“I hear we’ve got a mess to clean up,” Sam said.

  “You’re goddamned right you do,” Captain Malone said as he came into the pit. “In the office. Now. McBride, you, too.”

  As Malone stormed toward Sam’s office, Jeannie grimaced at her.

  “I got this,” Sam said as they went into her office, where Gonzo was seated at the desk.

  “May I help you all?” he asked as Jeannie closed the door.

  Ignoring him, Malone turned to Sam. “You can help me by telling how it is that my direct order to stand down in the Deasly case was basically ignored.”

  “I spoke to the chief about what Jeannie had uncovered prior to the order,” Sam said. “He authorized us to turn the case over to the marshals, which we did. Jesse Best tied the case to us in his press conference. We followed the order we were given by the chief, and he said he would bring you into the loop.”

  “He did, but this… shit storm… is exactly what we were trying to avoid when we gave you the order,” Malone said.

  “We understand that, but Jeannie saved the lives of ten people, Captain. That’s the headline here.”

  “No, Lieutenant,” he said with unusual fury, “that is not the headline here. The headline is actually going to be ‘Ten people rescued when MPD decides to give a fuck about missing Black girl.’ That’s gonna be the goddamned headline.”

  Sam had never seen him so pissed. “I’d like to remind you that we’re not the ones who didn’t give a fuck about the missing Black girl. We’re the ones who decided to give a fuck.”

  “Try telling that to the mayor and the city council and everyone calling for my head and the chief’s head on a silver platter. How, they want to know, could we have let a case like this go unsolved for eleven years and then closed it in a matter of days, like we did the Worthington case? This has happened on our watch, and we’re responsible.”

  “What’s more important?” Sam asked, her stomach cramping with anxiety as she went toe to toe with her beloved captain. “To save lives or protect our careers?”

  Jeannie gasped.

  “I guess we’re going to find out which is more important to the people who matter,” Malone said.

  “I have to believe it’ll matter more to them that we solved these cases than it does how long it took. Nine little kids were rescued, along with Carisma. Surely that counts for something.”

  “You’d better hope so,” Malone said as he stormed out, slamming the door behind him.

  “Whoa,” Jeannie said. “I’ve never seen him like that.”

  “Me either,” Sam said.

  “What’s our plan?” Gonzo asked Sam.

  “I want the reports Stahl filed on these cases when they first happened.”

  “I’m way ahead of you, LT,” Gonzo said. “I pulled them first thing, and they’re some of the best fiction you’ll ever read.” He handed printouts to her and Jeannie detailing the many steps Stahl claimed he had taken to investigate the Worthington and Deasly cases. “This is what your dad and others were seeing. This is why they didn’t press him about what was being done, because to read his reports, everything was being done.”

  “LaToya Deasly told me she only saw him once and then never heard from him again,” Jeannie said, scanning the report. “But he details multiple lengthy meetings with her. Where was this? I never saw anything about this in the files I had.”

  “There was nothing in the Worthington files either,” Sam said.

  “The reports were archived,” Gonzo said.

  Sam felt a zing of electricity that went straight down her backbone. “Only captain or above can archive files.”

  “Which means someone intentionally archived these reports—someone at the captain level or above,” Gonzo said.

  “Is it possible to see who did it?” Sam asked, recalling when this had come up before, but fairly certain it wasn’t possible to tell.

  “Not at our level.”

  “How were you able to find out they were archived?” Sam asked.

  “I asked Archie to dig deeper and see if he could find anything buried on Worthington and Deasly,” Gonzo said, referring to Lieutenant Archelotta, who ran the IT division. “These are what he found.”

  “There’s got to be more,” Sam said. “This was intentional. Stahl created these reports, and then someone buried them. I want to know who did that.”

  “It was probably Conklin,” Jeannie said of their disgraced former deputy chief. “He would’ve been a captain then.”

