every day anymore... Well, that was damned unfair.
The cosmic joke of it all wasn’t lost on him. He, who’d never had any trouble getting any woman he wanted, was gone over one he could not only never have but who couldn’t stand the sight of him. It would’ve been laughable if it hadn’t been so bloody pathetic.
Thus his desire to transfer out of the area to ensure he’d never have to see her again when they closed the Kavanaugh case.
After spending the morning with a ragged-looking Derek Kavanaugh at his parents’ Herndon home, Hill had nothing much to add to the ongoing investigation. They’d gone over everything Kavanaugh had worked on in the last year, touching on issues that might be controversial or polarizing, but nothing stood out as a motive for murder or kidnapping.
As he drove to HQ and mulled over the interview with Kavanaugh, he caught the news at the top of the hour, which was the first he’d heard about Sam’s heroics that morning.
“Jesus,” he whispered when he realized how close she’d come to being shot or worse. The radio announcer mentioned a video of the incident from the store that had “already gone viral” and wondered what Sam would think of that. “What does it matter what she thinks?” he said out loud. “She’s nothing to you, and she never will be. Time to get real, buddy.”
But even as he said the words, he knew he wouldn’t rest until he saw with his own eyes that she was truly okay.
* * *
The first thing Sam noticed when Celia pulled into the parking lot at HQ was the horde of reporters gathered outside the main entrance. “Would you mind taking me around the corner to the morgue entrance?” Sam hated to ask because Celia had left Skip at home alone for the twenty minutes it would take to drive Sam to work and return home. Neither of them wanted him alone any longer than necessary.
“No problem.”
“Thanks. Anything to avoid the vultures.”
Celia laughed at that. “So what was going on between you and your father earlier?”
“Nothing. Why?”
“Don’t bullshit me, Sam Cappuano. Spill it.”
Stunned by her stepmother’s rare curse, Sam said, “He’s mad because I didn’t tell him about an old investigation of his that I reopened when he was in the hospital earlier this year.”
“The Fitzgerald case?”
“Yeah,” Sam said, surprised again. “You know about that?”
“Of course I do. He used to talk about it a lot when he was still working. Before...”
Their lives were divided evenly in half—before the shooting and after. “I always forget you two were secretly dating before he was shot.”
Celia’s pretty round face flamed with color as it always did when this topic came up. “We were going to tell you girls. Eventually.”
“I don’t blame you for keeping it to yourselves for as long as you could,” Sam said, thinking of the bombs her ex-husband had attached to her car and Nick’s, which had blown the lid off their secret relationship. “Once everyone knows, it changes things.”
“Yes, it does. Your dad was still very raw over what’d happened with your mother, even though that was years before we met. It’d left him bitter.”
Sam thought of something her sister Tracy had said a few months ago about there being two sides to the story of what’d happened with their parents. They hadn’t discussed it since. While Sam was fine with not knowing her mother’s side of the story, Tracy’s comment rankled nonetheless. She didn’t want to be curious, but she was, and at some point she needed to ask her sister what she’d meant.
Sam hadn’t seen or talked to her mother in more than five years. After her wedding, she’d received a card indicating her mother would like to see her and meet Nick. The overture had been on Sam’s mind in recent months, but she’d yet to act on it. “Anyway, Dad is mad I didn’t tell him we took another look at Fitzgerald.”
“I take it Joe told him?”
“Yes,” Sam said, feeling
The cosmic joke of it all wasn’t lost on him. He, who’d never had any trouble getting any woman he wanted, was gone over one he could not only never have but who couldn’t stand the sight of him. It would’ve been laughable if it hadn’t been so bloody pathetic.
Thus his desire to transfer out of the area to ensure he’d never have to see her again when they closed the Kavanaugh case.
After spending the morning with a ragged-looking Derek Kavanaugh at his parents’ Herndon home, Hill had nothing much to add to the ongoing investigation. They’d gone over everything Kavanaugh had worked on in the last year, touching on issues that might be controversial or polarizing, but nothing stood out as a motive for murder or kidnapping.
As he drove to HQ and mulled over the interview with Kavanaugh, he caught the news at the top of the hour, which was the first he’d heard about Sam’s heroics that morning.
“Jesus,” he whispered when he realized how close she’d come to being shot or worse. The radio announcer mentioned a video of the incident from the store that had “already gone viral” and wondered what Sam would think of that. “What does it matter what she thinks?” he said out loud. “She’s nothing to you, and she never will be. Time to get real, buddy.”
But even as he said the words, he knew he wouldn’t rest until he saw with his own eyes that she was truly okay.
* * *
The first thing Sam noticed when Celia pulled into the parking lot at HQ was the horde of reporters gathered outside the main entrance. “Would you mind taking me around the corner to the morgue entrance?” Sam hated to ask because Celia had left Skip at home alone for the twenty minutes it would take to drive Sam to work and return home. Neither of them wanted him alone any longer than necessary.
“No problem.”
“Thanks. Anything to avoid the vultures.”
Celia laughed at that. “So what was going on between you and your father earlier?”
“Nothing. Why?”
“Don’t bullshit me, Sam Cappuano. Spill it.”
Stunned by her stepmother’s rare curse, Sam said, “He’s mad because I didn’t tell him about an old investigation of his that I reopened when he was in the hospital earlier this year.”
“The Fitzgerald case?”
“Yeah,” Sam said, surprised again. “You know about that?”
“Of course I do. He used to talk about it a lot when he was still working. Before...”
Their lives were divided evenly in half—before the shooting and after. “I always forget you two were secretly dating before he was shot.”
Celia’s pretty round face flamed with color as it always did when this topic came up. “We were going to tell you girls. Eventually.”
“I don’t blame you for keeping it to yourselves for as long as you could,” Sam said, thinking of the bombs her ex-husband had attached to her car and Nick’s, which had blown the lid off their secret relationship. “Once everyone knows, it changes things.”
“Yes, it does. Your dad was still very raw over what’d happened with your mother, even though that was years before we met. It’d left him bitter.”
Sam thought of something her sister Tracy had said a few months ago about there being two sides to the story of what’d happened with their parents. They hadn’t discussed it since. While Sam was fine with not knowing her mother’s side of the story, Tracy’s comment rankled nonetheless. She didn’t want to be curious, but she was, and at some point she needed to ask her sister what she’d meant.
Sam hadn’t seen or talked to her mother in more than five years. After her wedding, she’d received a card indicating her mother would like to see her and meet Nick. The overture had been on Sam’s mind in recent months, but she’d yet to act on it. “Anyway, Dad is mad I didn’t tell him we took another look at Fitzgerald.”
“I take it Joe told him?”
“Yes,” Sam said, feeling
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