She turned back to face the chief. “I know I don’t have to tell you this, but watch your back with McDermott. I don’t have a good feeling about her.”
“Neither do I, and I will. Thank you for your support in that meeting.”
“Always.”
Sam left them with a smile and returned to her office to find Captain Ruiz seated in her visitor chair. “Oh, hey, I’m on my way out.”
“We need to talk.”
“I know, but I can’t right now. I’m playing a game of beat the clock to file charges against a couple who murdered their son. Can I find you tomorrow?”
“Sure.”
When Ruiz got up and left the office, Sam exhaled a sigh of relief to have put off that confrontation. For now, anyway.
She went into the pit to hand a list of names to Neveah Charles. “I need you and Matt to track down these friends of King Robinson’s and see if you can find out about anything he might have told them about what was going on at home shortly before his death.”
“We’ll get right on it and report in with anything we learn.”
“Thank you. Cruz, let’s go.”
“Where to?” he asked as he followed her to the morgue exit.
She handed him the other list of names. “We need to find these guys. They’d be nineteen or twenty now and away at college, but we can at least try to talk to a parent or guardian.”
“Can I ask what might turn out to be a stupid question?”
“No such thing.”
“Why aren’t we talking to the parents?”
Sam stopped short outside the morgue and turned to face him. “Do we want to show our cards before we have more evidence to back up Amara’s story?”
“But what if talking to them confirmed the story?”
“I mean… It’s not a bad point.”
“So…”
“Let’s go run it by Malone.”
They backtracked toward the pit and encountered Charles and O’Brien heading out.
“What’s up?” Charles asked.
“Detective Cruz had an idea that we’re going to run by Malone. Go ahead and interview the friends and let us know what you learn.”
“Will do.”
When they arrived at Malone’s office, he waved them in. “What’s up?”
“Detective Cruz asked me why we haven’t spoken to the Binghams, and I thought it was a good question.”
Malone thought about that for a second. “What if we told the mother that the stepfather was talking to us? I would think she’d be the one more likely to crack, as it was her child who was killed.”
“I like that.” Sam turned to Freddie. “Let’s get her into a room, Detective.”
“Off I go.”
