Page 68 of Holmes, Margaret and Poe

“What was the best thing about your Billie?”

“How resilient she was and how much she loved our life together. You?”

“Ronny’s vision and his genuine compassion for people. And the way he made me feel in his arms.”

Sampson saw the sudden glassiness in her eyes and felt a wave of longing for Billie’s touch and smell.

Cantrell said, “But enough about —”

The waiter arrived with their lunches. At almost the same time, their cell phones rang. She looked at her screen. “I have to take this.”

Alex was calling Sampson. “Me too.”

“You’ve heard about what we’re onto down here?” Alex asked when Sampson answered. “About the dead gunrunner and the missing weapons?”

“And Ibrahim,” Sampson said. “The U.S. attorney just informed me.”

“I’m sending you two pictures. Guy on the left at Fenway in the first pic is Leslie Parks. Guy on the right could be Ibrahim.”

“And the second pic?”

“Speaks for itself. Got to jump. I’ll call back.” Alex hung up.

Cantrell was listening to her phone intently. “You’re sure?” the U.S. attorney said, briefly closing her eyes and shaking her head. “Okay. Let me know if there’s more.”

She ended the call and looked at Sampson as his phone buzzed with the arrival of the pictures. “We may have screwed up a little,” she said as he opened them.

He looked up. “How’s that?”

“Captain Davis,” she said. “After he came back from the Middle East, he spent six months as an air force–army liaison at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, which is not far from where Mahoney and Cross are. Thirty minutes, tops.”

Sampson nodded. He looked at the pictures and felt his stomach sink. “I may have screwed up big-time,” he said, and showed her a picture of Leslie Parks taken at the Pro Bowl with his arm around the shoulder of Captain Davis.

Cantrell immediately got to her feet. “We have to go.”

“We haven’t eaten.”

“We’ll box the food and take it,” she insisted. “I need you back on Davis. Now. Which means you’re back working for me, and this late lunchisa conflict of interest.”

Sampson smiled. “Promise me you’ll fire me when this is over so I can at least get to know you better?”

Cantrell dipped her head to one side and smiled back at him. “The second we catch Davis and Ibrahim, you are getting tossed overboard.”

“Can’t wait to hit the water,” he said.

CHAPTER 61

CAPTAIN DAVIS RENTED AChevy Cavalier, then followed Fiona Plum to her house. She gave him the fifty-cent tour of a little bungalow she’d bought and renovated the year before.

The modern kitchen opened to a nice living area with lots of books and a small television that looked rarely used. There were three bedrooms upstairs. She showed him the room with the bunk beds for her nieces, who often visited, and the guest bedroom with a queen bed.

“You’ll stay here,” she said. “Bathroom is across the hall. I’m all the way back.”

“Thank you, Fiona,” he said, putting the clothes and toiletries he’d bought on the bed. “You’re a good person. A very good person for helping me in so many ways lately.”

She beamed. “I do not abandon friends in need. Never.”

“Well, I’m glad. Shall we celebrate my release from jail and coaching?”

---