“For right now, you’re safer here than you’d be out there. Trust me on that. Stay put tonight, and we’ll take care of the details in the morning.”

“Are you going to charge me for lying to you?”

“We’ll see how detailed your statement is and decide then.”

Sam waited until the guard had moved Jamie before she headed back upstairs with Hill in tow.

“How’d you know Elle had been to see Willie after the game?” he asked.

“I didn’t. I only suspected, and I needed Jamie to confirm it.”

“You’re good, Holland. Really, really good.”

“I know.”

“Nothing wrong with your ego either,” he muttered.

“Healthiest part of me.”

That got a big guffaw out of him as they entered the lobby where the chief was talking to McBride and Tyrone.

“The media is waiting for an update on your latest victim as well as the bust that went down at the motel. Are you prepared to give them a statement?”

“I could be.” She was riding the high of rescuing the kids and figuring out what had been a baffling murder investigation. It was all coming together nice and neat, the way she liked it best.

“Damned fine work today, Lieutenant,” the chief said, his pride evident in his affectionate gaze.

“Thank you, sir. We’re on the verge of an arrest in the Vasquez and Lind case.” She gave him a quick summary of what they’d discovered about Elle.

“Unreal,” the chief said. “I knew her father a little bit. He always struck me as an upstanding kind of guy.”

“By all accounts, he was until he made the mistake of dying and leaving his empire to her. I need your help with two things—a report from the lab on a bloody knife Crime Scene found and the partial prints one of the CSU techs was processing. I need them both—badly.”

“I’ll do what I can to move things along.”

“Thanks.” She glanced at the door and saw the horde of reporters gathered in the courtyard. “Shall we? I’ve got a fundraiser to get to.”

“After you,” Farnsworth said.

Hill, McBride and Tyrone accompanied Sam and the chief through the double doors to the courtyard. The reporters pounced immediately.

Sam waited for them to pipe down. “I’ve got a brief statement, and then I’ll entertain a few questions.” She paused for effect to make sure they were listening. “At sixteen hundred today the body of Feds relief pitcher Rick Lind was found at the Capitol Motor Inn on Massachusetts Avenue.”

A murmur of shock rippled through the gathering.