“Thanks. I won’t say no to that.”
“Do you want me to wait to see Luna’s mother until you can come, too?”
“No, go ahead and do that. I think it’d mean a lot to her if you stopped by.”
“You did everything you could for Luna. Tell me you know that.”
“I know it, but my everything wasn’t enough, and that’ll haunt me for the rest of my life.”
With that, he walked away.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Sam watched him go, worried about him and everyone who’d worked on this case. Then she went upstairs to find Captain Norris of Public Affairs so she could educate him and his team on the manosphere and incel culture.
Thirty minutes later, the faces of the PA team were blank with shock, even though most of them had seen her briefing. She’d given them many more details than she’d provided to the media.
“Is this for real?” Norris asked.
“Unfortunately, yes, and as our case will show, these beefs and the resulting thirst for vengeance led to the murder of Luna Ahern. You should expect to receive follow-up questions from the media.”
“We already are,” one of the younger officers said. She held up her phone. “Multiple emails and texts asking for clarification.”
“What’re we supposed to say,” Norris asked, “when we’ve never heard of any of this until now?”
“You could say we’ll release more information when we have it.”
“That’s a good plan,” Norris said. “That’s what we’ll do. Thanks for the briefing, Lieutenant.”
“Of course. No problem.”
“We’re getting a lot of questions about your nephew, your sister’s family, your involvement in the investigation and whether your nephew will be charged,” another of the younger officers said.
Sam experienced a flash of anger that had her considering some choice words for the media. But since that would only make everything worse, she said, “You can say Ethan Hogan and Tomas Cambra were kidnapped and are victims in this crime. Their families are handling the aftermath privately and will have nothing further to say to the media about Ethan, nor will Lieutenant Holland.”
One of the officers wrote down the statement.
“Please don’t deviate from that or give them any openings for further exposition.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Thank you.” To Norris, she added, “You have my number if you need any more information.”
“I do. Thanks for coming up.”
Sam nodded and left their offices, heading downstairs to hers, but taking an odd vibe from Norris with her. After the Ramsey/Offenbach nightmare, she was hypersensitive to such vibes, but she was also determined not to be sidetracked by them. Whatever issues people had with her were their problem, not hers.
On the first floor, she hung a right to see if Dr. Trulo was still in his office. His door was closed, so she started to leave. A second later, he called out to her.
Sam turned back. “Hey, I thought you were in a session.”
“I was on the phone, but I’m done now. You want to come in?”
She followed him into his office and took a seat. “I want to talk to you about Captain Malone.”
“What about him?”
“He was on the Ahern case and took it hard. I’ve never seen him so upset. I suggested he check in with you, and he said he would, but…”
