Page 175 of State of Retribution

“Sure you did.”Avery patted his chest.“Glad I recorded our conversation.I’m sure the USA will find it helpful.”

“You can’t record me without my permission.”

“You were read your rights, and you certainly know by now that anything you say can and will be used against you.See you in court, Jim.Oh, and I hope you have a great time in prison.They love ex-cops in there.I’m sure you’ll be given the treatment you richly deserve.Word to the wise: Watch your back.”

“Fuck you!Fuck Holland and the whole bunch of you!”

Avery walked out of the room while Ramsey was still yelling at him.“He’s all yours,” he said to the two agents as he pulled out his phone to call in the new info to his team, eager to end this madness once and for all.

Chapter Thirty-Six

“I’ve spent the last two days trying to track down Hector Reese,” Gonzo said, “hoping to find out more about who put him up to going public when he did—even though we know who did it.Interestingly, after being all over the airwaves for days, he’s disappeared, which is probably intentional.I’ll stay on it.”

“Thanks for trying.”Sam wasn’t surprised to hear that Reese had made himself hard to find after putting the incident with her on blast and filing suit against her and the department.“Maybe contact the attorney who filed the lawsuit.”

“I’ve left two messages for him.”

“Per your request, Lieutenant,” Detective Charles said, “we’ve compiled as much information as we could find on both men.Who do you want to hear about first?”

“Offenbach,” Sam said when her team was seated around the conference room table.

“Detective O’Brien will brief us on him,” Charles said.“Matt?”

He stood and took the video controller from Charles.A smiling photo of Offenbach from the MPD website came on the screen.“Dylan James Offenbach, age thirty-seven, a twelve-year member of the MPD until this week, when he was put on administrative leave for making threats against the president, the first family and his MPD colleagues.He’s the eldest of three sons born to David and Ellen Offenbach.Incidentally, his father was a sharpshooter in the Marine Corps and retired as a colonel.

“Prior to his tenure with the MPD, Dylan did four years in the Marine Corps, where he was ranked as an expert marksman, which is the highest ranking they give.In addition, he was a certified instructor from the Armed Defense Training Association.Offenbach graduated first in his class from the police academy and holds a Distinguished Expert designation from the National Rifle Association, which is the highest rating the organization grants.”

“Those were all things I didn’t know about him,” Sam said.

“He married his high school sweetheart, Laura Taylor, when they were twenty-one.The two had six children before divorcing last year.The kids are Micha, age 11, Mathias, 9, Miranda, 8, Madeline, 6, Maddox, 4, and Maverick, 1.”

“Those poor kids,” Freddie said.“Having to grow up with this tied to their name.”

“They have a lovely mother,” Sam said, “who’s in the process of changing her name and theirs to her maiden name.I’m sure she’ll protect them from their father’s crimes as much as she can.Dr.Trulo will help her find therapists for herself and the kids.I think they’ll be okay in time.”

“I hope so,” Freddie said.

Matt handed Neveah the controller and took a seat.

“James Ramsey,” Neveah said, “age forty-seven, a nineteen-year veteran of the MPD, with thirteen of those years in the Special Victims Unit.Before joining the MPD, he did six years in the Army, where he drove a tank in an infantry unit.Ramsey had ten years on the job before he made detective and sixteen years in before he made sergeant.According to several officers who entered the department around the same time as Ramsey, it was assumed he was passed over for promotions due to his aggressive communication style with colleagues and members of the public.

“One officer referred to him as the bull in the china shop of SVU, indicating he was a poor fit for the unit.An SVU colleague described him as a liability who often made bad situations worse for the victims they worked with.He’d been written up numerous times for inappropriate conduct.

“At the time of his capture at Offenbach’s farm in Herndon, he was facing numerous felony charges from when he rammed the lieutenant’s Secret Service SUV, as well as the disruption of Tom Forrester’s funeral and other miscellaneous charges pertaining to ransacking the lieutenant’s office and threatening her with assault.Until last year, he’d been married to Marlene Ramsey for thirty years.In addition to their son Shane, who was killed in a shootout with MPD after being accused of numerous crimes, including sexual assault and murder, they have a twenty-eight-year-old daughter named Kerry, a twenty-five-year-old son named William, and a twenty-two-year-old daughter named Rachel.”

As Sam listened to the rundown on Ramsey, she felt for the family that’d been put through hell all because of a man who couldn’t handle not succeeding at work the way he thought he should have.It was so exhausting, but thankfully, he was now permanently gone, as he’d spend the rest of his life in prison for threatening to kill the president.

If there was any silver lining to the wordsassassination threat, that was it.

“You guys did a great job with these reports.If you forward them to me, I’ll send them to Avery Hill to share with his team.You never know what detail will make a difference to the investigation.”

“I have a question,” Charles said.“You mentioned that Ramsey and Offenbach planned to make Ruby Ridge look like a Cub Scout meeting.What does that mean?”

“Oh God,” Sam said with a groan.“Way to make me feel old.”

Charles smiled.“Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine.We studied this in my criminal justice program in college.It refers to an eleven-day standoff in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, involving the U.S.Marshals and the FBI and a self-proclaimed white separatist named Randy Weaver.The marshals had been serving a warrant on Weaver, who was holed up with his family and a friend and refused to surrender.In the end, a marshal was killed, along with Weaver’s wife and son.The agencies involved were criticized for their handling of the incident, and it set off a national debate on the use of force.That, coupled with a similar standoff in Waco, which was even worse, was cited as the motivation for the Oklahoma City Bombing.”

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