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“Which is too bad.”
“I know,” Gigi said with a sigh.
“I’ve worked with a lot of great women on this job. You’re one of them. I wrote a letter to the IAB board to tell them that. I hope it helps.”
A huge lump formed in her throat. “Thank you, Doc. That means the world to me.”
“You did what any of us would’ve done under the circumstances. You defended yourself, and you survived. Stay strong.”
“I will. Thanks again.”
“My pleasure. I’m rooting for you to be back where you belong very soon.”
“From your lips to God’s ears.”
Gigi left the kind medical examiner and headed upstairs to the IAB hearing room. “You must be Andy,” she said to the attorney who stood when he saw her coming. She’d looked him up online so she’d recognize him.
He shook her hand. “Good to meet you in person.”
“Thank you for being here.”
“Of course.”
They’d spoken several times on the phone and were ready to proceed, so they sat together to wait.
Captain Malone arrived a few minutes later and gave her a warm, reassuring smile.
Gigi was thankful to have him as her departmental advocate.
Twenty very long minutes later, Deputy Chief McBride came out of the room and gestured for Gigi to come in. She squeezed Gigi’s arm, which helped to quell her nerves. Jeannie was a friend and an ally in this situation. Gigi had feared that Jeannie would be forced to recuse herself because of her encounter with Jaycee’s mother, but the two incidents were being handled separately. Also, Jeannie hadn’t been the one to shoot Jaycee’s mother. Fairfax County SWAT detectives had done that.
Thinking about such things helped Gigi to stay cool as she entered the room with Andy and sat in front of the three-person panel.
Officer Dylan Offenbach, who’d been busted from sergeant to Patrol after his transgressions, glared at her with barely contained contempt. He would be a problem, but she’d known that going in.
Jeannie began the proceedings. “We’re here today to review the events of March sixth.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Gigi listened to Jeannie’s recitation of the events from the report Gigi had written, summarizing everything that’d happened from the second she returned from checking her mail to find Jaycee in her house. Much of it was hard to hear, especially details of the sexual assault. She kept her gaze down and focused on breathing as Jeannie got to the part where Gigi had backed up to her bedside table where her service weapon was kept, and with her hand behind her back, she’d withdrawn the weapon from the drawer and pointed it at Jaycee.
The minutes that’d followed were a blur as the two women had engaged in an epic struggle that had ended when Gigi shot Jaycee in the chest. In all the confusion, Gigi vividly recalled the moment she realized she wasn’t going to die.
Captain Malone was next. “Detective Dominguez is one of the finest officers I’ve ever worked with or supervised. Her annual reviews have been stellar from both Patrol and Homicide. I have witnessed her struggle over what she had to do to save herself from Ms. Patrick’s violent attack. The best officers are the ones who care so much that they punish themselves for doing what needed to be done. Detective Dominguez should be fully exonerated in this matter and returned to her position as soon as possible. Thank you.”
“Thank you, Captain Malone,” Captain Andrews said. “And thank you for your attention to this matter, Detective Dominguez. I’d like to ask if you immediately recognized Ms. Patrick when you saw her in your home.”
“Yes, sir. I’d seen her during an earlier altercation.”
“Can you please describe that altercation?” Andrews asked.
“We were coming home to Cameron’s place. She was on the stairs waiting for us. We’d gotten a protective order against her after she slashed Cameron’s tires and made racially charged comments about me. She was in violation of the order, which we told her. Cameron told me to go inside so he could talk to her. I told her I was going to call Dispatch. I held off to give him a minute to deal with her, but I listened to what they said. I heard her tell him she was pregnant, and he said that wasn’t true. He later told me it was another trick, another attempt to keep him tied to her.”
“How did he know she wasn’t pregnant?”
“He said it couldn’t have been his because he hadn’t been with her in months by then, and she’d be showing if she was pregnant with his kid. She threatened him, said he’d never see the kid, and he told her that if she was pregnant with triplets, that wouldn’t matter to him. It was over between them. She said she couldn’t believe he wanted me and not her. He said he loved me more than anything. That was…” She glanced up at the panel with a small smile. “That was the first time he said he loved me. Later, he said he hated that she was involved in that moment, but I didn’t care. They were the best words I’d ever heard because I love him, too.”
“Was Detective Green successful in convincing her to leave?” Andrews asked.
