Page 138 of State of Grace (First Family 2)

“That’s a source of tremendous comfort to me and to Nick.”

Lindsey flashed a grin that made her eyes sparkle. “We’re all looking forward to the sleepover on Christmas Eve. That’s going to be epic.”

“I can’t wait. It’s going to be so fun to dress up and be together after these insane last few months.”

“Tell me the truth. Who gets the Lincoln Bedroom?”

“You’ll see,” Sam said with a coy smile as she left her friend to get back to work.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Sam returned to the pit, where Gonzo watched as Patrol officers escorted Tiffany Thorn into interrogation.

“Can’t help but notice that a night in jail and the orange jumpsuit seem to have taken some of the starch out of her spine,” Gonzo said.

“Happens to the best of them,” Sam replied.

“And the worst. Charity Miller is in the observation room,” he said of the Assistant U.S. Attorney who’d prosecute the case against Tiffany. “I’m just waiting for Archie to bring me his report on text messages from her phone that he says I’m going to enjoy very much.”

“Here it is,” Archie said as he came into the pit with a printout he handed to Gonzo. “I’ve highlighted the good parts where she talks to her Salvadoran gardener, Holman Aguilar, in very bad Spanish as she tries to convince him that her husband beat her and her son and needed to be dealt with. You’ll also note she was banging the gardener on the side and promised to give him some rather salacious favors if he did this ‘one small thing’ for her.”

Gonzo scanned the messages that added to the growing murder-for-hire case against Tiffany Thorn. “Wow, she promised him anal if he took care of her husband. ‘That’s something even he has never gotten,’ she told the gardener.”

“It gets better,” Archie said. “Wait until you get to the part where she promises to marry him and help him get his green card if he’ll only get her husband out of the way.”

“Wow, she sure did make it easy for us,” Gonzo said. “Thanks, Archie. This is awesome.”

“My pleasure. I took the liberty of providing a list of pings for his phone that put him at the Thorns’ at nine ten last night. I figured you’d want his whereabouts today, and here’s that report. The first ping is his home address in Northeast. The others are other homes in the Thorns’ neighborhood.”

“Great work, Archie,” Sam said. “Thank you.”

“You got it. We’re still working on the expanded search for Pam Tappen’s route from her home last Friday,” he said as he headed for the stairs to his IT kingdom upstairs. “I’ll let you know if we find anything.”

“McBride.” Gonzo held up the page with the pings from Aguilar’s phone. “Can you and O’Brien pick up Holman Aguilar on suspicion of murder for hire?”

Jeannie took the page from him. “Sure thing. Let’s go, Matt.”

“Thanks.” Gonzo glanced at Sam. “You want to join me in there? After all, she accused you and Nick of murdering her husband when she knew all along who’d done it.”

“Nah, take Cam. I’ll watch from observation. You guys have got this locked and loaded.”

“She did all the heavy lifting for us.”

“Hey, Gonzo?” Sam said when he’d started to walk away.

“Yeah?”

“It’s so, so nice to have you back. We missed you more than you’ll ever know.”

“Thanks. It’s nice to feel more like my old self.” He rubbed at a spot on his chest. “Albeit with a great big hole right here that I’m learning to live with.”

A lump filled her throat whenever she thought of Detective Arnold and his violent death. “What do you want to do for the one-year anniversary?”

“I thought maybe we could all go out somewhere—not O’Leary’s,” Gonzo said, frowning. That place was dead to them after they’d learned the owner had been involved in the shooting of Sam’s dad. “We need a new place.”

“We could do it at my place so Nick can come,” she said with a sheepish grin. “The service is second to none.”

“That sounds perfect,” Gonzo said. “He would’ve been so stoked to see you guys living there.”

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