Page 179 of State of Suspense

“Not now, Mr. President. The children are listening.”

Freddie groaned and put his hands over his ears.

“Got to go. Thanks for the call and for reminding your arrogant AG who he works for.”

“Oh, he knows. Believe me, and I’m quite sure he doesn’t like it, which will need to be dealt with at some point.”

“Power looks sexy on you.”

“Freddie is going to leave you.”

“Nah, he’s stuck with me, and he knows it. I’ll see you soon.”

“Can’t wait. Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

Sam ended the call and put the BlackBerry in her pocket. “Phew. I need a cold shower.”

“Make it stop.”

“He told Cox to cooperate with us, to remember his place and not to hassle the first lady.”

“Wow, that is sexy.”

“Told you.”

“I guess they found out about the warrant for Henry’s cell data.”

“Yep.”

Sam’s cell rang with a private number. While a normal person could ignore calls like that, she never did. “Lieutenant Holland.”

“Reginald Cox.”

Sam mouthed the word Cox to Freddie. That thought nearly had her laughing again.

“What can I do for you?”

“I understand your team has requested a warrant for my assistant’s phone data.”

“Your assistant who’s also your nephew, but no one is supposed to know that? Yes, we did.”

“Why?”

“Because I’d like to know what he was doing when Tom Forrester was killed.” Cox didn’t need to know they had another suspect.

“What? Are you insane? You’re looking at my assistant as a person of interest in a murder investigation?”

“Did I say that?”

“Why else would you want his phone data?”

“To rule him out as a suspect? Have you ever done anything like this before, General Cox?”

“Don’t be snide with me.”

“It was an honest question. You’ve given me reason to wonder if you know how these things work.”

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