When she finished reading the prepared statement, she looked up at the huge group of media that had turned up when they made it known she’d be releasing her brother-in-law’s cause of death. “I’ll take a few questions.”

“How involved were you in the investigation that led to the arrest of Vincent and the others?”

“I was involved, but Sergeant Thomas Gonzales was the lead detective.”

“No questions, Lieutenant,” one reporter said. “Just sympathy to your family.”

“Thank you.”

“What led you to Vincent?” Darren Tabor asked. “And my condolences as well.”

“Thank you. We were assisted by numerous informants who put us on the trail of Vincent and his plan to use laced pills to drive a rival dealer out of business.”

“Is the rival dealer under arrest as well?”

“He’s deceased, and his operation is being dismantled by the DEA.”

“Is it Riggs Lawton?”

“I’m not at liberty to comment on that at this time. This is an ongoing investigation, and more updates will be coming soon. Thank you for your time and for helping us to spread the word about my brother-in-law’s cause of death in the hope that it might save someone else. Have a good day.”

She walked away from the podium, fighting back a swell of emotions as she recalled Jack at Spencer’s graveside, an image that would stay with her for the rest of her life. Now the word was out about what’d happened to Spencer, and the people responsible for his death were in custody. Hopefully, the information and the arrests would help to achieve Angela’s goal of making Spencer’s death count for something.

Epilogue

After the longest two weeks of her life, Sam slept for what felt like days. When she awoke alone on the Saturday morning after the funeral, she stared up at the ceiling, picking over the last few days. She’d overseen reams of paperwork and reports on the Vincent case, participated in numerous meetings with U.S. Attorney Tom Forrester and most of his Assistant U.S. Attorneys. The case was ready to proceed with arraignments.

As their star witness, Leslie Lawton had been given full immunity from prosecution as well as witness protection ahead of and after her testimony. Immunity had been given only after she disclosed the whereabouts of their warehouse and named every dealer who’d worked for them. Richard Kent had been charged as an accessory to murder, his parole was revoked, and he’d been sent back to Jessup along with Matthias Foster and several other dealers who’d accepted payment from Vincent to sell laced pills to Lawton’s customers.

They all claimed not to know the pills were laced, but the USA had called bullshit on that. “The minute the first person died, they knew what they were selling,” Forrester had said.

Haggerty’s Crime Scene detectives had done a masterful job of collecting evidence. Lab analysis proved the pills all came from the same lot, providing them with the evidence needed to connect Vincent’s scheme to each of their victims.