“Good point. We’ll put out a release.”

“ASAP?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Thanks, Cap.”

Sam closed the phone without the usual slap that gave her so much satisfaction and stepped into the suite she shared with Nick, quietly closing the door behind her. She tiptoed into their bedroom and wasn’t surprised to see Nick sitting up in bed with a huge binder on his lap and the sexy, dark-framed reading glasses he’d recently started wearing sitting at the end of his nose.

“There’s my favorite first lady, home from running the streets all night.”

Sam smiled. “We got him.”

He returned her smile. “Never had a doubt you would.”

“I’m glad you didn’t, because I had tons of them.”

He held out a hand to her. “Come see me.”

“I need to pee and brush my teeth. They’re furry.”

“I’ll be here.”

After she used the bathroom and brushed her teeth, she changed into joggers and a T-shirt, determined to relax for a bit before she had to get ready for the funeral. When she returned to the bedroom, he’d put aside the briefing book and taken off the glasses. Sam crawled onto the bed and snuggled up to him. “They’re bringing up coffee and breakfast in a few minutes.”

“Why didn’t you plan to sleep for a bit?”

“Because two hours isn’t enough, and I’m better off waiting until I can sleep for hours.”

“Tell me all about it.”

While he held her, she told him about Vincent trying to run Lawton out of business by hiring his dealers to deliver laced product.

“Jeez, Sam. That’s crazy. Did Lawton’s dealers know the product was laced?”

“Maybe not at first, but when customers started turning up dead, you’d think they would’ve gotten a clue that something wasn’t right.”

“But they just kept selling the product?”

“Yeah, they did, because drug dealers don’t care who dies, or at least that’s how it seems to us. Or maybe Vincent threatened them or their families. Who knows? There’s no honor among thieves. Spencer played basketball with the guy who sold the pills to him.”

“Of all the drug dealers in town, Spencer was friends with one recruited by Vincent,” Nick said with a sigh.

“I know.”

“How do you feel now that you have answers?”

“Oddly elated from a professional point of view, as I did something Narcotics and the DEA haven’t been able to do, but incredibly deflated from a personal standpoint. It’s all so sad and senseless and infuriating. Why do the doctors cut people off when they know they’re addicted? Why aren’t there more programs for people who’ve become addicted to opioids to help them manage their addiction safely as they work to get clean? Cutting them off sends them to the streets, and this is what can happen.”

“I’d love to tackle this issue from a federal level, but it would be hard to go all in on that if people don’t know what happened to Spencer. That would basically be telling them.”