“He had an altercation with Bill Springer in the lobby,” Sam said, her tone accusatory, as was the glare she directed at the captain. “What I’d like to know is how he could possibly know we were looking at his son Billy for the MacArthur murders. It’s not like we issued a press release about our intention to arrest him this morning.”

“I’m trying to find out what happened last night. All I know is Springer made my guys, and he’s in the wind. We’re trying to track him down now.”

Sam stared at him, shocked but not surprised it had transpired exactly as she’d feared it would. “So you let him get away.” She nodded to Gonzo when he came into the room and shut the door behind him.

“We didn’t let him get away. It didn’t happen like that.”

“How did it happen then?”

“I told you. I’m awaiting a report from my team, but their priority at the moment is finding Springer.”

“This is exactly what I was afraid of,” Sam said to the chief, who was seated now behind his desk. “Based on what his father said, he knows we’re looking at him for the murders. How would he know that?”

“I don’t know,” Farnsworth said in a weary tone. “Jack, you promised me if I gave you one more night to complete your operation that we’d have this sewn up. Now our number-one suspect in a mass murder is in the wind, and you can’t even tell me how that happened.”

“I’m working on getting more information from my people,” Roback said, chastened by the chief’s dressing-down.

Farnsworth waved his hand in Roback’s direction. “Go. Don’t come back until you have some answers.”

The captain took his leave, and Sam dropped into a chair. “So we didn’t get him for either set of charges.”

“We haven’t gotten him yet.”

“The fact that he’s tipped off to our intentions makes him a hundred times more dangerous,” Gonzo said as he, too, took a seat.

“I realize that, and I also realize I made a huge mistake yesterday by putting the vice investigation ahead of the homicide investigation.”

“I’m still trying to understand why you did that.”

“Because! I have to fight for every dime this department gets from the city, and not allowing vice to complete what had been six months’ of expensive and time-consuming undercover work would’ve come back to bite me in the ass at budget time.”

“This was about money?”

“Sam, everything is about money. You know that by now.”

“What’s going to happen when the press catches wind of the fact that we fucked this up so royally?”