  “Conklin hated Stahl as much as anyone,” Sam said. “I can’t believe he would’ve done anything to help him cover his tracks.”

  “What if Stahl had something on him?” Gonzo asked.

  “I suppose that’s possible,” Sam conceded. “Is it possible to archive something without going through a captain?”

  “No.”

  “We might never know the whole story,” Sam said, “but this is enough for us to show Malone and the chief that Stahl was documenting efforts that never actually happened. It might get the dogs off our backs.”

  “Or would that open a bigger can of worms?” Gonzo asked.

  “That question is above my pay grade,” Sam said. “Good work on this, Gonzo. It helps to have something to work with.”

  “What’s next?” he asked.

  “I’m going to venture into the lion’s den with this info and turn it over to them.”

  “Go with God, Lieutenant,” Jeannie said.

  The three of them laughed.

  “Listen, Jeannie,” Sam said. “This was a remarkable bust, and you need to be proud as hell for what you did for Carisma, her family and the nine other kids and their families. Don’t let any of the bullshit take away from that. Do you hear me?”

  “Yes, ma’am. Thank you for your support.”

  “You got it. I’m damned proud of what you did here, and you should be, too.”

  “Me, too,” Gonzo said. “Very good work, Jeannie.”

  “Thanks, guys. Although… I’m never going to forget the condition Carisma and the others were in,” Jeannie said, her eyes filling with tears. “It was horrifying. How human beings can treat others that way… The murders are tough, but this was unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”

  “I want you and Matt to spend some time with Dr. Trulo,” Sam said, referring to the department’s psychiatrist.

  “I don’t think we need that.”

  Sam would like to think she’d learned from past mistakes. She would always regret not doing more to support Gonzo after Arnold’s murder. “Nonnegotiable,” she said to Jeannie. “Make the appointment. Together or separate. You decide.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “I’m going to see Malone. If I don’t come back in thirty minutes, send reinforcements.”

  “Will do,” Gonzo said, chuckling.

  Sam left the pit and headed for the captain’s office, surprised to see the door closed, which was rare. She knocked.

  “Enter.”

  She opened the door. “Do I need my vest to come in?”

  “I’m not in the mood for jokes, Holland.”

  “I’m aware. The question was serious.”

  “Come in and shut the door.”

  She did as she was told.

  He was seated behind his desk, one leg raised by bracing his foot on an open desk drawer. “What do you want?”

  She laid the reports on his desk.

  “What’s that?”

  “Reports that Stahl filed in the early days of the Worthington and Deasly investigations. They were separate from the files we pulled.”

  Malone held her gaze for a beat before reaching for the reports.

  Sam stayed as still as she possibly could while he reviewed them.

  “Where did you find these?”

  “Gonzo asked Archie to do some digging. They were archived separately from the case files.”

  “What are these?” he asked, sifting through the papers.

  “We aren’t sure, sir, but that’s what the bosses at the time were seeing. Jeannie confirmed Stahl only met once with LaToya Deasly, and then she never heard from him again. His reports include detailed notes on multiple meetings and follow-ups that never happened.”

  He stood so abruptly that he startled her. “Come with me.”

  Sam stepped aside to let him lead the way straight to the chief’s office. She nodded to Helen, the chief’s admin, as they went by. That she looked more spooked than usual did nothing to settle Sam’s nerves.

  Malone walked right into Farnsworth’s office.

  Sam closed the door behind them.

  “Tell him what you told me,” Malone said.

  “Gonzo asked Archie to look for anything he could find on Worthington and Deasly, and he found these reports in the archives. They were separate from the case files that we pulled when we reopened both investigations.”

  “If they were archived,” Farnsworth said slowly, “that had to be done by a captain.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  He glanced at Malone. “What is this, Jake?”

  “I don’t know, sir, but we’re going to look into it, starting with everyone who was a captain eleven years ago.”

  “One of them is dead,” Sam said.

