Page 139 of State of Suspense

He wrote back ten minutes later. Always.

I’m in the field but will check in when I’m back at the house.

I’ll be here all day.

Thanks, Doc.

“I’ll see him later,” she told Freddie.

“Good.”

“Don’t worry about me, okay? It was a shock, but I’m over it.”

“Are you? How does anyone ever get over what he did to you, let alone the rest of what we know now?”

“I have to get over it, or I can’t function on the job or at home. I can’t dwell on the bad stuff. I just can’t. I hardly ever think of it anymore, until something happens that brings it up again.”

“You shouldn’t be anywhere near this new investigation with him.”

“The chief said the same thing—and added it wasn’t a suggestion.”

“That’s just as well. You know that, right?”

“I do. A few years ago, I would’ve objected to being sidelined. But now? I have a family to think about, multiple jobs to do, and I have to protect myself from things that’ll make it impossible to get shit done.”

“I’m glad you’re thinking that way.”

She put her hand on his arm. “I’m fine. I swear. Let’s get our heads back in the game, okay?”

“Sure thing.”

“I appreciate you.”

“Same. I hate to see that guy hurting you any more than he already has.”

“Hopefully, after all this, we’ll have seen the end of him.” Even as she said that, she feared they might never see the end of Stahl.

“We’ll lock him away and toss the key.”

Sam gave his arm a squeeze and then released him, determined to take the time it took to get to Jessup to get her head straight and be ready to face off with the scumbags who’d threatened Shelby and Noah.

Thinking about the terror of that day made her so furious that she was able to push aside everything else to focus on justice for people she cared about.

Chapter Twenty-Three

“Refresh my memory on these reprobates,” Sam said as they got closer to the Maryland state prison.

Freddie consulted notes on his phone. “Willy and Justice Peckham were the ringleaders of a massive gun trafficking organization. They also specialized in defrauding the federal government. If there was a way to scam money from Medicaid or other aid programs, they found it and exploited it. They got away with it for a long time, until a federal task force, led by Avery, took them down years ago.

“Justice died in prison, and Willy married a much younger woman named Amber while he was in prison. Willy was sentenced to fifteen years, served twelve and was recently paroled. From what we can tell, Amber picked up Willy when he got out, and they went straight to Avery’s home, looking for revenge.”

“Avery referred to it as the Farmington investigation. Why was it called that?”

Freddie poked around on his phone for a minute. “It was named for the person who first brought the fraud to the attention of federal officials.”

“Ah, I see. You just gotta wonder what motivates people. Willy Peckham and his family were guilty as sin, they knew that, and yet, when they were caught, it wasn’t their fault. Oh no, it was the FBI agent who led the investigation that shut down their sugar shack. It was all his fault.”

“I know, right?” Freddie said. “And when Willy is paroled after years in prison, rather than go home, humbled by the experience, he decides to go after the guy who put them there, hold his pregnant wife and his son hostage, and end up right back in jail less than forty-eight hours after he got out. We’re not talking about the sharpest tools in the shed here.”

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