Page 116 of State of Alert

“Got it.”

“Thank you, Neveah.”

“You’re welcome, Sam.”

Sam laughed to herself after Neveah left the office.

Freddie came to the door. “Are we going to see Jada’s friend’s mom at the USDA?”

“Yes, let’s do it.”

Trina Gauthier workedfor the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service in the office of the administrator, located in the Jamie L. Whitten Federal Building on Independence Avenue.

When they arrived, a security officer showed them to a first-floor conference room and said Trina would be right with them. Unlike the usual security rodeo performed at federal buildings, this one had been quite simple to access, with no scanners or requests to turn over their weapons.

“They must not get many visitors here,” Freddie said.

“You read my mind.”

“Ew.”

Sam laughed. “It’s not my fault that I’ve got you so well trained that you think the same thoughts I do.”

“I donotthink the same thoughts you do, and if you tell anyone I do, I’ll quit you so fast.”

“Haha, you will not. You love me too much to quit me.”

“Ew.”

The sound of footsteps approaching had them straightening up and slipping back into professional mode.

“They told me the first lady was here to see me, but I didn’t believe it,” Trina said when she came into the room, wearing a gray suit with a pink blouse. She was pretty, with short, curly blonde hair and blue eyes framed by extravagant lashes.

Sam showed her badge while Freddie did the same. “Lieutenant Holland and Detective Cruz. We understand Jada Myerson spent Sunday with you and your husband.”

“She did. We left around eight in the morning and got home shortly after eight that evening. It was a long day, but the girls appreciated seeing the sites they’re writing about for their Civil War project. Jada was still with us when she got the call from Frank about Elaine.”

“Do you know Jada well?”

“We do. She and our Ali have been friends since third grade. She regularly sleeps at our house, and Ali sleeps at hers. We love Jada like one of our own.”

“Was she her usual self on Sunday?”

“Yes, the girls were laughing and talking the way they always do, in their own special language. My husband and I were saying afterward that they never took a breath all day, or so it seemed to us.”

“Has she said anything to you about the tension at home?”

“Yes,” Trina said, deflating ever so slightly. “And I’d talked to Elaine about it at one point. She struggled terribly with letting the girls out of her sight, which I totally understood after what happened to her sister.”

“How long ago did she tell you about her sister?”

“Long time. When the girls were very young. I think that it was the defining event of her life.”

Of course it was,Sam thought. “Did Jada ever express frustration about her mother to you?”

“Often,” Trina said. “While she tried to be understanding of why her mother was the way she was, in reality, Jada and Zoe never knew their aunt and didn’t have an emotional connection to what happened to her before they were born. In the way thatkids can be, they were focused on their own lives and didn’t have clear perspective on what their mother had endured in losing her sister so traumatically.”

Sam, who was taking notes, thought that was an excellent summary of the way teenagers seemed to think.

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