“Malone and I will run the command post. You’re more effective on the streets.”
“That’s where I’d rather be.” She reached for a portable radio. “I’ll report in as soon as I have anything.”
“Lieutenant,” Gonzo said from the doorway. “Jeannie’s boyfriend is here.”
“Show him in.”
Gonzo led a tall, black man dressed in a sharp-looking suit into the office. Sam could see how he and the tall, gorgeous Jeannie would make for a striking couple.
“Thanks,” she said, dismissing Gonzo. “I’ll see you out there shortly.”
“Michael Wilkinson,” the other man said, extending a hand.
She shook his hand. “Sam Holland. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Likewise. Can you tell me what’s being done to find Jeannie?” His voice was calm but Sam could hear the hysteria lurking just below the surface.
“We have every member of the department assigned to the search. When did you first realize something was wrong?”
“Just after seven. Whenever she works at night, she always comes by as soon as her shift ends so we can spend some time together before I have to leave for work around nine. We work opposite schedules, so we grab the time when we can. If she’s ever detained, she always calls. So when she didn’t come and didn’t call and wasn’t answering her phone, I started to get worried. But I know how things can be with her job, so I didn’t think too much of it at first. Then Will showed up. I could tell something was wrong because he seemed kind of freaked-out and that’s not like him.”
Sam was getting a better understanding of the dynamics between McBride and Tyrone. He did the reports so she could steal an hour with her boyfriend. Knowing McBride, she picked up the slack elsewhere when she could to pay him back for the courtesy.
“Mr. Wilkinson, I have to ask where you were during the night.”
His eyes flashed with surprise and then flattened with shock. “You can’t be serious.”
“I have to ask.”
Hands on his hips, frustration radiating from him, he said, “Since Jeannie came back here early yesterday, I worked late, grabbed dinner on the way home and was home by nine. I have an alarm system in my house that I set after I got home if you want to check.”
“I appreciate your candor, and I’m sorry I had to ask.”
“I love her, Lieutenant,” he said softly. “She’s
it
for me. I could never harm her. In fact, I was planning to propose this weekend.” He withdrew a small box from his suit pocket and showed her the ring.
“It’s beautiful,” Sam said sincerely. “She’ll love it.”
“We have to find her,” he said. “We have to.”
“We will.” Sam’s mind raced as the possible scenarios ran through her mind like a horror movie. “We’ll find her.”
They looked for her all day. A few minutes after seven that night, Sam stood on a sidewalk in Columbia Heights and fielded another call from Jeannie’s frantic mother. She did what she could to calm and reassure the woman while wishing someone would do the same for her. Just as she had the thought, Nick called.
“Hey,” Sam said.
“Any sign of her?”
“Just her car. We found it down by the Capitol Mall an hour ago. Crime scene is on it, but so far nothing that’ll help us find her.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah.”
“What can I do for you, babe? I’ll do anything, just name it.”
“I can’t think of another thing we could be doing. Malone called in the FBI an hour ago.” Under normal circumstances, Sam would resent federal agents butting into one of her cases, but in
this
case, she’d take all the help she could get.
“How’re you holding up?”
The tender tone of his voice brought tears to her eyes. Sam blinked them back. If she gave into them she might never stop. “I’ve had better days.”
“Babe,” he said, sounding agonized. “I wish there was something I could do for you.”
“It helps to hear your voice,” she said. “I’ve gotta go.”
“I’m here if you need me. For anything.”
“I know.”
“Hang in there, and please be careful.”
“I will.” She ended the call and gripped the phone for a long time, as if to hold on to him and his strength. Clearing the emotion from her throat, she turned to head back down the block and ran smack into Lt. Stahl—the very last person she wished to see just then.
“Having trouble keeping track of your people, Lieutenant?” he asked. The smirk on his face took her over an edge she’d been hovering at for hours.
“Are you
enjoying
this?
What the hell is wrong with you?
A decorated officer is missing and you have time to needle me? Get your fat ass out of my face, and go
look
for her!”
She left him sputtering in her wake as she stalked off to find Cruz and Gonzo. Half a block later, she happened upon Captain Malone who’d left the command center in Chief Farnsworth’s hands an hour earlier to come out and check on their progress.
“Anything?” Malone asked, his face tight with tension and fatigue.
She shook her head. Her stomach continued to ache and the adrenaline that had fueled her all day had begun to give way to bone-deep fatigue. “What else could we be doing? There has to be something.”
“We’re doing all we can.”
She checked her watch. “We need to release some people to go home and sleep.”
“You can release them, but they won’t go.”
“Is it all over the news?”
He nodded.
“We may as well have put out the word that today would be a really good day to commit that crime you’ve been planning in the District.”
“No kidding.”
Their radios suddenly crackled with activity. They stopped walking to listen to the dispatcher relay a 911 call that was received about a naked black female found in an alley six blocks from where Sam and Malone were standing. Sam set off running and heard the captain following close behind her.