  “There’s no way your father had anything to do with hiding Stahl’s bogus paper trail,” Farnsworth said, his gaze heated.

  “Maybe it’d be easiest to go to the source,” Sam said. “Ask Stahl why he created bogus reports and who helped him hide them. He’s facing life in prison with nothing else to lose, and knowing him, he’d love to take someone else down with him.”

  “What do you think?” Farnsworth asked Malone.

  “It couldn’t hurt anything to try. But who’s going to be the one to go there?”

  “It can’t be me,” Farnsworth said. “I’m the one who fired him and had him charged.”

  “He and I have too much history,” Malone said, “and it can’t be Sam, for obvious reasons.”

  “Gonzo?” Sam asked. “He didn’t work for him for long and doesn’t have history.”

  “Yeah, that’d work,” Malone said, “if we agree that he’s doing all right with the trial going on and everything.”

  “I’ll ask him and see what he thinks,” Sam said.

  “Give him an out if it’s too much right now,” Farnsworth said.

  “I will.”

  “The media is crawling up our asses looking for a statement about the Deasly case,” Farnsworth said.

  “I’d like Detective McBride to make that statement,” Sam said. “This was her bust, and she should get the credit.”

  “That’s fine with me,” Farnsworth said, “but I’ll go out with her to take the inevitable questions about why it took us so long to find Carisma.” He handed her a sheet of paper. “Public Affairs drafted this statement to get things started, and I approve of the language. Ask Detective McBride to start with this.”

  “I’ll get her,” Sam said, “and talk to Gonzo about Stahl.” As she headed for the door, she avoided eye contact with the captain while wondering how big of a deal this was going to turn out to be for her and her team. Whatever the fallout, she wouldn’t have done a damn thing differently, not when it meant her actions and Jeannie’s had freed nine little kids and a young woman from hell on earth.

  Chapter Nine

  “You need to stop fuming, Jake,” Joe said when they were alone. “Back in the day, you and I would’ve done the same thing Holland and McBride did.”

  Jake sat, exhaling a deep breath. “The two of them are insubordinate as all hell, and you know it.”

  “Yes, they are, and they’re also exceptionally good at their jobs. It’s a fine line we walk with that combination.”

  “Still… We told them to stand down.”

  “I told you Sam called me. We talked about it and agreed to turn what McBride had over to the marshals. Jesse Best blew our cover, but you can’t blame him. He was giving credit where it was due.”

  “Yeah, I get all that. What I’ll never understand for the rest of my life is how Stahl faked entire investigations and even filed the paperwork to go along with his bullshit. And then, of course, I wonder what else there is.”

  “And that’s the crux of the matter, which is why you need to direct your anger where it belongs—and not at Holland or McBride.”

  “I’m pissed about the insubordination, and I’m gonna be for a few days.”

  “While you fume about that, I want you to quietly talk to the captains from that time, including Conklin, and find out who helped Stahl hide the paper trail. I want you to personally handle that, with no one else involved.”

  “Is this a criminal investigation?” Malone asked.

  “Potentially. I mean, why were his fake reports separate from the case files? It makes no sense.”

  “How long is this guy going to continue to haunt us, anyway?”

  “I’m afraid we’ve only seen the tip of the Stahl iceberg.”

  * * *

  As Sam made her way back to the pit, she encountered Freddie coming toward her. “We’ve got a body in Rock Creek Park. We weren’t sure if you wanted to take that, or if you’re outta here after the press briefing.”

  Sam checked her watch and saw it was almost one thirty. Her goal was to be back at Camp David for dinner. “I’ve got some time.” In the pit, she called for Jeannie.

  “Yes, ma’am?”

  “You’ll be handling the press briefing on Deasly.”

  Jeannie’s expression went blank. “Me?”

  “Yes, you. It was your bust, and you should get the credit.”

  “But the captain and chief—”

  “Would like you to do it. The chief will go out with you and field any questions about the past handling of the case.”

