Page 112 of State of Retribution

“You didn’t do anything.This is on me.”

“I was well aware of what you intended to do and didn’t stop it because I wanted the same answers you did.”After Hector’s brother, Clarence, had killed his family and then taken off, detectives had found news clippings and other information about the unsolved shooting of Skip Holland.

Sam had gone into that room with Hector, wanting to know where his brother would hide out after having shot Freddie and what Clarence had to do with shooting her father.She’d taken her panic over Freddie’s close call and years of frustration, emotion and grief over her dad’s unsolved case into that room with her and wasn’t proud of how she’d treated the man.Thank God she’d ordered him uncuffed before the interrogation.

“This will ruin me,” she whispered.

“Worst-case scenario is a slap on the wrist from the department for something that happened years ago.”

“You really think so?Because I can see it being a much bigger deal than that.”

“Let’s see what the lawyers advise before we say or do anything.”

Sam felt like she might be having a heart attack as the events of the last hour landed with swift, devastating precision.“Someone is trying to take me down, Cap.Any way they can.”

“It’s starting to seem that way.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

The Hector Reese story exploded with the force of ten tons of TNT, or that’s how it seemed to Sam, who was immediately at the center of a firestorm she’d never seen coming.Reese was on the cable news shows, telling the world how she’d beaten him while he was in police custody.

“Now I don’t want to say this was a racist attack, but I can’t say for certain that it wasn’t,” he said in one interview.

“Oh my God,” Freddie whispered as he stood next to her in the conference room, watching the bloodbath unfold.

“Do you know why Lieutenant Holland did this?”

“She was looking for my brother, Clarence, who’d killed his family and then ran away.She said something about her father’s shooting, but I didn’t know nothing about that, and neither did my brother.”

“Can you detail the extent of your injuries after your encounter with her?”

“I had a bruised face from where she slapped me hard, bruised ribs, and for a time, they thought they might have to remove my spleen after she punched me in the gut twice, but that didn’t end up happening.I was in a lot of pain for weeks, mostly because of the ribs.”

“Did you fight back?”

“Nah.”

“Why not?”

“My mama taught me to never hit a woman, even if she was a bitch cop.”

Sam watched the interview in a state of disbelief.Shit.Fuck.Damn.Hell.

The anchor looked into the camera when she said, in the gravest possible tone, “Our requests for comment from the MPD and the White House have gone unanswered.”

“Detective Cruz,” Chief Farnsworth said from behind them.

They spun around to face him.

“Please give us the room.”

“Yes, sir,” Freddie said, casting a trepidatious glance at Sam before he walked out and closed the door.

“Well, this is a fine mess we find ourselves in,” the chief said, his expression lacking the usual affection and humor she’d come to expect.

“I’m sorry, sir.This… It happened a long time ago…”

“I’m afraid I’m going to need an explanation, because it’s unfathomable to me that you’d assault a man in our custody.”

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