“Got it—take goddess to hotel and watch over her. I think I can handle that.”

Sam was relieved to hear him joking again after the hideous two hours they’d just put in at Tara’s. “I’m going to send Gonzo out to Belle Haven to pick up the Jordans, too. I want her under protection.”

“Noel passed the polygraph.”

“Yeah, I got that word an hour ago.”

“What’re you thinking, boss?”

“Did Patricia Donaldson tell you where she’d be staying in the city when she came for O’Connor’s funeral?”

His brows furrowing with skepticism, he said, “No, but I can try to find out.”

“Do that. I could be wrong, but I’m going to pull her credit card records to see if she recently bought a plane ticket to Washington.”

“Come on, Sam, you’re not thinking it’s her… That woman was madly in love with him.”

“And he was fucking his way through the city while she raised his son in Siberia.” Here was the buzz that came when all the pieces started to fall into place. “I’ll pull the records, you find Elin.”

Sobering, Freddie said, “You can count on me to take very good care of her.”

Sam rolled her eyes. “Go easy. You might sprain something.”

Emerging from Tara’s apartment building, Sam found Nick leaning against her car. “Aren’t you freezing?”

“The cold feels good.” His face was pale, his eyes watering from the cold or maybe the emotion.

“You shouldn’t have followed me in there. I told you to stay here.”

“I don’t know how you do it,” he said softly. “How you can stand seeing stuff like that day after day? I’ll never forget what I saw in there.”

“I wish I could say it’s the first time I’ve seen something like that.”

He reached for her, but Sam shook him off. “No PDA when the place is swarming with cops,” she growled.

Jamming his hands into his pockets, he seemed to be making an effort to bite his tongue.

Sam unclipped her hair and ran her fingers through it. “I need some computer time. Do you mind dropping me at HQ?”

“Does it have to be there? You could get online at my house.”

She consulted her watch. Ten-forty. “I suppose that would work.”

Nick offered to drive her car to Arlington, and Sam was tired enough after the long, draining day to let him.

“This is the time to be on the road.” She gestured to the deserted stretch of I-395 as they passed the Jefferson Memorial on their way to the 14th Street Bridge.

“If only it was like this in the morning.”