Page 92 of State of Retribution

“Just great.We added to the victim count overnight.”

“I was just reading the report.It’s tragic.”

“I think all these things might be related.”

“All what things?”

“The four murders, the drones, the abduction of Archie’s friend, the shooting yesterday.”

“What’s the common thread?”

“Me.”

“I don’t get it.”

“What if someone is killing people because they know I’ll do exactly what I do every time?What if that person is using me to get at Nick with the thought being, if something happens to me, he’d resign?Or if they shoot and nearly kill an agent on my detail, it’ll run me out of the MPD?I’m not sure which one of us they’re after.Perhaps both.”

“That’s insane.There’re a million other ways to run Nick out of office, if that’s the goal.”

“This would be the quickest.Think about all the publicity we get for our mushy marriage, fromSaturday Night Liveto political cartoons to nonstop coverage in the celebrity news of everything we do and say.The whole world knows I’m his Achilles’ heel and that it wouldn’t take much to get to him through me.”

“It’s preposterous, Sam.”

“Murder often is.Think about it, Cap.From the day he took the oath, what’s been the undercurrent that surrounds him?He’s too young, too inexperienced, unelected, illegitimate.It goes on and on.Even the Joint Chiefs of Staff betrayed him.Why in the world is it preposterous to think someone would try to get at me to push him over the edge and out of office?”

“When you put it like that, it seems less preposterous than it was at the outset.”

“Someone else whose opinion I trust put a different spin on it.What if it’s someone who wants me off the job, and it has nothing at all to do with Nick?”

“You’re saying someone wants that badly enough to kill four people, kidnap and assault another, send drones to the White House and shoot a Secret Service agent?”

“If there’s one thing we know after all these years on the job, it’s that anything is possible.”

“I don’t know, Sam.It still feels like a reach to me, especially the part about someone wanting to run you out of here.”

“I’ve made a list of all the people who’d potentially be part of something like this—his people and mine.I want a dump of Ramsey’s phone from the weeks leading up to his most recent arrest.He’d be an excellent consultant for filling in the blanks of how I work and what we do whenever we have a new case to investigate.”

“I’ll request a warrant.”

“So you think this theory has merit?”

“I’m reserving judgment until you get me some proof.Until then, let’s keep working the cases and putting the pieces together.”

“I’ll do what I can from here and consult with the others on next steps.”

“Sounds good.”

“Cap.”

“Yeah?”

“You promised you’d tell me if I became too much of a distraction on the job.”

“Yes, I did.”

“Are we there yet?”

“Not as far as I’m concerned.I’d still rather have you and everything that comes with you in that role than anyone else.”

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