  “Oh. Okay.”

  “Just go out and tell them what you did and how you found Carisma. That’s what they want to hear.”

  “When do they want me to do it?”

  “Now would be good.” Sam had never seen Jeannie look so flummoxed. She handed Jeannie the statement that public affairs had come up with. “I’ll go out with you, too, if that would help.”

  “Yes, please.”

  “They want you to start with that statement and take it from there.”

  “Okay.”

  Jeannie gathered notes and reports she wouldn’t need. She knew the case by heart. Sam was certain of that. Cases like these worked their way into your bone marrow, where they would stay forever. As she went into her office to grab her coat, Sam could recall the intricate details of cases she’d worked years ago for that very reason.

  When Jeannie was as ready as she’d ever be, Sam said to Freddie, “Be ready to go to Rock Creek Park right after this.”

  “Yes, ma’am. Good luck, Jeannie.”

  The rest of the squad called out words of support as Sam and Jeannie walked toward the main lobby to meet the chief.

  “Very nice job, Detective,” Farnsworth said, shaking Jeannie’s hand.

  “Thank you, sir. I’m, ah, sorry about the fallout.”

  “I’ll take care of that. Let’s do this.”

  The chief led them through the main doors and into the media scrum that gathered there every day. Reporters started shouting questions at them the second they crossed the threshold.

  One stood out among the others: “Lieutenant, did the president give you a ride home from Camp David on his helicopter?” Shit, she’d have to give Nick a heads-up about that question being asked multiple times.

  Farnsworth held up his hands to quiet them. “Detective McBride has a statement, and then we’ll take any questions you have.”

  Jeannie stepped up to the stone podium that served as their briefing spot in all seasons.

  Sam glanced up at the dark clouds that hung overhead, wondering about the weather forecast.

  “Following the conviction of former Lieutenant Stahl, we’ve given some of his cold cases a fresh look,” Jeannie said.

  Sam could hear the nerves in her friend’s voice.

  “One of them was the disappearance of then-thirteen-year-old Carisma Deasly. I approached the investigation as if it was a new case, speaking to Carisma’s mother, LaToya, and other people who were close to the family at that time. I quickly became focused on Daniella Brown, a friend of LaToya’s, who lived with the family and who also went missing around the same time. LaToya always believed that Daniella took her child, and that’s the lead I followed in my investigation.”

  “Was she angry that the MPD didn’t do more at the time her child went missing?” one reporter asked.

  Jeannie looked to the chief.

  “We’re taking a close look at the early part of the investigation hoping to answer those questions,” Farnsworth said.

  “I spoke to a former boyfriend of Ms. Brown’s,” Jeannie said, “who told me he believed she was living in Richmond. He was critical to us finding her, Carisma and the other children who were rescued. After my partner and I visually identified Ms. Brown, we consulted with the marshals, who oversaw the raid that led to the arrest of Ms. Brown, the rescue of Carisma Deasly and nine other children.”

  “Did you suspect there would be other victims in addition to Carisma?” a reporter asked.

  “No, we had no idea. That was a shock to us as much as everyone else.”

  “How’s it possible that you were able to solve this case so quickly after so long?” Darren Tabor from the Washington Star asked.

  Normally, Sam liked him. As much as she hated the question, if she were him, that’d be her first question, too.

  Farnsworth stepped up to the podium alongside Jeannie. “We’re looking into a number of disgraced former Lieutenant Stahl’s cold cases and finding some irregularities, including reports on investigative work that we now know was never done.”

  “Will Stahl face additional charges?” a reporter asked.

  “That hasn’t been determined yet,” Farnsworth replied. “We’re in the earliest part of our investigation.”

  “Will other cold cases be examined?”

  “Yes, they will.”

  “How was it possible that Stahl’s commanders at the time, including yourself, the late Deputy Chief Holland and others, were unaware of him cutting so many corners?” Darren asked.