. He blames me for that.”

  “But it never occurs to him that if he hadn’t had the affair in the first place, no one could’ve uncovered it.”

  “Exactly. Anyway, did you need me for something?”

  “Yeah, I wanted to tell you that Pam Tappen died inside that van from a combination of asphyxia and hypothermia.”

  “So she was alive when someone left her there to suffocate and freeze to death?”

  “Yes.”

  “Horrifying.”

  “Indeed. I place the time of death around Sunday evening.”

  “So if they grabbed her on Friday, that means it took two full days for her to die. Christ have mercy.” Sam thought about that for a second, recalling that Pam’s things had been left in the car. “This was personal. Someone wanted her to suffer.”

  “I agree. I was able to get some prints from the duct tape and CSU pulled a bunch from inside the van, but none of them were in the system.”

  Sam processed that news as she glanced at the conference room. “According to the family, everyone loved her.”

  “Not everyone.”

  “What kind of monster does something like this to another human being?”

  Lindsey raised an eyebrow. “After all these years on this job, you still have to ask that?”

  “I guess I’ve never received a satisfactory answer to the question.”

  “And you never will. I’ll send you my full report when I have it.”

  “Thanks, Doc.”

  Sam took a deep breath and blew it out before returning to the conference room to check on the Tappens.

  “We’ve made a list of the people she’s closest to,” Bob said.

  “Here’s a question for you. If she was so critical to the conference she was attending, wouldn’t they have reached out to you when she didn’t show up?”

  “Not necessarily. She was a sole proprietor. I’m not sure they would’ve known to contact me if she wasn’t there.”

  “I’m going to be honest with you, Mr. Tappen. I find it odd that she would take off for a weekend and have absolutely no contact with her husband or three children or not have an emergency contact on file with the organizations she worked for.”

  “I know it must sound strange to you, but that’s been our routine for years. She has a very intense job when she’s at the conferences, and we leave her alone to do it.”

  “And you never contact her?”

  “You did that once when Justin had appendicitis, and she flew home, remember, Dad?” Lucas asked.

  “Yes, that was an exception, but for the most part, when she’s working, we carry on without her. It’s only a week or so out of every month, and we’ve been doing it for so long that it’s routine to us.”

  “Could I have a minute alone with you, Mr. Tappen?” It would be up to him to decide how many of the details of their mother’s death he would share with his kids.

  He glanced at the boys, who got up and left the room.

  After the door closed behind them, Sam said, “I’m a mother, Mr. Tappen. I wouldn’t go a single day without talking to my children.”

  “With all due respect, Lieutenant, I believe you’re a relatively new mother, so of course it seems strange to you not to talk to your son.”

  “In forty years, I’m still going to want to talk to him every day.”

  For the first time, Tappen’s expression became angry. “My wife adored her children, and they adored her. Her company provided a large chunk of our family’s annual income, and we relied upon it, thus we stepped aside and allowed her to do her job when she needed us to. I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t judge us—or especially her—for the choices we made in the best interests of our family.”

  “Fair enough, and I don’t mean to judge you or her. I’m asking the questions necessary to figure out who’d want to kill her.”

  “We have no idea who’d want to kill her,” Tappen said.

  “I need to tell you some additional details that you’re going to find difficult to hear.”

  “More difficult than hearing she was found murdered?”

  “Perhaps, yes.”

  He seemed to brace himself.

  “She died of asphyxia and hypothermia, which means she was alive when she was bound and gagged, probably on Friday, and left in the van to suffocate and freeze to death. The medical examiner has put the time of death sometime on Sunday evening.” Sam waited a beat to give him a second to process that it took two days for her to die. “This was personal. Whoever did this wanted her to suffer.”

  “We don’t know of anyone who’d want her to suffer like that.” Bob seemed truly baffled as he fought tears. “She did so much for others. Our neighbor has been fighting breast cancer for the last two years. Pam made dinner for her family every week since she was diagnosed. She takes that same woman’s kids to practices and picks them up. She volunteers at a homeless shelter and does fundraising for them. She’s all about giving of herself to others, especially to our family.”

  “What about through her work? Did she have problems with any clients or colleagues?”

