“Always a pleasure, ma’am.”
“Could I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“If I walked out that door by myself, would you let me go?”
“Yes, ma’am, but you wouldn’t get past the gate before the Secret Service stopped you.”
Sam contemplated the reality that she was, in fact, a prisoner in her own home.A prisoner to safety, but a prisoner nonetheless.
Vernon arrived a minute later with Debra Nixon, the lead agent on Scotty’s detail.
“Are you with us?”Sam asked her.
“I am.Scotty’s in for the night, and I’ve handed off to his evening detail.”
“Let’s go.”
“We’re required to tell you that we advise against you leaving at this time,” Vernon said.
“I hear you, and I understand the concern, but I have a job to do just like you do, and I need to go support my team.I appreciate the risk you take—always—to accompany me, especially after what’s already been an upsetting few days for all of us.I’m sorry I’m putting you in a bad spot with your brass, but you can blame it all on me.”
“We will, don’t worry,” Vernon said with a small grin as he ushered her out the door and into a waiting SUV.
As they pulled away from the White House, Sam leaned forward.“I’m sorry to ask this of you guys, especially with one of your own in the hospital.But whatever this is, I need to be out there figuring it out, not stuck in the gilded cage, walled off from real life.And yes, my position feels somewhat unreasonable to me, too, but if I give in to the fear, that’ll be the end of the line for me on the job.I hope you understand.”
“I do,” Vernon said.“I get it.”
“Believe it or not, I do, too,” Debra said.“It’s not easy being a woman in our line of work, and every concession we make is one step backward for all of us.”
“Yes, that’s it.Exactly.I understand the risk I’m taking.Hell, it keeps me awake at night worrying about how my raised profile is endangering my team as well as my detail.But I refuse to be governed by fear.I can’t live that way.I can be much more useful out working on this case than sitting at home on the sidelines.”
“Do you think it’s all related?”Vernon asked.“The drones, the shooting, the murders?”
“I haven’t thought that yet, but it bears looking into, although what would four seemingly random murders and a kidnapping/assault have to do with what happened at the Egg Roll?”
“Maybe it’s about targeting you to get to the president?”Vernon asked.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s a stretch.I’ll admit that, but what if someone is killing these people hoping to bring you back to work?While your days vary, your actual routine after a murder doesn’t.You follow a similar set of steps on each case, which makes you somewhat predictable that way.”
“But what does that have to do with Nick?”Sam asked.
“The whole world knows you’re his weak spot, Sam.If something were to happen to you or the children, he would resign.”
“And that’s what they want?”
“Like I said, it’s a stretch, but it’s a theory.”
“Or,” Debra said, “someone wants you out of the way at the MPD for whatever reason.Maybe this has nothing to do with him and everything to do with you.”
Sam thought about that for a few minutes, turned it over from every angle and decided it wasn’t as much of a stretch as Vernon made it out to be.And he was right—if something happened to her or one of their kids, Nick would resign.
He wouldn’t be able to go forward in the job after that.People would know that because of the way he revered his family.Right before Nelson died, he’d announced that he wouldn’t seek the nomination because he didn’t want to be away from his young family for weeks on end to campaign.
He’d identified his weak spot before he ever assumed the presidency, and now… Was someone gunning for her as a way of running him out of office?Or was Debra right?Were they trying to drive her and the sideshow that came with her these days out of the department?
