Amanda closed her eyes. “Last year, because of me, he was suspended for months. He could have lost his whole career. And it was happening again. Only this time it was more than his career, it was his life. I wasn’t going to put him in danger. Not after everything he’d done for me.” She opened her eyes. Danny was staring at her in disbelief.
“Did you tell him?” Danny shook her head. “What am I saying? Of course you didn’t. Jesus, did you really think you could bribe Matthews?”
“I thought all he wanted was money. And I had money. It’s never been an issue with me.”
“Aren’t you lucky?”
“Yeah, I am. I’ve always had some measure of security because I had a trust income to fall back on. This time having it didn’t help me.” She looked up at Danny. “Are we finished here? Can I go now?”
“No, we’re not finished. I have a feeling we won’t be finished for days. But we can go to the hospital. I’ll drive and we’ll talk more on the way.”
• • •
When they got to the hospital, Sam was in surgery. The ER nurse directed them to a waiting room where, she said, the doctor would come out when the surgery was over. Margo Keyes and Lt. Angel were already there, standing in a corner talking quietly.
“What are you doing here, Margo?” Amanda asked.
“Someone from the DA’s office always comes out to something like this. I was up in the rotation,” she said.
“Do you know how Sam is?”
Lt. Angel answered Amanda’s question. “ER doc said he had an entry wound in the front of his shoulder, no exit wound. Broken arm. Fair amount of bleeding. They have him in surgery now getting the bullet out, the bleeders tied off, and his arm taken care of. He was semi-conscious when they admitted him.”
“What about Matthews?” Danny asked.
“Bullet grazed his arm. He had cuts on his hands and arms and a dog bite. He was treated and released into custody. Oh, and he has quite a goose egg on his head. I understand he has you to thank for that, Ms. St. Claire. Nice hit. We’ll be watching him for a concussion in the jail.”
“And Drake Vos?” Amanda asked, ignoring the compliment.
“He’s not talking much. But I think he will. What little he’s said is to distance himself from the murders. He says Matthews was convinced you’d killed Tom Webster and he was trying to get his revenge for your ‘getting away with it’ by setting it up to look like you’d killed Eubie Kane.” He looked at his cell phone. “Third call from the press. Better go and deal with this. Keep me posted, Danny.”
The wait for the doctors seemed endless but eventually two of them came into the waiting room. “Is one of you Detective Richardson’s partner?” the first one said.
The women looked at each other. “If you mean his professional partner, I am,” Danny replied.
“We’re authorized to tell you and a woman named Amanda St. Claire what happened to Detective Richardson.”
“That’s me,” Amanda said. “And this is Deputy District Attorney Margo Keyes.”
He looked at the identification Margo pulled out of her purse. “Okay, then, I guess it’s all three of you. There’s mostly good news. By some miracle, the bullet missed every major organ and artery in Detective Richardson’s chest. It nicked his subclavian vein and maybe was diverted by his clavicle. We got the bullet out and I think we got all the bleeders but we’ll be keeping a close eye on him to make sure.” He looked from one woman to the other. “Any questions?”