Page 54 of State of the Union (First Family 3)

“My brother lives locally. I could call him.”

“Ask him to meet us at MPD Headquarters.”

He nodded and placed the call.

Sam tried to tune out what he was saying and the fresh wave of grief that came with telling his brother the dreadful news. She stepped out of the apartment to give him a minute and leaned her head back against the wall, drained by the emotional tsunami that came with murder.

She took a second to check both her phones and found a new message from Nick. Landed at the WH. See you when you get home.

That gave her one less thing to worry about. Will be home soon, she responded.

Wes emerged from the apartment, wearing a winter coat, with his keys and phone in hand.

Sam pushed off the wall, led him downstairs to her car and got him settled in the back seat.

Freddie walked toward her, on the phone. “We’ll be there shortly. Will do.” He stashed the phone in his pocket. “She’ll be ready for us.”

“Let’s get this done.”

On the way to HQ, they drove through lighter-than-usual traffic, a sign that a storm was coming and people were most likely in panic mode. If there was so much as an inch of snow in the region, the grocery store shelves were cleared and school canceled. A blizzard would be treated like Armageddon.

Normally, she and Freddie would laugh about the panic surrounding a snowstorm, but they were silent as they drove Wes to HQ.

Sam pulled up outside the morgue entrance and glanced at Freddie.

“Be right back,” he said.

He would make sure Lindsey was ready for them so they didn’t have to drag this out for Wes.

“Who could’ve done this?” Wes asked, breaking the long silence.

Sam looked at him in the rearview mirror. “We don’t know yet, but we’re going to find out.”

“How will you do that?”

That was a question she was rarely asked by grieving family members, who often didn’t have the capacity to wonder how an investigation would unfold. “We’ll begin with physical evidence collected during the autopsy as well as crime scene evidence, witness statements and video surveillance of the area. There are security cameras all over town. We’ll take it one step at a time, one puzzle piece at a time, until we have the full picture of what happened.”

“What if you can’t find him?”

“We’ll find him.”

“Did he rape her?”

“We believe so. Her pants and underwear were around her ankles.”

His sharp inhale was his only response to that news.

Freddie came to the door and waved them in.

“Are you ready to go in?”

“No, I’m not,” he said, but he got out of the car and walked inside with Sam.

At the door to the morgue, Sam turned to him. “When we go in, Dr. McNamara, the chief medical examiner, will ask you to identify Audrey. You’ll see only her face. Do you have any questions?”

“No.”

Sam stepped forward to activate the automatic doors to the morgue. As usual, the antiseptic smell of the place triggered her aversion to this hideous task. “Wes, this is Dr. McNamara. Lindsey, this is Audrey’s boyfriend, Wes.”

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