“The side in which we were incompetent for eleven years and let this woman continue to kidnap and torture children? You think anything is going to outweigh that?”

“We weren’t incompetent. One member of our department was.”

“One is all it takes, Sam. You know that as well as I do. The U.S. Attorney is calling for a review of all of Stahl’s cases, including his successful prosecutions.”

Sam gasped. “Everything?”

“Every fucking thing. If he cut corners on cases he didn’t bother to investigate, what did he do with the ones he did investigate?”

Her stomach began to hurt again. “I… uh… wow. I don’t even know what to say.”

“This could get very, very ugly, but I don’t have to tell you that.”

“No, you don’t. Jeez… What a mess.”

“Another mess, you mean.”

“Yeah.” She looked up at him. “We can’t change what was done in the past, but we can sure as hell do whatever we can to make things right.”

He nodded but seemed as low as she’d ever seen him. “This happened on my watch, on Joe’s, your dad’s. We’re all going to take a hit, so you need to be ready for people coming for your dad.”

She would never be ready for that. “No one despised Stahl more than he did.”

“Maybe so, but it was still his job at one time or another to supervise him, just as it was my job and Joe’s. We’re all on the hook for this.”

“Let’s do an interview with Darren about how horrified we are and how horrified my dad would be to know what Stahl was really doing while he was filing false reports about his efforts.” Since Sam never voluntarily did anything with the media, the idea got his attention. “We can say there’s never been a day that we didn’t come here and do our very best for the people of this District. That kind of thing. If we get out ahead of it, we might stanch the bleeding a bit. And we can praise Jeannie for the rescue of Carisma and the other children.”

“It’s not a terrible idea. I’ll pitch it to Joe.” He seemed considerably brighter than he had a second ago.

“It always helps to have a plan.”

“Yes, it does, and it’s a good one. I’m sure he’ll go for it.”

“Let me know, and I’ll set it up with Darren.”

“Are you going home?”

“As soon as I give Dani and Gigi their marching orders. Gigi is back tonight.”

“Glad to have her back.”

Detective Cameron Green met Detective Gigi Dominguez in the parking lot, opened her car door and gave her a hand getting out of the car.

She winced from the pain in her midsection that had persisted following the recent removal of her spleen.