“We all know that access to private medical information requires a whole other kind of warrant. Without that, I’m not saying anything else.” She paused before she added, “I’m very sorry to hear what happened to Brooke. Underneath all the teenage bluster and drama, she’s a sweet girl.”

“Yes, she is.” Sam took a long look around at Brooke’s room, wondering if or when her niece would return here, and picked up Norman to bring him to her in the hospital. “Our work here is finished,” she said to Avery. “Let’s get back to the city.”

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

After three hours of delays, Gonzo’s skin had begun to feel too tight to contain the nervous energy zinging around inside him. He tugged on the shirt collar that felt like a noose and loosened his tie. When he wasn’t obsessing about how the court might rule on their case, he was thinking about the investigation he was supposed to be running in the lieutenant’s absence.

He’d been in touch with Cruz, McBride and Tyrone, and had insisted Carlucci and Dominguez follow orders and go home for a few hours of shut-eye. He’d spoken with Lindsey McNamara about the autopsies and Archie about the dump of the cell phones recovered at the scene. Captain Malone was handling the media and Bill Springer, who’d returned to town looking for vengeance on behalf of his son. According to the captain, Springer wasn’t interested in talking about how his son had hosted a drug-fueled orgy that had gone bad in his parents’ absence. All he wanted to talk about was how his son had ended up dead and what was being done to find the killer.

Gonzo was doing what he could to stay on top of things while he waited with Christina and his lawyer, Andy Simone. Sam’s sister Angela had come from the hospital to pick up Alex as they’d planned before everything happened with Brooke. Gonzo had tried to let her off the hook, but Angela wouldn’t hear of it. She’d said she was happy to have something else to focus on while they waited for Brooke to wake up.

Angela had taken Alex to her house to play with her son, Jack, and Christina would pick him up after court. Gonzo’s gratitude toward Christina and Angela in particular was overwhelming at times. When Alex had landed unexpectedly in his arms last winter, both women had stepped up to help him, and he couldn’t have gotten through his first months of fatherhood without them. Christina was with the baby when Gonzo worked nights, and Angela watched him during the day.