“Are you sure it’s a good idea to just show up without calling first?” Gonzo asked Christina. He eyed the nondescript white town house that might—or might not—house his son.
“I’m sure. This way she doesn’t have time to pull any crap. She’s not expecting you, so you gain the upper hand.”
He glanced over at her. Even after a nearly sleepless night, she looked fresh-faced and polished. Sometimes he still wondered what the heck a classy woman like her saw in a rough-around-the-edges guy like him. “This is why you’re so good at your job.”
“It’s called strategy,” she said, smiling at the compliment. “You gotta have one.” She leaned over to kiss the dimple in his chin that she’d once told him was ridiculously sexy. “Remember, you’re just going to tell her you want to see the baby and talk about what you can do to help out. Keep it all friendly. We’ll let the lawyer get into the DNA business with her. It’ll be better if that doesn’t come from you.”
“Okay.” He took a deep, fortifying breath. “Here goes nothing.”
Christina squeezed his arm. “It’ll be fine. You haven’t done anything wrong, Tommy. Just remember that.”
Grateful for her calming presence, he nodded and reached for the door handle. At the last second, he stopped and turned to her. “Come with me.”
“I thought we decided it would be better if I waited here.”
“I don’t care what we decided. I want you with me when I see him for the first time. It wasn’t like I had a long relationship with her. How can she be put out if I have someone else now?”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I’ll feel better if you’re there with me,” he said, startled to realize it was true. He always felt better when she was around.
“Then let’s go.”
On the front stoop, Gonzo rang the bell. Would he know right away that the child was his? Would he be able to love a child he hadn’t even known about? What if he couldn’t love the baby, even if he
was
his?
The door swung open, and Lori gasped when she saw him. Her brown hair looked like it hadn’t been washed in days and her oversized red T-shirt was stained with what might’ve been breast milk. Gonzo tried to recall what he’d once seen in her, but she had changed so much he barely recognized her.
She pushed open the storm door. “Tommy? What’re you doing here?”
He swallowed hard. “I’ve come to see my son.”
Lori’s gaze shifted from him to Christina and then back to him.
“This is my, um, girlfriend, Christina.” He was surprised he didn’t choke on a word he usually went out of his way to avoid. “Christina, this is Lori.”
The two women sized each other up for a long, long moment. Finally, Christina said, “Nice to meet you.”
The sound of a baby wailing from inside ended the awkward moment. “Come in.” Lori gestured them into a space cluttered with baby paraphernalia and piles of dirty clothes.
Gonzo eyed the overflowing ashtray on the coffee table with dismay. The place reeked of smoke.
“I’ll just, um, go get him,” Lori said, darting from the room.
When they were alone, Christina reached for his hand.
“How does he breathe in here?” Gonzo whispered.
“I was wondering the same thing.”
When they heard Lori’s footsteps on the stairs, Gonzo released Christina’s hand.
She came into the room carrying the baby. The first thing he noticed was the baby’s dark hair. Not that he knew much about babies, but he seemed to have a lot of hair. Gonzo’s nephew Joey had been born with a similar head of hair. His stomach dropped as Lori handed the baby to him.
Gonzo and Christina gasped at the prominent dimple in the baby’s chin.
He stared down at the puckered little face and fell instantly in love. Big eyes stared up at him, open and trusting, and it was all Gonzo could do not to weep. The immediate tidal wave of love that surged through him left him defenseless in its wake.
Christina’s hand landed on his back, and he glanced over at her to find that she, too, was overwhelmed.
“What’s his name?” Gonzo asked.
“I haven’t named him yet.”
Startled, Gonzo looked up at her. “But he’s a couple of months old!”
“Believe me, I know how old he is.”
“You have to give him a name.”
“So that’s how this is going to go? You come into
my
home and start telling me how to raise
my
kid?”
“You called me, Lori. I never would’ve known about him if you hadn’t called. Did you expect me to just go on with my life and act like I’d never heard about him?”
“Don’t try to pretend you have any interest in him.”
“Of course I’m interested in him. He’s my son.”
“Look, it’s really nice of you to come all the way over here to see him, but the only thing I need from you is some money for diapers and day care. I don’t expect anything else.”
