“Let me close this case,” she said, her voice hoarse and tense. “The minute I close this case…”

Nick seemed to be resisting the urge to haul her into his arms. “Samantha?”

Surprisingly, the dreaded name didn’t sound so bad coming from him. “Hmm?”

“We steamed up the windows.”

“And we didn’t even do anything!”

“Yet,” he said, his voice full of promise.

Finding him harder to resist with every passing second, she shifted the car into drive and forced herself to focus on the road.

Chapter 13

Sam left Nick at the congressional parking lot, and timed her drive across the city to the Watergate. At that hour of the night, traffic was light but an accident on Independence Avenue screwed up her timing. She’d have to try again tomorrow night to determine whether Christina Billings would’ve had enough time to drive across the city, commit murder, and drive back with a stop to pick up Chinese food in twenty-eight minutes.

Reaching for her cell phone, she called to check on the search of Billings’s car.

“I was just going to call you,” Detective Tommy “Gonzo” Gonzales said. “We got a hit for blood on the front seat.”

“I knew it!” Sam cried. “I’ll bet she wrapped up her coat and left it on the seat. The blood soaked through!”

“Wait,” Gonzo said. “Before you get too excited, she said she cut her hand scraping ice off her car two weeks ago and had to get three stitches. She has a raw-looking pink scar on her right hand and produced the form from the E.R. with wound care instructions. We’re checking the blood anyway, but I’ll bet a month’s pay it’s going to be hers. She willingly gave us a sample.”

“Son of a bitch. We can’t catch a single break in this one.”

“We’ve narrowed down Billings’s list of the senator’s recent girlfriends from six to two. The other four could prove they weren’t in the city that night.”

Sam added visits to the two remaining Barbies to her ever-growing to-do list for the morning. “Do me a favor and set up some plain-clothes coverage for the senator’s wake. Make sure you coordinate with Virginia State Police and Richmond.”

“Sure thing. Do you want observation and video or just observation?”

“Let’s tape it. Make sure the officers you send have the photos of the senator’s family and girlfriends, so they’ll know who to watch for.”

“I’m on it.”

“Thanks for the good work, Gonzo.”

“You got it. Try to get some sleep tonight, Sam.”

“Yeah, sure.”