Free Fatal Deception by Marie Force Page B

and pressed a motherly kiss to her uninjured cheek. “Let them take care of you, honey. They know what they’re doing.”
    Touched, as always, by Celia’s sweetness, Sam said, “Why does everything they’re doing have to involve needles? And why did my husband have to call you guys when I told him I was fine?”
    “Because he was worried about you and couldn’t get here himself to check on you,” Skip said. “So he called in the next best thing.”
    “You don’t have to stay. The plastics guy is going to stitch me up, and then I’m going to work.”
    “We’ll stick around until you’re done.” Her father’s blue eyes, the exact shade of hers, allowed for no argument. He got a lot done with those eyes. “In case you need us.”
    * * *
    When Celia stepped into the hallway to take a phone call from her sister, Skip turned those formidable blue eyes on his daughter again.
    “What?” Sam asked, suddenly feeling the need to squirm. He was one of two people who had the power to make her squirm.
    “I had dinner with Joe over the weekend,” he said of his longtime friend, the chief of police.
    An uncomfortable itch settled at the base of Sam’s neck when she sensed her father was pissed about something. “That’s nice. I know how much you enjoy seeing him.” His former colleagues at the MPD had been endlessly devoted since the devastating shooting that left Skip a quadriplegic two and a half years ago.
    “He mentioned something I was quite surprised to hear, especially since my own daughter was involved and never saw fit to tell me about it.”
    Yep, he was pissed. Sam wished she knew what he was talking about so she could prepare the defense she’d probably need. Whenever he got mad at her, it was usually with good reason. “What was that?” Sam asked, though she suspected she didn’t want to know.
    “The Fitzgerald case.”
    “Oh.” Sam’s stomach took a perilous dip. “That.”
    “Yeah, that. The cold case of mine that you reopened when I was hooked to a ventilator earlier this year and unable to tell you to leave well enough alone.”
    “You don’t understand—”
    “You’re goddamned right I don’t understand! I told you once before to leave that one alone, and nothing has changed since then.”
    Sam stared at him, mouth agape, which caused more pain to radiate through her injured face. “ Everything has changed since then. The day you told me to leave it alone the first time was the same day you were shot. We thought you were going to die when you had pneumonia. I wanted to get closure for you. I did it for you.”
    “Is that right? So when I didn’t have the decency to die, why didn’t you tell me you’d reopened my case without my permission?”
    “I hate to tell you,” Sam said, unnerved by his unusual hostility, “that it’s not your case anymore. In case you’ve forgotten, I’m in charge of the homicide division now, and all cases—hot and cold—are actually my cases.” The instant the words were out of her mouth, Sam realized she’d said exactly the wrong thing.
    The side of his face that wasn’t paralyzed became stormy as he went from pissed to furious. “It’s good to know you’re not above pulling rank on your paralyzed old man.”
    “Oh, Jesus, Dad, you’re going to play the paralyzed card on me?”
    “I don’t have many other cards in my deck these days. I can’t believe you let me hear about this from Joe. Do you have any idea how embarrassing it is to hear from him what my own kid should’ve told me months ago? And then to see his surprise when he realized I didn’t know? You promised you wouldn’t keep shit from me anymore. I’m disappointed you broke your promise.”
    His words hit like arrows to her heart. She’d embarrassed and hurt him, which in turn hurt her. Sam couldn’t find the words to respond. To hear him say he was disappointed in her was far worse than anything else he could’ve said, and he knew it.
    “Here’s how this is going