“I want more than that.”
The front door swung open, bringing a blast of cold air and startling the baby. He began to wail.
Even though he had next to no experience with babies, Gonzo patted his back.
“I’ll take him,” Lori said, reaching for him.
“I don’t mind that he’s crying,” Gonzo said.
“The lady wants her baby back,” a deep voice said from the foyer.
Gonzo glanced over to find a giant of a man glaring at him. He had a red bandana tied around his long hair and tattoos on his neck and arms.
“Take it easy, Rex,” Lori said. “He’s a cop.”
“Doesn’t give him the right to hold onto your kid when you want him back.”
“He’s my kid too,” Gonzo said, using his best cop glare on the guy.
Rex’s eyes widened with surprise. “That so?”
Lori nodded.
Rex glowered at her.
“You really need to go now,” she said to Gonzo. This time when she reached for the baby he let her take him.
“I’ll go,” Gonzo said. “But I’ll be back. Soon.” With one last look at his son, Gonzo ushered Christina out the front door. Once they were outside, he took a deep gulping breath of fresh air. The stench of cigarette smoke clung to their coats. “She hasn’t even given him a name,” he said, filled with despair.
Christina pulled her cell phone from her coat pocket.
“Who are you calling?” Gonzo asked.
“Nick’s lawyer friend Andy. He specializes in family law.”
“I should probably check with Sam. She might not appreciate me calling on a friend of Nick’s without asking her first.”
“I’m sure Sam would want you to do everything you could to take care of your son.”
He hoped Christina was right. “How could she not even care enough about him to give him a name?”
Christina squeezed his arm. “Don’t worry. We’re going to take care of him, okay?”
Gonzo nodded. His entire world had been turned upside down by one tiny dimpled chin, and he was grateful for her cool competence.
“Give me something, give me anything,” Sam said to Dr. McNamara. Regina Argueta de Castro lay on the table under the glare of fluorescent lights.
“Twelve weeks pregnant,” Lindsey said.
“Well, that’s interesting. How soon until you know if the fetus’s DNA matches Senator Lightfeather’s?”
“A couple of days. I’m running it now.”
“Anything else?”
“I got a partial print off the bruises on her buttocks. I ran it through AFIS,” she said, referring to the Automated Fingerprint Identification System. “But no hits. Also, I found semen from two different men in her vagina.”
“Of course there were two,” Sam said, frustrated that her slam-dunk case against Senator Lightfeather seemed to be falling apart. “Let me know what the DNA shows.”
“Will do. So how’re the wedding plans coming?”
“Fine. I guess.” Her stomach clenched when she thought of the wedding she’d agreed to in six short weeks.
“A proposal in the White House Rose Garden.” Lindsey sighed. “So romantic.”
“He does have his moments,” Sam conceded. “Get me some info, Doc.”
“I’m on it.”
Sam left the morgue and headed for the pit where she found Freddie popping pills. “Are you hungover too?”
He startled and looked up at her, a guilty expression marking his handsome face. “What? No. Are you?”
“Not me. Gonzo. Called in sick today.”
“He wasn’t drinking that much because he had to work today.”
“So what’s your excuse?”
“I have a headache, if you must know. And it’s not from drinking. I didn’t sleep very well.”
“Spare me the gories.” Sam was surprised when he didn’t fire back with the usual retort. “What’s the matter?”
“Nothing.” He reached for some papers on his desk. “I’ve got McBride’s report from last night. She spoke with several security people at the Capitol who reported seeing Senator Lightfeather there yesterday afternoon into the early evening. One of them reported seeing him leaving around six, and he seemed to be in a rush.”
Just as he’d said, Sam thought. “We’ve got a DNA match to his semen, but there was a second guy. Lindsey’s running it.”
“McBride reported that they ‘interrogated the lock’ on his office door and his key card swipes matched up with his timeline.”
“Let’s get him back into interrogation to cross the Ts before we let him go.”
“You got it, boss. One other thing. We’ve had several calls from the media asking for confirmation that we’re holding Lightfeather in connection with the murder of a member of the Capitol cleaning staff.”
“No comment for now.”
“That’s what I figured you’d say.”
Sam nodded. “Go get him.”
“On my way.”