“Is she alive?” Sam screamed into the radio. Her heartbeat rang through her ears like thunder, making it difficult to hear anything over her own heavy breathing.
“The victim’s condition is unknown,” the dispatcher replied. “Paramedics are en route.”
Detectives Arnold and Gonzales reported in from the scene a moment later that the woman in question was in fact Detective McBride and she was alive but unconscious, badly beaten and bleeding.
The relief nearly caused Sam’s knees to buckle, and she faltered for a moment before regaining her stride.
“Thank God,” she heard Malone say.
They watched an ambulance come around the corner, practically on two wheels with lights flashing and sirens blaring. Sam and Malone arrived on the scene seconds before the ambulance.
Gonzo had covered her with his coat so Sam couldn’t fully assess her injuries, but her pretty face was bruised and battered, almost beyond recognition. Sam suppressed a gasp when she noticed the cut across her throat. “Jesus.”
When Cruz and Gonzo looked up at her, their expressions were grim.
They all stood back when the paramedics pushed through the crowd that had gathered in the alley.
“Get these people out of here,” Sam said. “I’ll stay with her. Call Tyrone, have him update her family.”
Cruz and Gonzo cleared the spectators out of the alley. Malone answered a cell phone call and followed them.
Sam crouched down by Jeannie’s head as the paramedics worked frantically to stabilize her for transport.
“Do you know her blood type?” one of them asked Sam.
“No, but it’ll be in her record.” She called dispatch and requested the information as the paramedics transferred her onto a stretcher and covered her. “What’ve you got?” Sam asked them, fighting to retain her professional composure when she wanted to beat the shit out of something or someone.
The words flew at her in a blur as she chased after the paramedics. “Lost a lot of blood from the cut to her neck—even though it was a surface cut—probable sexual assault, possible fractured wrist, abrasions and contusions.”
“Will she make it?” Sam asked, choking on a surge of nausea when she imagined what her friend and colleague had endured.
One of the paramedics looked up at her. “Heart rate is steady, BP is low, but not dangerously so.”
She knew he couldn’t give her any assurances, but it sounded like Jeannie’s condition, while grave, could be worse. Sam gestured to Freddie and Gonzo. “Get crime scene down here and go through every inch of this alley. Start a canvas. Someone saw him dump her here. Get me something.”
As they took off, the dispatcher called back with Jeannie’s blood type. “AB positive.”
Sam conveyed the information to the paramedics as she climbed into the ambulance to ride along with Jeannie, who was still unconscious. Sam was grateful the other woman’s body had given her a respite from having the relive the trauma—for now, anyway. The respite didn’t last for long, however. Halfway to the hospital Jeannie began to moan.
Sam reached over to place a hand on the other woman’s shoulder. “Shh,” she said. “You’re okay. You’ll be okay.”
When tears leaked from Jeannie’s eyes, Sam wiped them away. “Hurts,” Jeannie whispered.
“Can you give her something for the pain?” Sam asked the paramedic.
He nodded and called ahead to the E.R. for instructions.
Jeannie licked her badly swollen lips and winced. “Drugged me. Something pricked my neck.”
So that’s how they’d gotten to her.
“Just relax.” Sam resisted the urge to go into interrogation mode. “We can talk about what happened later, when you feel better.”
“I fought him.” A sob erupted from her throat. “Hard as I could.”
“I know. You did good, Jeannie.”
“Never saw him coming. I was going to Michael’s.” Her eyes flipped up to meet Sam’s. “Don’t let him see me like this. Please.”
“He’s out of his mind with worry.”
Her tears descended into whimpers that broke Sam’s heart. “Keep him away.”
“Whatever you want. Just relax and focus on getting better.”
“He said…” Her swollen eyes fluttered shut.
“What? What did he say, Jeannie?”
“To tell you to back off or you’ll be next.”
Sam choked back a gasp as the implication registered. The man they were looking for had grabbed Jeannie, tortured and raped her and sent her back with a message. That was why he’d let her live. She patted Jeannie’s shoulder. “We’ll get him. For you and Maria and Regina and every other woman this sick bastard has attacked.” She had no doubt there were more women who probably hadn’t come forward.
“Lieutenant,” the paramedic said. “We’re just about there.”
Sam sat back on the bench so she wouldn’t be in the way as they unloaded the stretcher. She followed them into the Washington Hospital Center Emergency Room where most of the HQ detectives were waiting.
In the instant after Jeannie was whisked into a trauma room Sam was bombarded with questions. She held up her hands to stop them. “She’s awake and talking but lost a lot of blood. I know she appreciates you being here, but I need you all to go home and get some sleep so we can hit it hard in the morning. Everyone, please, go home. You did good work today.”
After a lot of mumbling and grumbling, most of the detectives left. Cruz, Gonzo, Arnold, Tyrone and Malone remained.
“I thought you were handling the canvas,” she said to Cruz and Gonzo.
“Second shift insisted on taking over because they know she’s our friend,” Cruz said.
Sam nodded. “Okay.”
