Page 185 of State of Denial

“How’s Angela?”

“Coping. She came to grief group the other night, which I saw as a positive sign.”

“I think about her and the kids all the time.”

“I know. Me, too.”

“I won’t keep you. As for the media, tell it to them straight. No sense hiding the details at this point.”

“Anything for you, Uncle Joe.” She left him with a smile and went back to the pit to prep for the briefing.

She went through the reports meticulously written by Archie and Captain Malone on the Gibbons matter and Green and Lucas on the Davies case. When she felt ready, she donned her coat and went outside, taking the press corps by surprise when she appeared for a second briefing of the day.

“I’m here to update you on the status of several matters pertaining to disgraced former Lieutenant Leonard Stahl. As you already know, we’ve begun a review of his past cases after discovering irregularities in the Worthington and Deasly cases. From our review, we’ve uncovered irregularities in another case.”

She went point by point through the Davies case, from the traffic stop that had led to Stahl being suspended for three days to the bogus case he’d made against Davies that had led to Davies being incarcerated for sixteen years on false charges. She went through the whole thing—the woman hired to seduce Davies, the rape kit that tied Davies to the woman and the rest of the sordid story.

A collective gasp went through the group.

“We’re working with the U.S. Attorney and the U.S. District Court to overturn Davies’s conviction. We hope to have more news on that matter shortly. We’ve also learned that in many cases, then-Detective Stahl filed reports containing information gathered from witnesses that didn’t exist or were never interviewed and that many of his open cases were archived to the system reserved for closed cases.”

“Would he have been able to do that himself?” a reporter asked.

“No, and that leads to part two of this briefing. Former IT division Lieutenant William Gibbons has been charged on two felony counts of obstruction of justice for his role in burying Stahl’s misdeeds. We expect there to be additional charges filed against Gibbons once we complete our full review of Stahl’s cases.”

“Why would Gibbons do that?” another reporter asked.

“Stahl had information about Gibbons’s personal life that would’ve resulted in problems for him at home and at work that he used to convince Gibbons to do his bidding. Detectives Cameron Green and Erica Lucas have done exemplary work on the Davies case, while Lieutenant Archelotta and Captain Malone handled the Gibbons case.”

Sam looked up from her notes. “I want to emphasize the departmentwide effort currently under way to correct these transgressions by our former colleagues. Additional charges will be filed against them in these and other matters that may be uncovered as we go forward. On a personal note, I want to say that, with few exceptions, the men and women of the Metro PD work tirelessly every day on behalf of the citizens of the District. It would be a mistake to judge the entire department on the actions of a few bad actors. That’s all I have. Thank you for your time and attention.”

They shouted questions at her as she walked away, but she ignored them as she went inside.

“That was very well done,” Chief Farnsworth said.

“Was it carried live?”

“Any time you do anything, it’s carried live.”

“Huh, I didn’t realize that.”

“You’re a big deal, Lieutenant. A very big deal.”

Sam hoped her disdainful expression let him know what she thought of that.

His laughter confirmed that her message had been received.

“Thanks for taking one for the team,” he said.

“You got it.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Freddie was waiting for her when she returned to the pit. “Would you like to come downstairs with me to break the news to the Cortezes that there’s a video of Pascal killing Liliana Blanchet?”

“I would love to,” Sam said.

They went down the stairs to the city jail, nodded to the sergeant on duty and proceeded to the cell where the couple were being held.

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