Sam watched him go, noting the slight hunch to his shoulders. Yes, something was definitely troubling her partner. Before the day was over, she’d get it out of him.
A few minutes later, she joined Freddie and the senator in one of the interrogation rooms. Lightfeather’s night in jail seemed to have diminished him.
“Were you aware that Regina was pregnant?” Sam asked.
Lightfeather’s hands trembled. “Yes.”
“Was it yours?”
He nodded.
“You’re certain of that?”
“Of course I am.”
“You’re
sure
she wasn’t seeing anyone else?”
“We were together most nights, so I can’t imagine how she’d have time for anyone else.”
“Didn’t she work nights cleaning the Capitol?”
“Five nights a week, four to midnight.”
“You said you were together ‘most nights’. What did she do on the nights she didn’t spend with you?”
“I’m not sure. She never said.”
“Did you ask?”
He nodded. “It was a…a bone of contention between us.”
“Did she have girlfriends? Anyone she would’ve confided in?”
“She was quite friendly with several women she worked with, but I’m not sure what she confided in them. I’m confident she told no one about our relationship. She knew what was at stake.”
“For you or for her?”
“For both of us. She couldn’t risk losing her job.”
“What about what was at risk for you?”
“Obviously, she was well aware of that too.”
“Was she pressuring you for more? She’s carrying your child, facing possible deportment. I imagine she was quite desperate for some safety and security.”
“She knew I’d take care of her and the baby, but she wasn’t pressuring me. She was painfully aware of my marital status.”
“How were you planning to take care of her and the baby when you didn’t have enough money to get an apartment in Washington?”
Lightfeather’s slumped in his chair. “I was going to do whatever I could for her.”
“Which wouldn’t have been much, am I right?”
He shrugged.
“She had to be feeling quite desperate. Another mouth to feed, day care, diapers. How would she swing all that when she was supporting her family back home?”
“We didn’t talk a lot about that. We were going to work something out. I told her not to worry. I’d find the money. Somehow.”
Freddie gestured to Sam, and she nodded to him.
“Senator,” he said. “Are you familiar with the term ‘anchor baby’?”
Lightfeather sat up straighter in his chair. “I am.”
“I’m not,” Sam said. “Enlighten me.”
“When babies are born to illegal immigrants, they ‘anchor’ their mothers to the United States because the 14
th
Amendment grants automatic citizenship to anyone born in this country,” Lightfeather said.
“Ahhh,” Sam said, seeing where Freddie was going with this. Proud of his initiative, she waved her hand to give him the floor.
“Seeing as Regina’s immigration status was in question, I’m wondering if her pregnancy was planned or not.”
“It was most definitely
not
planned.”
“How does that happen? I have to assume you both knew how to prevent an unwanted pregnancy.”
The senator’s hands, Sam noted, were trembling.
“We think it happened that first time. In my office.”
“You didn’t use protection?” Freddie asked.
“She said she was on the pill and I believed her.”
“But she wasn’t?”
“She was. I saw them later in her purse.”
“Did she take them?”
“She swore she did. When she first discovered she was pregnant, she was furious that the pills hadn’t worked.”
“Or,” Sam said, “they’d worked exactly as she’d intended.”
Lightfeather’s dark eyes narrowed. “What’re you insinuating?”
“That you might’ve been duped, Senator. Seduced by a woman who knew
exactly
what she was doing when she allowed a United States senator to impregnate her.”
“How dare you say such a thing about her? We were in love! Once I assured her I’d do everything I could to care for her and the baby, she was overjoyed about her pregnancy.”
“She was overjoyed to be having a baby in the U.S. of A.,” Sam said. “That it was the child of a high-ranking official was a bonus.”
“I can’t believe you’d say such a thing about a lovely woman who was brutally murdered. You don’t care about her at all. I never should’ve called you.”
Sam smacked her hand on the table, which startled him. “Don’t tell me who and what I care about. I’ll find out who killed her, and I’ll make sure her killer pays for what he did to her.”
Lightfeather broke down. “I’m sorry. I know you will. I’m just…I still can’t believe this has happened.” He turned tear-filled eyes up at Sam. “May I please call my wife? I can’t have her hearing about this through the media.”