Page 178 of State of Suspense

“Hey, do me a favor, will you? Get with Archie to put together a summary of the Peckham case for the meeting in the morning so we can quickly bring everyone up to speed on who these people are and who we’re looking for.”

“Yep. I’ll text him right now and get on it when we’re back at the house.”

“Thank you.”

The secure BlackBerry she used to communicate with Nick buzzed with a text from the man himself. Can you talk?

Sam put through a call to him.

“Hey, babe. Sorry to bother you when you’re busy.”

“Please bother me.”

“Are you having a day?”

“Every day is a day around here. How about you?”

“Same. I just had a call from Cox.”

“Let me guess. He wants you to rein in your wife.”

“Something like that. He’s extremely upset about your team requesting a warrant for his nephew’s phone. What’s up with that?”

Sam thought for a long moment about what she ought to say.

“Sam?”

“I believe this is something we shouldn’t talk about. For both our sakes.”

“Do I have a problem there?”

“Possibly. That’s all I’m willing to say right now.”

“I understand.”

“Do you? Really?”

“Of course I do. We both have jobs to do, and you don’t need me or anyone who works for me interfering with your work. I told him I expected him to cooperate fully with the investigation into the murder of one of our U.S. Attorneys and to be forthright in all his dealings with you and the MPD.”

“You said that?”

“Yes, I said that.”

Sam fanned her face, not that he could see that. “I’m extremely turned on right now.”

“Oh my hell,” Freddie said loud enough for Nick to hear.

They laughed.

“Poor Freddie,” Nick said. “He’ll never recover from working with you or being friends with us.”

“I know. We ought to start a therapy fund for him.”

“Yes, you really should,” Freddie said.

“Anyway, back to important stuff. Thank you for your support. You shall be richly rewarded later."

“Is that right? Do tell.”

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