Read Fatal Scandal: Book Eight of the Fatal Series for Free Online Page B

certainly counted as extreme. “What’s the plan?”
    “Work the scene and keep a lid on our vic’s identity until I can get my head around this. Don’t tell anyone her name. See about getting video surveillance footage from around here. Surely we have cameras in the area. And the minute you can, get that phone to Archie at HQ.” Sam dropped Lori’s wallet into her coat pocket. “Beckett!”
    The patrolman came over to them. “Yes, ma’am?”
    “You hear back from Dispatch on the car?”
    “Just now.” He handed her a slip of paper on which he’d written, George Phillips with an address in Bowie, Maryland.
    “Thanks. I’m putting a gag order on every detail of this investigation. Got me?”
    “Yes, ma’am. No one will hear anything from me.”
    “Good. Where’s Crime Scene?” she asked of the detectives who would go through the vehicle with a fine-tooth comb.
    “On their way.”
    “Thanks, Beckett.” After she and Freddie did a visual search of the car and found nothing obvious to aid in the investigation, Sam waved for Lindsey McNamara, the District’s chief medical examiner, to come forward. “All yours, Doc.”
    “Do we know who she is?”
    “We do.”
    Lindsey secured her long red hair into a ponytail. “And?”
    “For right now she’s a thirty-one-year-old Jane Doe. Got me?”
    “Okay.”
    “I’ll brief you as soon as I can.” To Freddie, she said, “Keep an eye on things, get Patrol to begin a canvas of the area and keep me posted on anything that transpires. As soon as you can, get the phone to HQ.”
    “Got it. Where are you going?”
    “To Gonzo’s.”
    “Sam. You gotta know, he would never...”
    “We’d both like to think that, Freddie, but honestly, you never know what someone will do when they feel desperate and pushed to the brink.”
    Freddie blanched. “You said you weren’t thinking that.”
    “I gotta go. Keep the scene under control.”
    “I will.”
    As Sam took off toward her car, she ducked under the yellow tape and felt sick to her stomach. No, she didn’t actually think her close friend and colleague was capable of murder. However, Gonzo had been under a tremendous amount of stress as he recovered from the gunshot wound and also dealt with the media circus over his connection to the judge.
    And now Lori was dead, and everyone would be looking to him. The first thing they did in any homicide investigation was investigate motive. And who had the greatest motivation to get Lori out of the picture?
    Detective Sergeant Thomas Gonzales.

Chapter Four
    Riddled with anxiety, Sam drove across the city to the apartment Gonzo shared with Christina and Alex. She’d give just about anything not to have to do what she was about to do. His words from the night before echoed through her mind, making her wonder if someone she thought she knew as well as anyone was capable—
    “No,” she said out loud. “Don’t even think it. He’s not capable.” But she couldn’t get past the awful stress Gonzo had been under since he’d been shot shortly after being given full custody of Alex. Sam couldn’t forget the way Lori had appeared at the hospital while they waited to hear if Gonzo would survive and demanded they turn over Alex to her while he was incapacitated.
    Sam had wanted to kill the woman herself that day. She could only imagine how Gonzo had felt when he learned that Lori’s lawyers had dug into his life and uncovered the connection between him and Judge Morton. One of them should’ve disclosed it, but neither had and now...
    “Now she’s dead, and the media will go crazy pointing the finger at him.” She pounded her hand on the steering wheel. “Fuck, fuck,
fuck
!” Her phone rang, interrupting her plan to do more swearing. “Holland.”
    “Please hold for Chief Farnsworth.” The phone clicked and he came on the line. “Holland?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Sorry to bother you on a holiday.”
    “I’ve already been bothered by Dispatch.”
    “What’ve