Page 171 of State of Alert

It gave her the willies to think of him thirty thousand feet in the air. “Text me when you land.”

“You’ll be the first to know. Love you.”

“Love you, too.” Sam ended that call and used her flip phone to call Andy. When his assistant answered, Sam said, “This is Sam Cappuano. May I please speak to Andy?”

“Are you able to hold for a minute, ma’am? He’s finishing up a meeting.”

“I can hold.”

“Did they put the first lady on hold?” Freddie asked, amused.

“It’s fine. He’s finishing a meeting.”

“Hey, Sam,” Andy said when he came on the line two minutes later. “Sorry to keep you waiting. What’s up?”

Sam told him what Cameron had uncovered about the financials.

Andy let out a low whistle. “Our people had gotten nowhere on cracking the firewall around their financial situation.”

Sam felt a surge of pride for Cameron—and her entire team. She worked with the best of the best, and this was justanother example of their skill. “Will this help to make the case go away?”

“It should. I’m going to call their attorney and let them know if they don’t drop their custody demands, we’ll file a countersuit that’ll make public their precarious financial status and call this the money grab from their orphaned grandchildren that it is.”

“Excellent. Let me know how that goes.”

“I’ll be back to you.”

“Thanks, Andy.” Sam closed the phone and texted Nick on the BlackBerry to update him.

He wrote right back. I’ll let Eli know what’s going on. He’ll be happy to hear this. He’s been very upset.

“This is great news, Sam,” Freddie said. “You must be relieved.”

“I am, but I still want to do whatever it takes to make them go away for good, up to and including adopting the three of them. I can’t go through this every few months. My nerves can’t handle it.”

The BlackBerry buzzed with a text from Eli to her and Nick. He, too, had a BlackBerry so he could talk to Nick securely.

I’m so glad to hear this news, but we have to do something to make it so they can’t do this again. I can’t function when they’re coming after us. Do you think it might be worth a one-time payment to Cleo’s family that would come with some sort of signed agreement to go away and leave us alone?

Nick replied,While I understand the thinking behind that, I’d hate to see you reward them for what’s basically blackmail, especially since they haven’t reached out to any of us to see or talk to the kids for all these months. It would be one thing if they’d stepped up for the kids, but they haven’t. At all.

I agree,Sam said.We offered the opportunity for them to see the kids, and they never made a single overture. They’ve shown us who they really are, following the MURDER of their daughter and son-in-law/sister/brother-in-law. They don’t deserve a dime of your father’s hard-earned money.

I want them to go away, Eli wrote.Whatever it takes.

Let’s leave it to Andy for now,Nick said.We’ll discuss again after he’s had the chance to speak to their attorney. Try not to worry. Our position is solid, and this is an obvious attempt to get at the money. There’s not a judge alive who wouldn’t see it that way. Hang in there, and we’ll keep you posted.

Thanks for everything, guys. Not sure what we’d do without you.

You’ll never have to find out,Sam said.We love you.

What my lovely wife said!

“Everything okay?” Freddie asked.

“Yeah, it’s good. We’re talking to Eli about what Cam found about the grandparents’ financial position, or lack thereof.”

“I can’t believe they’d be shameless enough to come after their orphaned grandchildren’s money.”

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