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“It seems to me, and I could be wrong, that you like a whole lot more people than you hate lately.”
“That’s not true, and I’d better never hear you say that outside the confines of these four walls.”
“Yes, dear.”
“Are you laughing at me?”
“Would I do that?”
“Yes, I’m quite sure you would, and the fact that I can feel you shaking is a dead giveaway.”
“My wife is funny. What can I say?”
“Nice recovery.”
He held her tighter and kissed the back of her shoulder. “Get some sleep. You’re going to need to be well rested when we get to Dewey.”
“Thanks for the warning.”
“I can’t wait fordays and days and daysalone with my wife.”
“Same, except for with my husband.”
“Whatever happens at the meeting, you can’t let it mess up this vacation.”
“I won’t.”
“Promise? My life depends on it.”
“Since your life is critically important to me, I promise.”
At seven thirty,the department commanders gathered in Chief Farnsworth’s conference room.
Lieutenant Archelotta from IT glanced at her. “What’s this about?”
“No idea.”
“Huh, I figured if anyone would know, it’d be you.”
“You figured wrong.”
Captain Malone stood at the head of the table. “Thank you for coming in. The chief has called the all-hands meeting to provide an update on new information uncovered regarding former Lieutenant Stahl.”
Sam bit back a gasp.Holy hell. What now?
“We’ve received a credible tip tying him to as many as twenty missing women.” Malone pressed a remote that put photos on the screen at the front of the room. “Over a seventeen-year period, the following women have gone missing.”
The slide show provided an array of young, attractive women.
“Each of them was known to the MPD as a drug addict and, in some cases, had a history of prostitution.”
Sam was filled with sadness as she watched the faces of one woman after another go by. They were a variety of races with few similar characteristics to tie them to a type. What they’d been, she realized as Malone recited their names, ages and some of the details that were known about them, was vulnerable.
Stahl had preyed on those vulnerabilities.
But had he killed them? They could’ve gone missing and ended up dead by any number of means, but she knew from experience Stahl was certainly capable of committing murder. The thought had her stomach turning as memories of him trying to kill her came surging to the surface.
Dear God… To think he might’ve actually killed other people while employed by the department was almost too big to process. The first time, he’d nearly succeeded in strangling her on her own doorstep before the Secret Service had intervened and saved her life. Later, he’d wrapped her in razor wire and threatened to set her on fire. He was now serving a life sentence at Jessup with no chance of parole for both crimes.
