“That’s the other thing I wanted to talk to you about. My next stop was going to be the ballpark, but if I go there we’ll tip our hand and the team is apt to take control of the story. I’d really like to see their reactions when they hear the news. So I was thinking, I’ll go over there and break the news to the team, while you all handle the media at the same time. And P.S., I’m going to take Agent Hill with me. He knows the owner, Jestings, and can smooth the way a bit.”

“I like the plan, but I’d like the chief to sign off on it. Stand by, and I’ll call you back in twenty minutes.”

“Standing by. Can you send me to Archelotta?”

“Hang on.”

The lieutenant of the IT division, also the only fellow officer Sam had dallied with romantically, picked up on the third ring. “Archelotta.”

“Hey, it’s Holland.”

“How’s it going? Heard you caught a homicide.”

“Yeah, Willie Vasquez.”

“No way. No fucking way.”

“Can you see if you can get a signal from his phone? It wasn’t on him when we found him.”

“Sure. Whatever I can do.”

Sam gave him the number.

“I’ll call you as soon as I have anything. Might take a while though. I heard cell service has been interrupted in some sectors because of the riots.”

“We’ll take whatever we can get.”

“Gotcha. I’ll be in touch.”

As long as she had some time, she stopped for a sandwich and treated herself to a rare diet cola. If there’d ever been a time for a caffeine boost, this was it. Thirty hours without sleep was beginning to make her muzzy around the edges. While she ate in the car, she placed a call to her dad’s house.

“We were wondering when we’d hear from you, Sam,” her stepmother, Celia, said. “Long night?”

“Very long and not over yet. We’re still at it.”

“Lord. What an awful thing and all over a ball game.”

Wait until Celia heard the rest of what’d happened because of a ball game. “My thoughts exactly. Is my dad handy?”

“Hang on just a minute, honey.”

Sam smiled at the endearment. She enjoyed being mothered by the sweet nurse who’d married her paralyzed father on Valentine’s Day. She thought about her own mother, who’d recently reappeared in her life. Her mother was looking to heal the rift that had festered between them since the day after Sam graduated from high school and her mom left her dad for another man. Some rifts could never be healed, or so she liked to think. As long as she went with that line of reasoning, she wouldn’t have to deal with her mother’s desire to spend some time together.