Fatal Reckoning (Fatal #14)(53)

“The one with the gun has a lengthy sheet.”

“Somehow, I knew you were going to say that.” She closed her eyes and leaned against the cinder block wall, the sound of Roni’s wails audible through the glass doors.

A Patrol officer approached with a woman who was almost as hysterical as Roni. The sister, Sam thought. “I gotta go,” Sam said to Freddie. “I’ll see you back here.”

“We’re on our way in.”

Sam closed the phone. “Rebecca?”

The woman nodded.

“I’m Lieutenant Holland.”

“I know who you are.”

“Would you like me to take you in to see your sister?”

“Is he… Is Patrick…”

“His body is here, yes.”

She covered her mouth as tears flooded her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. “How could this have happened? My God. He was thirty-one and such a good man.”

“I’m so sorry for your loss.”

“What is she supposed to do now? They were so in love. They just got married.” She looked up at Sam. “I don’t know what to say to her.”

“Just be there for her. That’s what she needs right now.”

Nodding, she wiped her tears and tried to pull herself together. When she seemed as ready as she would be, Sam escorted her into the morgue, where she stopped short at the sight of Roni lying over Patrick’s body. Afraid that Rebecca would faint, Sam stayed close to her, just in case.

Darren stood next to Roni, rubbing her back, trying to offer whatever comfort he could while Lindsey hung back to give Roni the space she needed.

“Roni,” Sam said. “Rebecca is here.”

Roni stood upright and launched herself at her sister, the two of them sobbing hysterically.

Sam tipped her head at Darren, and he came with her to the hallway. “We got the guy with the gun.”

“Already?”

Sam filled him in on what Freddie had told her. “Sometimes it’s easy.” Rarely, but it did happen.

“You gotta be kidding me. So a good and decent man is dead because two idiots were fighting over a woman?”

“That’s the gist.”

“How does Roni begin to make sense of this?”

“It’ll never make sense to her.”

Darren sighed and leaned back against the wall. That he wasn’t jumping on the exclusive she’d just handed him said a lot about how deeply the day’s events had affected him. “You and me, we see a lot of crazy shit on our jobs.”

“We do.”

“This…”

“I know.” Patrick Connolly’s murder was right up there with the drive-by shootings, orchestrated by a worthless piece of shit with an ax to grind against the city that had fired him from a low-level job.

“I suppose I should get back to the office to write about this.” He made no move to leave. “Their wedding… One of the best I’ve been to. They were truly happy. That was obvious to everyone who knew them.”

“I’m really sorry this happened to your friends.”

“So am I. Will you email me the report?”

“As soon as I have it.”

Together, they went back into the morgue to let Roni know that they’d gotten the guy who’d fired the gun. The news barely seemed to register with her. What did it matter? Her beloved husband was still dead. Darren hugged Roni, told her he would check on her later and then left to go write the story of his friend’s murder.

Sam waited until the sisters departed before she trudged to the pit, which was deserted because her team had been called out to work on the Connolly case. She went into the conference room, where papers and files were spread out on the table. The murder board had been updated, and she took a closer look to see if there was anything she didn’t already know.

There wasn’t.

Another day, more delays and distractions, not that she would qualify Patrick Connolly’s murder as a distraction, but it had taken her team off her father’s case yet again.

“Hey,” Captain Malone said as he stepped into the conference room and closed the door. “What happened on 12th?”

Sam filled him in on the details she knew thus far.

He shook his head in disbelief. “Just when I think I’ve heard everything.”

“By all accounts, a really good guy. Newly married.”

Malone grimaced. “Taken out by a scumbag who probably should’ve been locked up years ago.”

“Probably.” Sam glanced at the murder board and then at the captain. “Anything new?”

“We found proof that your guy Davis called Conklin every year on the anniversary of the shooting.”

Sam grasped one of the chairs for support. “I don’t understand this.”

“Neither do we. The chief has an appointment with Tom Forrester tomorrow morning.”

“I feel sick.”

“I know that feeling.”

Sam sat because she wasn’t sure she could remain standing. “He was my dad’s friend. Was it all a big lie?”

“I don’t know, but we’re going to find out.”

She thought of the evidence locker that needed to be searched for her dad’s messenger bag. “Faith said something that reminded me of the leather messenger bag that he carried back and forth to work every day. I hadn’t thought of that bag in years, since before the shooting. I can’t find it at the house. I was going to search the evidence locker for it.”