She met them in the hallway and helped them into their spring jackets, hooking the backpacks over their right shoulders.“You want the other strap, too?”
“That’s not cool, Sam,” Alden told her.“None of the kids wear both straps.”
“Oh well, my bad.”
Aubrey giggled.“It’s okay, Sam.That’s why you have us.To keep you cool.”
Sam laughed as she realized she needed to start writing this stuff down because she never wanted to forget any of it.
She sent them off with hugs and kisses and love and wishes for a great day, and then she bolted into her room to unlock the bedside table where she kept her weapon and cuffs.After brushing her teeth and running a brush through her hair, she was headed down the stairs to meet Vernon and Q five minutes later.
“Let me ask you something,” she said when they were on the way to HQ.
“What’s up?”Vernon asked.
“Scotty wants to go to a sleepover at a friend’s house this weekend.What’s the feeling on that?”
“The higher-ups won’t be thrilled about it,” Vernon said.“We’d have to vet the parents, the family, the house… And we’d want at least one agent inside with him.”
“I was afraid you might say that.”
“Can he invite his friends to the White House?”
“I suggested that, but he said sometimes his friends want to host at their houses, which is a fair point.”
“Yes, it is, and we’ve had meetings about how things will get more complicated for his detail as he gets into high school.”
“There’re actual meetings about that?”
“Yep.”
“We have meetings abouteverything,” Q added.“Meetings on top of meetings.”
“When do you have time for meetings when you’re with me all day?”
“A lot of them are at zero six hundred,” Q said.“We meet every morning to go over the schedule for the day, to plan for backup as needed and to make sure everyone knows what everyone else is doing.Except for your detail, ma’am.They never know what you’re doing on any given day.”
Sam laughed.“I like to keep them guessing.”She took a call from Freddie.“Morning.I’ll be there in five.”
“Thought you’d want to know we have a witness to the murder of Nate Andrews.”
She sat up straighter when she heard that.“What’d they see?”
“The witness left the gym a minute or so after Nate and was walking about a block behind him.According to what he told Carlucci, he saw a white Nissan Altima with District plates pull up near where Nate was walking.A guy got out of the car, hit Nate and then took off.He estimates the whole thing happened in about ten seconds, start to finish.”
“What did he do after the car drove away?”
“He called 911 and then took off in case they came back.He wasn’t there when our people arrived on the scene.”
“By all accounts, this occurred on a dark stretch of sidewalk, but the witness could ID the make and model of the car as well as the District plates?”
“He was adamant about those details.”
“This is great info.A white sedan was seen on the video of Harlowe St.John’s abduction, too.We need to track down every white Altima with District plates.”
“Cameron is on that now, and we’ve put out a BOLO for Patrol to keep an eye out for the make and model.”
“Good job.Let’s get this meeting done so we can get to work.”
