Tracy turned to face him. “It does.”
“Good,” he said, sounding relieved. “That’s good.”
After they’d made their next appointment with Dr. Trulo, they left his office together, taking the elevator to the lobby.
“Do you want to maybe get a coffee or something?” Mike asked as they went outside into warm spring sunshine.
“Sure,” she said, relieved to feel something other than numb. “That’d be nice.”
He smiled and extended his arm to her. “Let’s go.”
Chapter Eleven
The group in the conference room was almost finished for now when a knock at the door had Sam rising to answer it. A woman she didn’t recognize glared at her. She was about fifty, with highlighted blonde hair, cool green eyes and an expression some might refer to as resting bitch face. Not Sam, of course, but others might call it that. “May I help you?”
“I’m U.S. Attorney Catherine McDermott.” She wore a black power suit, a red blouse and gold jewelry. “I understand the Binghams are still in custody after I instructed you to release them, and I’d like to know why.”
Sam had never been more thankful for the presence of the captain and chief as she stepped aside to admit the woman into the room, returning to her seat at the head of the table.
The chief walked around the table to greet McDermott with a handshake. “Joe Farnsworth. Nice to meet you.”
She shook his hand. “You as well.”
“This is my chief of detectives, Captain Jake Malone, IT Lieutenant Archelotta—we call him Archie—Crime Scene Lieutenant Max Haggerty, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Lindsey McNamara, retired Detective Moran and former Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Norman Morganthau. You probably recognize Lieutenant Holland, and of course, you know AUSA Miller.”
McDermott turned her glare on Hope. “I do know AUSA Miller, and frankly, I’m surprised to see her in this meeting that I assume is about suspects I instructed her to have released.”
“All due respect, ma’am,” the chief said in a folksy tone laced with steel, “we don’t work for you or AUSA Miller. We work with you. Our roles are complementary, and we decide as a team how best to proceed in situations like the one we currently find ourselves in.”
“What situation are we in? We’ve arrested and were going to charge two people with first-degree murder based on nothing more than a single eyewitness statement.”
“We’ve made entire cases on less than that,” Sam said.
McDermott shot her chilly gaze Sam’s way. “I’m well aware of how you work, and on my watch, it’ll take more than that.”
“Have you listened to the eyewitness statement?” Malone asked.
“I have not.”
“Maybe you should,” Malone said. “Everyone in this room has heard it, and we’re working to bolster the airtight case that Amara Robinson handed us in order to satisfy your request for more evidence. We’re following a number of leads that we believe will add to what we already know. In the meantime, none of us is comfortable with releasing the Binghams based on the information we currently have.”
“Amara Robinson is a very credible witness who had everything to lose by coming forward,” Farnsworth added, “and did so anyway because she wants justice for her beloved brother. She waited until today, her eighteenth birthday, to report his murder because, as she was a minor, she was afraid of what’d become of her if she ended up in the foster system.”
“I can see that you all believe her story and aren’t questioning the veracity, but has it occurred to you that she could’ve been involved and concocted this story to implicate her parents?”
“No, it hasn’t occurred to us,” Sam said. “Because, in our experience, her statement was extremely credible and included details that would be difficult for anyone to fabricate unless they were a sociopath. We saw no sign of anything like that in her.”
“And you’re experts in sociopathic behavior?”
“I’m sorry,” Sam said, “but aren’t we on the same side?”
McDermott’s glare heated with outrage. “I require airtight cases for prosecution.”
“That’s what we’re trying to give you,” Sam replied. “Everyone in this room is working toward that goal.”
“I’ve given my team twenty-four hours to produce additional evidence, or we will release them if they’re granted bail, but we won’t drop the charges they’ll be arraigned on in the morning,” Farnsworth said.
“And who will prosecute this case if you decide to go forward with what you have?” McDermott asked.
