Page 59 of State of the Union (First Family 3)

“As long as you take some downtime, too.”

“I will.” Sam looked up at the man who’d been so much more than a boss to her. “So, you’re not pissed with me anymore?”

“When did I say that?”

“All righty, then.”

“You and McBride defied a direct order. That won’t be soon forgotten.”

“She found ten missing kids.” Sam shrugged. “I’d do it again if I had it to do over.”

“Good to know.” He ran his fingers through his gray hair, frustration rolling off him in waves. “I’m trying to keep our chief from being fired, Sam. Do you get that?”

“I do, but I also have to support my team, and Jeannie was too far down the road with this case to let it go. At the end of the day, we have to be able to look ourselves in the mirror and like what we’re seeing.”

“I get that. I really do, but the firestorm is so not what we need right now.”

“I’m sorry about that. I truly am. The last thing in the world I want is for the chief to get fired or be under any more scrutiny than he already is. But we had to see this through. I can only hope that the lives saved will outweigh the other side of the story.”

“The side in which we were incompetent for eleven years and let this woman continue to kidnap and torture children? You think anything is going to outweigh that?”

“We weren’t incompetent. One member of our department was.”

“One is all it takes, Sam. You know that as well as I do. The U.S. Attorney is calling for a review of all of Stahl’s cases, including his successful prosecutions.”

Sam gasped. “Everything?”

“Every fucking thing. If he cut corners on cases he didn’t bother to investigate, what did he do with the ones he did investigate?”

Her stomach began to hurt again. “I… uh… wow. I don’t even know what to say.”

“This could get very, very ugly, but I don’t have to tell you that.”

“No, you don’t. Jeez… What a mess.”

“Another mess, you mean.”

“Yeah.” She looked up at him. “We can’t change what was done in the past, but we can sure as hell do whatever we can to make things right.”

He nodded but seemed as low as she’d ever seen him. “This happened on my watch, on Joe’s, your dad’s. We’re all going to take a hit, so you need to be ready for people coming for your dad.”

She would never be ready for that. “No one despised Stahl more than he did.”

“Maybe so, but it was still his job at one time or another to supervise him, just as it was my job and Joe’s. We’re all on the hook for this.”

“Let’s do an interview with Darren about how horrified we are and how horrified my dad would be to know what Stahl was really doing while he was filing false reports about his efforts.” Since Sam never voluntarily did anything with the media, the idea got his attention. “We can say there’s never been a day that we didn’t come here and do our very best for the people of this District. That kind of thing. If we get out ahead of it, we might stanch the bleeding a bit. And we can praise Jeannie for the rescue of Carisma and the other children.”

“It’s not a terrible idea. I’ll pitch it to Joe.” He seemed considerably brighter than he had a second ago.

“It always helps to have a plan.”

“Yes, it does, and it’s a good one. I’m sure he’ll go for it.”

“Let me know, and I’ll set it up with Darren.”

“Are you going home?”

“As soon as I give Dani and Gigi their marching orders. Gigi is back tonight.”

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