Page 113 of State of Grace (First Family 2)

“Not your fault. You didn’t kill him. Did you?”

“Stop! Don’t say that on a line the NSA is probably tracking.”

“They’re not tracking it.”

“I bet they are.”

Laughing, he said, “See you when you get home. This night is looking up.”

“Not for Thorn it isn’t.”

“I’m sorry that happened to him, but I’m not sorry we sued him.”

“Same. See you in a few.”

“I’ll be here.”

Sam ended the call and then used her flip phone to call Captain Malone.

“Hey.” He sounded like he’d been sleeping. “What’s up?”

“So remember how I told you Nick and I are suing the guy who violated the NDA and released the photos of him at the twins’ party?”

“What about it?”

“He’s been murdered by bludgeon.”

“Oh shit.”

“I’ve put Gonzo on lead.”

“Good call.”

“I wanted to let you know it’s apt to be a bit of a thing that he turned up dead shortly after Nick and I sued him.”

“You’ll need to keep your distance from this one.”

“That’s why I put Gonzo in charge. I’ve got my hands full with Pam Tappen, which is going nowhere fast.”

“Let’s start from scratch on that one in the morning. On another note, this afternoon, the chief asked me to talk to you about reopening Stahl’s cases.”

“What about it?”

“He’s not in favor.”

Sam was shocked to hear that. “Why?”

“Because we’ve had all the bad publicity we can handle in the last couple of months. Letting it be known that we have a bunch of badly handled cold cases under review isn’t the coverage we need.”

Sam was truly stunned. “Jeannie is working on a missing-person case in which nothing was done to try to find a teenage girl. Are you saying we need to stop what we’re doing there?”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“I am, and so is he. The last freaking thing we need is coverage of all the shit we’ve screwed up over the years.”

“What about the missing child’s family? What do we owe them?”

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