Page 110 of State of Retribution

Sam had to force herself to remain seated, to not leave the office and go beat the truth out of Offenbach.She was so outraged that she was quite certain she could beat the hell out of him, not that she ever would.“He knows I’m in here talking to you.What else would it be about?”

“I told him I have info about Stahl that I’m passing on to you and to not say a fucking word to you when you stopped by.He hates me almost as much as he hates you because they promoted me to sergeant after he was demoted.I went from being his subordinate to being his boss.”

“We need a way to get people like him, Stahl and Ramsey the fuck out of here when they start becoming the problem.”

“I agree, but he has rights, don’t you know, and the union that protects us all also protects the bad apples.”

“That’s so fucking wrong.”She glanced up at the sergeant.“The minute I make this info available to the Feds, he’ll know you told me this.”

Fitzgivens shrugged.“I don’t give a flying fuck what he thinks.If he tried to assassinate a fellow police officer, not to mention the president of the United States and a lawn full of innocent kids, I could live with myself if he blames me.”

“Do you honestly think he’s capable of such things?”

“I wish I could say for sure he isn’t, but because I can’t, here we are.”

“Thank you,” Sam said, her voice gruff with emotion.“Thank you so much.”

He nodded.“Be careful.He’s unhinged and can shoot like no one I’ve ever seen.If by any chance it was him yesterday, he missed only because he intended to.”

She swallowed hard at the idea of a fellow police officer shooting at her on the job and injuring Jimmy, who was lucky to be alive.It was almost too big to process.“Do you know where he was at the time of the shooting?”

“I know where he told me he was—tracking down a cache of stolen weapons on Southeast.”

“We can seize his phone and check his location.”

“Let the Feds do that.Steer clear of this, Lieutenant.If it was him, you shouldn’t be anywhere near it.”

“Yes, you’re right.Thank you again, Sergeant.I’ll never forget the risk you took to tell me this.”

“Can you go out there and walk by him and not show him a damned thing?”

She took another deep, trembling breath and blew it out slowly.“Yeah, I can do that.Let’s be laughing when I open the door.”

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

“Pettiness ranks right up there with sarcasm as among my favorite traits in a coworker.”

He smiled.“Likewise.Are you ready?”

“Say something funny.”

“Offenbach’s wife got lucky when he cheated on her.”

The laughter came naturally as she opened the door and stepped out of his office and into the grouping of cubicles where his team worked.

Sam felt the heat of Offenbach’s stare on her as she nodded to two of the other officers and walked by him, chuckling, but never so much as glancing in his direction.

She kept her head down as she walked to the pit, feeling as if it would take nothing at all to shatter her composure.

“I want to know why that guy hates you, and I want to know right now,” Vernon said.“He never blinked the whole time you were in that office.”

“Sam,” Freddie called to her.

Without acknowledging either of them, she went straight into her office, shut and locked the door and sat behind the desk.She had no idea how long she sat there, staring at the dented file cabinet before she pulled her phone out of her pocket and called Avery Hill, praying he was in a place where he could take the call right fucking now.

“Hey,” Hill said.“What’s up?”

“Something too big to be believed.”

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