  “Not that I know of,” Bob said. “Most of her clients were longtime accounts, except for the one this week. That was a new one.”

  Which gave her a thread to pull, Sam thought. “Do you have the name of the organization?”

  “I can look it up in her office at home.”

  “I’d like to have our people go through her office, computer and phone, if we can locate it, to see if she was having any issues with anyone that you might not have been aware of. We’ve requested a warrant, but I wanted to make you aware of what we’ll need to do.”

  “Yes, of course. We’ll do whatever we can to aid in the investigation.”

  “We have officers at your home to ensure the crime scene, if there is one, won’t be compromised. We’ve also requested a warrant to examine your phone.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s routine.”

  “I have nothing to hide.”

  Bob’s phone chimed with a text. “Amy is in Cambridge and is asking if she can call me before she goes up to Molly’s place.”

  “Yes, have her call,” Sam said, getting up to let the boys back into the room.

  Over the next ten minutes, she got to listen to Molly answer her door to her tearful Aunt Amy and Uncle Tom. She asked why they were there, and Amy said, “Your dad needs to speak to you.”

  “Um, okay…”

  After Amy handed the phone to Molly, she said, “Dad? What’s wrong?”

  Listening to Bob tell his daughter that her mother had been found murdered was yet another horrific moment in a day full of them. Molly’s anguished screams brought everyone in the conference room to tears, including Sam.

  “Who could’ve done this?” she asked between sobs.

  “We don’t know, honey,” Bob said, “but Lieutenant Holland is helping us to figure that out.”

  “I want to come home,” Molly said, choking on a sob.

  “Yes, of course.”

  “We’ll drive her,” Amy said. “We’ll leave tonight.”

  After they ended the call with Amy and Molly, Sam asked for Bob’s phone, which she turned over to IT detectives for a thorough examination after he’d signed a release form permitting the investigation. When she returned to the conference room, she continued the questioning of Bob and his sons. “Have any of you noticed anything out of place or unusual in the house this week?” She’d wondered if Pam had been abducted at home or somewhere else.

  “Not that I can think of,” Bob said.

  “Me either,” Lucas said as Justin shook his head.

  “We’re going to put you up in a hotel while Crime Scene processes your home,” Sam said.

  “Why is that necessary?” Bob asked. “She hasn’t been there in four days.”

  “A crime could’ve occurred there, and you might not realize it.”

  He wanted to argue with her, and she couldn’t blame him. In addition to the shock of his wife’s murder, now he was being barred from his own home.

  “We’ll move as quickly as we can to get you back in your home as soon as possible.”

  Bob seemed to understand that there was no point in arguing.

  Sam got up to arrange for a hotel. She went to speak to Lieutenant Haggerty, who was standing outside her office, overseeing the detectives sifting for evidence among the wreckage.

  “Nothing yet,” he said when he saw her coming.

  “I was going to ask for your help with something else. I have a possible crime scene at the M Street home of Bob and Pam Tappen.”

  “Possible?”

  “I’m not sure if anything happened there, and if it did, it would’ve been as long as four days ago.”

  He winced. “So if there is a crime scene, it’s thoroughly compromised.”

  “Yes.”

  “Sure, that sounds fun. We can get there in the morning.”

  “Thanks. I’m putting the family up at a hotel in the meantime.” She returned to Dominguez’s cubicle to use the phone to call the Patrol commander. “I could use the assistance of one of your people. I’m in the Homicide pit.”

  “I’ll send someone to you.”

  “Thanks.”

  Sam was still watching the detectives working in her office when Officer Charles came into the pit. She was delighted to see the officer who’d done such an amazing job handling the details of her father’s police funeral. The young, Black officer was going to be a star within the department, and Sam was looking forward to watching that happen. “Fancy meeting you here on a Monday night.”

  Her pretty face lit up with a big smile. “I picked up an extra shift.”

  “Have you heard that I’m trying to poach you from the chief?” Sam asked.

  “I did hear a rumor to that effect, and I’d be honored to help you with anything you need.”

  “Do you have time to help me? I understand the chief keeps you pretty busy.”

  “I have the time, and I’d love to work with you and learn from you.”

  Sam gave her a side-eyed look. “Have you been taking suck-up advice from Detective Cruz by any chance?”