Page 137 of State of Suspense

“I’ll put Lucas and Coheeny on that,” Gonzo said. “Harper is in court today for one of his ongoing cases.”

The mention of court reminded Sam of the hearing Thursday in Spencer’s case. She needed to check in with Angela about whether she planned to attend. Either way, Sam would be there.

“Before you disperse, I want to give you an update on the situation at Stahl’s house,” Farnsworth said. “As of this morning, we’ve recovered fourteen bodies from the yard and four from inside a cell that’d been sealed off with a concrete wall. Haggerty’s team believes it’s possible those victims were still alive when they were imprisoned in that room.”

Sam felt sick at the thought of what they must’ve endured before death claimed them.

“What about the storage unit?” Gonzo asked.

“We’ve hit a dead end,” O’Brien said. “When the new owner took over the facility, Stahl was in arrears on payment for the unit for several months. When he was unable to locate Stahl—because he was in prison—the new owner had the unit cleaned out. That happened months ago. Whatever was in there is long gone.”

“Damn it,” Gonzo said.

“My thoughts exactly,” O’Brien said. “We looked into what it would take to try to track down the contents at the landfill. I made a few calls and learned that there’d be a mountain of shit on top of it by now, and it would be nearly impossible to find anything.”

“Thank you for being thorough, Detective,” Malone said.

“I just wish I had better news.”

While they talked about the storage unit, Sam couldn’t stop thinking about the tomb Stahl had erected in his house of horrors. She felt cold all over as she recalled being wrapped in razor wire and threatened with fire at his hands.

“Sam.”

Freddie’s voice broke through the daze she’d slipped into as past trauma resurfaced.

“Yes?”

“Are you all right?”

“Uh-huh.” She took a deep breath and realized her hands were shaking.

“Get her some water,” Malone said.

Freddie rushed out of the room.

Malone sat next to her.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not, and that’s understandable.”

“We shouldn’t have shared those details when you were in the room,” Farnsworth said regretfully.

“I don’t want to be given special treatment. You know that.”

Malone leaned in. “In this case, you should have all the special treatment.”

“We’ll keep the details away from you going forward,” Farnsworth said.

“That’s not necessary.”

The chief gave her a meaningful look. “It wasn’t a suggestion.”

“Yes, sir.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I’m sick over it, too.” The chief shook his head in disbelief. “It’s reached the point where I have to share details with family members and the public. How do I go out there and tell people what one of our former colleagues has done? Eighteen people. So far…”

“It’s unfathomable that he was doing this while pretending to be a law enforcement officer.”

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