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Back 3 a.m.
Chapters (67)
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  67. 3:46 a.m.

Meow.

“Because you guys are gonna stay up all night drinking soda and playing video games, that's why.”

Meow.

“He's coming back over in a couple days and you guys can stay up as long as you want.”

Meow.

“Grand Theft Auto VI? Is that even out yet?”

Meow.

“I'll see what I can do.”

Murdock jumps up on my chest and gives Lassie a big kiss goodbye, then my dad yanks him by the collar and shuts the door. I can hear him whining in the hallway as my dad wrestles the beast away from the door.

…

Lassie and I are just sitting down to eat when there is a knock at the door.

It is 3:11 a.m.

I look through the peephole, expecting to see my father, thinking he'd left something at my condo. It's not.

I pull the door open.

“What the fuck, Bins?”

“And a hello to you, Detective Ray.”

She storms in. She is wearing a black top and tight jeans. Her hair is up. Her arms are also up. As is her apparent temper. “You didn't have to go to the FBI!”

“FBI?”

She cuts her eyes at me.

“What are you talking about?”

Her eyebrows rise, then slide together. “You don't know?”

I shake my head.

“Tomorrow morning.” She pauses. “They’re going to arrest the President for murder.”

…

“What?”

“Callie Freig isn't really Callie Freig.”

I put on my best surprise face. Big eyes. Open mouth. A loss for words. It works.

“The FBI got an anonymous tip. Before she changed her identity, Callie Freig was actually a young girl named Jessica Renoix. She worked for Sullivan's governor campaign in Virginia. The tip also said that they saw the President leave the woman's house the night of the murder.”

She looks at me skeptically.

“It wasn't me,” I assure her, then add, “Still that's not a lot to go on. The Secret Service came and got the phone, so they couldn't use that. You would think the FBI would have more.”

“They do.”

She takes a deep breath.

“President Sullivan underwent a battery of tests when he became President, one of which was a DNA workup. His DNA wouldn't show up in a routine search of the national DNA database, but the FBI has it on file somewhere. They ran his DNA against a couple of hairs found in her bed and it was a match.”

I didn't have to fake my surprise face this time.

“They made a courtesy call to my Captain, because the homicide is technically our jurisdiction, but yeah, they are arresting him at the White House tomorrow morning.”

“What did your Captain say?”

“What could he say? He let the biggest arrest in the history of the United States slip through his fingers. He smelled like he'd drank a fifth of scotch by the time he called me and Cal into his office and told us what was going on.”