A nurse emerged through the swinging double doors. “Lieutenant Holland? Detective McBride is asking for you.”
To Malone, Sam said, “Don’t leave. I need to talk to you.” She followed the nurse through the corridors to Jeannie’s room where a team of doctors worked feverishly on her.
A lump settled in Sam’s throat. She had no idea what to say so she reached for Jeannie’s hand and just held on while the plastic surgeon stitched the nasty gash on her throat.
“They’ll do a rape kit,” Jeannie said, her eyes shining with unshed tears. She looked up at Sam. “Will you stay with me?”
“Of course, but wouldn’t you rather have your mother—”
“No!”
“Okay,” Sam said, taken aback by her vehemence. “Whatever you want. I need to update the others, but I’ll be right back.”
Sam returned to the waiting room and signaled to Cruz and Gonzo. “There’s nothing more you can do tonight, so go on home. I want everyone well rested for tomorrow.”
“Call if you need anything,” Gonzo said. “I’ll come back.”
“Me too,” Cruz said.
Sam promised she would and sent them on their way. She turned to Malone and relayed the message the perpetrator had sent.
“Christ.” Hands on his hips, he studied her. “I don’t suppose you’d allow me to assign a couple of officers to escort you until this is over.”
“Get real.”
“This guy’s good, Sam. He snatched a veteran officer right off the street in broad daylight. Don’t tell me it can’t happen to you too.”
“He won’t get to me.”
“Um, I hate to remind you of what happened recently with Reese.” Clarence Reese had caught Sam off guard by jumping into the backseat of her car and holding her at gunpoint.
“That was a fluke. I was off my game. I assure you I’m fully on my game right now.”
“You’re exhausted and pissed. We all are. I don’t need another of my officers snatched by this guy.”
“He won’t do it again,” Sam said.
“You’re awfully certain of that.”
“He snatched Jeannie to send a message. We’re getting too close in the investigation.”
“He’s been awfully brazen. Leaving DNA all over the place, as if he thinks he’s above the law ever catching up to him.”
“Lindsey said the same thing. What do you think would happen if I demanded DNA samples from the senators the two dead women worked for?”
Malone uttered a harsh chuckle. “Best of luck with that.”
“Based on the profile, I’m starting to think it’s one of them—well, one of five. We know it’s not Lightfeather, and we know it’s not Nick.”
“You’re seriously asking me for authorization to request DNA samples from five United States senators?”
“Yeah,” Sam said as the idea took hold. “I guess I am.”
“You’ll be the death of me, Holland. The living breathing death.”
For the first time all day, she smiled. “Run it up the pole and get back to me.”
“Yeah, I’ll get right on that.”
“You’re the best.”
Muttering, he stalked out the door.
Sam turned to Tyrone, the only remaining detective. “You should go home, Will. There’s nothing more you can do for her today.”
“If it’s just the same to you, L.T., I’d rather stay.”
Sam could see there was no point in arguing with him. “I know you’re beating yourself up, but there was nothing you could’ve done to prevent this.”
“I keep telling myself that, but still…”
Michael Wilkinson rushed in, arm in arm with an older woman who had to be Jeannie’s mother. The two of them looked like they’d been to hell and back.
“Lieutenant!” Michael cried as Jeannie’s mother hugged Tyrone. “Where is she? I want to see her. Will they let us see her?”
“She’s banged up pretty badly,” Sam said, “but she’s awake and alert. She can’t have any visitors for the time being.” She had no idea how she’d tell him what had happened to Jeannie or that she didn’t want to see him.
“Someone should be with her,” he said.
“I’m going back now to talk to her about what happened,” Sam said. “I’ll be out as soon as I know anything.” She also needed to talk to Jeannie to find out what she wanted them to know about the attack.
“Tell her we’re here and we love her,” Mrs. McBride said.
“I will.”
When Sam returned to the trauma room, a nurse was explaining the need for an HIV test and preventative drugs as well as the morning-after contraception pill. Jeannie sobbed as she signed the consent form.
“Your mom and Michael are in the waiting room,” Sam told her. “They said to tell you they love you. I told them the docs said no visitors for now.”
“Thank you.” Jeannie winced as she wiped tears from her swollen face.
“They really want to see you, Jeannie.”
“I can’t,” she whispered. “I just can’t.”
A portable X-ray machine was wheeled in to take a film of her wrist.
Sam tried to stay out of the way while remaining close to Jeannie as doctors and nurses filtered in and out over the next half hour. A nurse-practitioner schooled on rape kits and evidence retrieval explained the process to Jeannie, even though the detective had worked many a sexual assault case and was well aware of the procedure.
Sam stood by her shoulder and whispered words of comfort as the nurse took photographs of Jeannie’s injuries, including the rope burns on her wrists and ankles. The nurse clipped her fingernails, retrieved hair from Jeannie’s head and pubic region, identified and collected semen from her legs and vagina, swabbed her for DNA and conducted a pelvic exam. The entire process took about three hours but Sam never left her side, and Jeannie never stopped crying.