Lethal Attraction: Against the Rules\Fatal Affair Read online

  “What’ve you got?” Sam asked.

  “Nothing so far at the cabin, but I did that run you asked for on Robert O’Connor. Sixty-five years old, lives in Mechanicsville with his wife Sally, age sixty-three. They have three grown children—Sarah, forty, Thomas, thirty-six and Michael, thirty-four. Five grandchildren.”

  “Son of a bitch,” Sam muttered. “They lied to me.”

  “Do you want me to do some more digging?”

  “No, that’s okay. Were you able to get pictures of the kids?”

  “Yeah, I shot them to your e-mail.”

  “Thanks, Gonzo. Let me know if you turn up anything at the cabin.”

  “It’s slow going. I’ll call you when we’re done.”

  “Who lied to you?” Freddie asked when she had ended the call.

  “O’Connor’s parents.” She explained about the photo she had found at the cabin. “I think John had a son they swept under the rug. I’m going to Chicago tomorrow to find out.”

  “Want me to tag along?”

  “No, I can take this one alone. I need you to confirm the info we got from Davenport and Svendsen about the people they were with the night of the murder. I’d also like you to check security at both their buildings. See if you can catch them coming home that night—or more importantly, going back out.”

  “Got it,” he said, making notes. “I would’ve done that run you had Gonzo do.”

  “Don’t pout, Freddie. An investigation of this magnitude requires we make use of all available resources.”

  After navigating building security and handing over their weapons—something that always left Sam feeling twitchy—she and Freddie were escorted to Jordan’s office. As special assistant attorney general, he sat right next door to the attorney general himself. Jordan was tall with an athletic build, short blond hair that looked like it would be wildly curly if left to grow and sharp blue eyes. He wore a dark pinstriped suit that had clearly been cut just for him. Nothing off-the-rack for this guy, Sam thought, as she noted his almost startling resemblance to John O’Connor. Apparently, the late senator wasn’t the only one who went for a “type.”

  “Detectives,” he said, standing to shake their hands. He gestured for them to make use of the chairs in front of his desk. “What can I do for you?”

  “You’re aware that your wife had a long-term relationship with Senator O’Connor?”

  “I am.”

  “Did she ever talk to you about him?”

  “Occasionally, but nothing more than an off-hand comment or two. She respects me too much to throw him in my face. My wife and I are happily married, and none of our former relationships factor into our marriage.”

  “Did you ever meet the senator?”

  “A few times. I’m active in the Virginia Democratic Party, and obviously he was as well.”

  “Did you like him?”

  “I didn’t dislike him, but neither would I say we were anything more than casual acquaintances. So he dated my wife? Big deal. She’s a beautiful woman who had several relationships before me. I don’t expect that her life—or mine—began the day we met. Although,” he said, softening, “in many ways, mine did begin with her.”

  “Can you confirm your whereabouts on the night of the murder? Tuesday between ten p.m. and seven a.m.?”

  He consulted a brown leather book. “On Tuesday evening we attended the annual Christmas fundraiser/silent auction for the Capital Region Big Brothers and Big Sisters here in the city. We were home by ten, in bed by ten-thirty. We made love and went to sleep. Is that enough information?”

  “Has your wife ever mentioned anything about her relationship with the senator that made her uncomfortable?”

  For the first time, Jordan’s cool composure wavered. “Uncomfortable in what way?”

  “Any way.”

  “No, but like I said, we’ve never felt the need to share the intimate details of our past relationships.”

  When Sam stood up, Freddie followed her lead. “I know you had plans to be out of town for the holidays,” she said, “but you’ll need to remain in the area.”

  “I’m due to leave for Europe on the third of January. Work-related travel.”

  “Hopefully by then we’ll have cleared this up. Until we do, you and your wife are required to stay local.”

  *

  “Thoughts?” she asked Freddie after they had reclaimed their weapons. Relieved to have her gun back, Sam slid hers into her hip harness.

  “First, he knew we were coming. Had that appointment book nice and handy.”

  “No doubt the wife tipped him. But guess what? He lied about one thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “The Big Brothers/Big Sisters thing?”

  Freddie nodded.

  “That was last Tuesday. I know because I was there.”

  Freddie released a low whistle.

  “It doesn’t mean one of them killed the senator, though. It only means there’s something he doesn’t want us to know or his date book is messed up. We still can’t place either of them at the Watergate.”

  “So we file this tidbit away and continue to work the case?”

  “Exactly. The thing between the senator and Natalie was over years ago. Where’s the motive?”

  “True,” Freddie said.

  “My take is that he’s crazy in love with her, still wonders how he ever managed to snag her and he’s glad O’Connor’s dead. He didn’t kill him, but he sees it as a favor that someone else did.”

  “So you think he was threatened by the senator?”

  “Big time,” Freddie said. “He knows he wasn’t the love of Natalie’s life.”

  “Good. That’s good. Crazy how much he looks like O’Connor, huh?”

  “I’d say creepy would be a better word.”

  “Agreed. I want you to look into those ‘other relationships’ of hers that he referred to. Find out if any of the other men in her life met with an untimely demise, and while you’re at it, do a search for unsolved cases involving dismemberment. The senator might not have been the first.”

  “Local or national?”

  “Start local and see what pops. I’ll be authorizing overtime for both of us, so while you’re at it, get me everything you can find on the three women we met today. No detail is too big or too small. If they have a tattoo, I want to know what it is and where.”

  “Tramp stamps,” he wrote as she snickered at the term. “Got it. You’re really sure it was a woman, aren’t you?”

  “Every fiber of my being tells me this was a love affair gone very wrong.”

  “Or someone wants us to think that.”

  “We can’t rule that out,” she conceded.

  “In light of what we’ve learned today, we also can’t rule out that it might’ve been a love affair with a man that went very wrong.”

  “Right again,” she said. “Nothing is ever as cut and dried as we’d like it to be, is it?”

  “Nope.”

  “You’ve had a few girlfriends.”

  “So?” he said warily.

  “Don’t you compare notes on past relationships?”

  His face flooded with color. “Depends on how serious it is with the new one and whether or not she asks.”

  “Is it weird that Natalie Jordan never told her husband that things got kinky with the senator?”

  “I don’t know, Sam. That falls into a serious gray area. What guy would want to know that his woman did it all with the ex?”

  “Hmm. It just seems strange to me that she’s never even alluded to it. I mean, they’re married. And you saw his face. He had no idea what I was talking about.”

  “Did you share that kind of stuff with Peter?”

  “Bad example. We weren’t your typical married couple.”

  “Sorry to dredge up the past, but I think you’d be in a better position to answer your own questions than I would be, having never been married myself.”

  “Yeah, I guess, but I hardly