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“Thank you,” she said, and meant it. She was relieved she didn’t have to do this all alone, and told him as much.
“I will do everything I can to get to the bottom of this,” Charlie said. “I’ll go through this forensics report, see if the FBI missed anything. Go through the cases I sent over to see if something pops. I’ll call O’Dare five times a day if I have to.”
“As well as run the office and supervise staff and chase fugitives and protect the courthouse.”
He chuckled. “We’ll be getting help soon, and the other divisions are picking up slack.”
“Meaning, I don’t know how much time you’ll have. Are you assistant deputy chief now?”
“Yes,” he said. “The director called me last night, asked me to take it. Actually, he asked if I wanted deputy chief, that he’d put my name up for consideration, but that’s a political appointment and I don’t want that headache. I just want to do the job. He understood.”
“So are they going to get someone to replace Steven anytime soon?”
“Hell if I know,” Charlie said. “I suspect they’ll put our district at the top of the list—there are still dozens of vacancies—but I don’t know when.”
There were ninety-four chief deputies, all appointed from ranks of the US Marshals Service, one chief deputy to head each of the ninety-four jurisdictions, which coincided with the federal court jurisdictions.
He glanced at her. “You’re a smart woman, Regan. While there’s a slim chance that Tommy was killed by someone he apprehended, neither of us believe that’s what happened—which is exactly what I told Lillian O’Dare. But they’re going down that path because it’s the most logical, and I can’t disagree with the approach based on the limited information we have.”
“Which means what I find out could put me in danger, just like Tommy. I’ll take precautions.”
“Tommy was one of the smartest cops I knew. He didn’t see what was coming.”
“This isn’t on him,” Regan said. “We don’t knowwhathappened.” When Charlie didn’t say anything, she added, “Charlie, Tommy was doing this forme.”
“You’re missing the point, Regan! He found something that put a target on his back andhe didn’t know it. Heshouldhave known.He should have fucking known!”
There was grief in his tone; anger; accusation; guilt. Violent death was cruel to the dead, but even more to the living, the survivors, the grieving. They both felt an overwhelming emptiness.
When Charlie stopped the car at a light, she put her hand on his shoulder. He was tense. She took solace that she was not alone in her grief, but she wanted to help him as he was helping her.
“Everything is a potential threat,” she said. “I will be cautious.”
Charlie smoothly maneuvered the vehicle through heavy traffic across the bridge back into Alexandria. Regan was grateful they didn’t feel the need to fill the silence with small talk. She needed to collect all the relevant facts and formulate a game plan—though that would start at Tommy’s house.
They passed the Washington Sailing Marina, where she and Grant had often rented a boat to take Chase out for long, lazy, wonderful days on the water.
Grant had wanted to buy a boat, but Regan thought it was an unnecessary luxury and she’d been raised to be frugal. The expense of storing and maintaining a boat would far exceed renting a boat a few times a year. They’d argued about it, but Regan won because she laid out the cost/benefit analysis—clearly, without emotion.
It had been small disagreements like that that had put little wedges in their relationship during their twelve-year marriage. She wasn’t wrong. Neither was Grant. They just looked at the world differently.
As they went by, she caught a glimpse of a young couple taking out a boat from the marina. Regan could almost see Chase sprinting along the dock, wearing an orange life vest, a grin on his lightly freckled face as he hurriedly climbed aboard the boat, ready for an afternoon out on the water. Chase had been so full of life.
“I’ll ride the line as hard as I can, but there are some lines I can’t cross,” Charlie said several minutes later, jerking Regan back into the present.
“I appreciate that.” Her voice sounded odd, trapped in the emotions of the past. “And I won’t put you in a compromising position.”
“If you’re in trouble, call me. Even if you cross that line, call me. You saved my life, Regan. I will never forget that.”
“I’ll never pull that chit, and you know it.”
“That’s not what I meant. Damn, you’re prickly today.”
She rubbed her eyes, squeezed them shut, opened them. Everything looked brighter. “I haven’t slept much since I heard about Tommy.”
“What I meant, what I should have said, is that we’ve worked together for a long time. Hell, you trained me when I was wet behind the ears.”
She laughed, which felt surprisingly good. “You didn’t need much training, and you’re older than me.” Charlie had spent five years in the army before joining the Marshals Service. He was older, but she had seniority. Charlie had been assigned to her for field training when he graduated the FLETC.
