Fatal Reckoning (Fatal #14)(24)
Celia acknowledged her words with a tearful smile, full of the love she normally directed Sam’s way.
Sam fixed her gaze on the honey-colored wood coffin. “To you, Dad, I say rest in peace and dance like a fool in the arms of your heavenly Father.” She saluted him. “Deputy Chief Holland, thank you for your dedicated service to the Metropolitan Police Department, the District of Columbia and its citizens. We’ve got the watch from here, sir.”
She held the salute for a full thirty seconds, during which she vowed to devote every ounce of energy, heart and soul she had to finding the person who’d put him in that box.
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE MPD AND Secret Service did a masterful job of getting the family and their closest friends into the cemetery with a minimal amount of fuss. Skip was officially laid to rest in a spot he had chosen himself. When the time came, Celia would be buried alongside him. Sam appreciated that his final resting spot was only a short distance from Ninth Street. She took comfort in knowing he would continue to be close by as he had been all her life.
At the conclusion of the service, Reverend Swain hugged each of them and told Celia he’d be by to see her in the next few days.
Sam hugged each member of her squad and thanked them for being Skip’s honor guard.
“It was an honor, Lieutenant,” Detective Jeannie McBride said tearfully. “Thank you for asking us.”
The others walked away to give the family a few final minutes with Skip.
Flanked by her sisters, Celia stepped forward to place a red rose on his casket. Then she stepped back so his daughters, sons-in-law and grandchildren could place their flowers. Watching her nephew Jack, in his father’s arms, place that rose on his grandfather’s casket was almost more than Sam could bear. She had to look away.
She’d had a lifelong aversion to cemeteries, and now was no different. After she, Scotty and Nick had placed their flowers, she took Nick’s hand and let him lead her back to the car, relieved to get the hell out of there even if it was painful to leave her father behind.
The motorcade left the cemetery and conveyed them to the Hay-Adams.
“I remember this place.” Scotty smiled at them when the iconic hotel came into view.
Nick’s eyes twinkled as he glanced at Sam. “We had a little party here once.”
She appreciated their attempt to bring some levity to a difficult day. “You were brilliant today, Scotty. Your words about Gramps meant so much to all of us.”
“Thanks, Mom. I hope he would’ve liked it.”
“He would’ve loved it. I have no doubt.”
“Yours was really good too,” Scotty said.
“I’m glad you thought so.”
“It’s crazy how many police officers came from all over for him.”
“More than ten thousand.”
“Wow. That’s amazing.”
“Anytime an officer is killed in the line of duty, the rest of the thin blue line shows up in force.”
“What does that mean?” Scotty asked. “Thin blue line?”
“Law enforcement is known as the symbolic thin blue line that stands between order and chaos in our society.”
He appeared to give that concept serious thought. “You said Grandpa Skip was killed in the line of duty, but he was retired.”
“He was definitely killed in the line of duty. It just took four years for him to die from his injuries.”
“I see. Are you going after the person who shot him?”
“You know it. With the case elevated to homicide status, that puts it under my purview. We’ll be taking a fresh look starting tomorrow.”
“Don’t you think you should take a few days before you go back to work, babe?”
“No.”
Nick raised a brow. “Just no?”
“Just no.”
“Ruh-roh,” Scotty said.
“I’ve heard from Freddie and Malone that the tip line has received some new information. No time like the present to seize the day while his death is still fresh in the minds of people who know what happened to him.”
“We’ll talk about it later,” Nick said.
“Nothing to talk about. I’m going back to work tomorrow.”
They pulled up to the Hay-Adams a minute later, ending the conversation for now. Sam had full confidence that she and Nick would go-around about it again later, but she was not relenting. She fairly burned with the need for justice on her father’s behalf, like she had at the beginning, when it first happened. Then, she’d been driven almost to madness tracking down every lead and clue that had led nowhere.
A busy life and the unrelenting pace of murder in the city had pushed her father’s case to the back burner, where it had remained on simmer. Now it was time to turn up the heat again and bring it to a boil once and for all.
The Secret Service asked them to wait until they could clear the lobby to bring them in, so they sat in the car and watched one familiar face after another go by.
“It’s weird that this is our party and we’re the only ones who can’t go in,” Scotty said.
“You should’ve seen how it was in Europe,” Nick said. “I had to wait everywhere we went. Once for an hour until they were satisfied.”