Page 29 of State of Grace (First Family 2)

“She wasn’t reported missing?”

“No, she wasn’t. I guess it wasn’t unusual for her to go silent when she was working at a conference, which was what she did for a living. Her company supported conference events.”

“And she didn’t talk to her family at all?”

“Nope.”

“That’s weird.”

“See, I thought so, too. I can’t for the life of me picture going a whole weekend without talking to you or Scotty or the twins. Or even my sisters and my dad, when he was still here.”

“I’d hunt you down before I’d go a weekend without talking to you. I’d be twitching after twelve hours.”

“Same, but we’re strange that way.”

“I like our kind of strange. It works for me.”

“Me, too. How are things there?”

“I just checked the kids, and everyone is asleep. In other news, I’m already getting serious pushback on my comments from earlier, but I’m not backing down from them. We absolutely must attack the mental health element behind the violence in this country.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

“It hasn’t been made public yet, but the gunman had a history of violent episodes that had led his family on more than one occasion to ask to have him held for psych evals. He was never held for longer than seventy-two hours because he refused treatment every time. And then he managed to get his hands on a gun and do what he did today. The people closest to him believe his goal was to be killed by the police, which is what happened.”

“The thing I never understand is if he’s looking to end his own life, why does he have to take innocent people with him?”

“I don’t understand that either. If he wanted to kill himself, as horrible as that is, I suppose that’s his right, but he certainly didn’t have the right to take others with him.”

“No, he didn’t. My heart is hurting for all the families that were forever broken by his selfish actions.”

“Are you going to head up my mental health task force?” Nick asked.

“I’ve been thinking about that, and I’d like to be involved, but I don’t think I can be the chair. Maybe we should ask Dr. Trulo? As the department psychiatrist for close to thirty years, he’s seen it all and would be better positioned to oversee it.”

“That’s a brilliant idea. If you text me his number, I’ll give him a call.”

“You’ll give him a heart attack if you call him. At least let me warn him.”

Nick’s soft laughter made her smile as only he could. “Go ahead and give him a heads-up that he’s going to hear from me.”

“I’ll do that, and I’ll send you his number.”

“Thank you. Are you there all night?”

“Probably not, but for a while longer. Oh, and get this… We think Ramsey tossed my office.”

“How did he get into your office?”

“He must’ve picked the lock somehow. Everything is on the floor. A total mess. Malone has Crime Scene processing it.”

“Why do you think it was him?”

“Because he was skulking around and cornered me in the vending area.”

“Cornered you. What does that mean?”

Sam immediately regretted sharing that detail. “He tried to start something with me, but I definitely got the upper hand, and then Malone came along and told him to fuck off.”

---