Read Online Fatal Scandal: Book Eight of the Fatal Series by Marie Force - Free Book Online Page A

Victims Unit. He scowled at her as she went past him. “Always nice to see you too, Sergeant.”
    “Fuck off.”
    Sam spun around. “Excuse me?”
    He kept going down the stairs. “You heard me.”
    Sam stormed up the remaining stairs and took a left to go to SVU when she’d planned to go to IT. She walked through the rows of cubicles, drawing the attention of every detective she passed as she made her way to the lieutenant’s office in the back.
    Without knocking, she strolled into the office of SVU Lieutenant Davidson and slammed the door.
    “Help you with something, Lieutenant?” Davidson asked without looking up from what he was doing.
    Sam refused to talk to the top of his dark head, so she waited until he finally looked up at her. “Ramsey.”
    “What about him?”
    “He just told a superior officer to fuck off.”
    “Did he?”
    “He did.”
    “Okay.”
    “What do you plan to do about it?”
    “I’ll talk to him.”
    “See that you do.”
    “Um, yeah, I said I would. Anything else?”
    Sam knew she ought to quit while she was ahead, but what fun was that? “You know what they say about tone at the top?”
    “What about it?”
    “You might want to let your people know that insubordination is unacceptable around here and isn’t good for their career development.”
    “
You
might want to get your own house in order before you start butting into mine.”
    “My house is in fine order, thank you very much. Yours, on the other hand, could use some work.” Satisfied to have the last word, Sam opened the door and went back the way she came.
    Detective Erica Lucas raised a brow in Sam’s direction as she passed Erica’s cubicle.
    “Lieutenant,” Erica said.
    “Detective. Nice to see you.”
    “You too. How’s your niece doing?”
    “Much better. She’s going back to school in Virginia to finish up her senior year.”
    “Glad to hear it.”
    “Thank you again for your sensitivity with her.”
    “No problem.” She glanced at the lieutenant’s office. “Everything all right?”
    Sam lowered her voice so they wouldn’t be overheard. “Just another run-in with my good friend Ramsey.”
    Erica rolled her eyes. “Watch out for him. He hates your guts.”
    “Any idea why?”
    “I have my theories.” Erica’s gaze darted around nervously. “Let’s grab a coffee off campus sometime soon.”
    “We’ll do that.”
    Nodding, Erica said, “I haven’t seen you since your husband’s promotion. Congratulations.”
    “Thank you. I think.”
    Erica laughed and shook her head. “I can’t imagine.”
    “Neither did we.”
    “I’d love to hear all about it.”
    “I’ll call you about that coffee.”
    “Sounds good.” Sam left SVU and headed for IT where she received a much friendlier reception from Lieutenant Archelotta, the one fellow officer who’d seen her naked during their brief fling several years ago.
    “Hey, Sam. What brings you up to my neck of the woods?”
    She produced the CD from Gonzo’s building. “Could you take a look at this for me and see if you can isolate the person or persons who disabled the security camera in an apartment building?”
    “Sure, I’ll put one of my guys right on it.”
    “How’d you end up working on the holiday?”
    “Nothing better to do,” he said with a sheepish grin. “You?”
    “Caught a homicide first thing.”
    “Oh, damn. So, I haven’t seen you since everything happened.” He stretched to look around her. “Where’s your Secret Service detail?”
    “No detail for me. Just him and the boy.”
    “How’d you pull that off?”
    “He made it a condition,” she said with a shrug. “They wanted him badly enough to give him what he wanted.”
    “That’s very cool. I can’t believe your husband is the VP.”
    “Neither can he.”
    Archie laughed. “So business as usual for you, then?”
    “That’s the goal.”
    He held up the CD case. “I’ll get something ASAP for you on this and the phone Cruz brought