Her Frozen Cry (Detective Amanda Steele)

Amanda had done some more googling before she left home. The gold pin that was on Paul’s wife’s hoodie was the same one Rachel Sharp had. Amanda was aware Paul’s wife worked at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC—MWHC. But that’s not where Rachel Sharp worked. The girl was still in college. Amanda had run another search on Rachel’s family members. Her mother, Stacy, was a nurse at the hospital. “You two been dating for a while?” Amanda smiled, trying to lighten the air. “That’s why you wanted to bring her home to meet your mom?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s great when we meet that someone.”

“I don’t know if Rachel is the one, but she’s great.” Brad was studying her closely, and though it made Amanda uncomfortable, it also made her more confident in her suspicions. So confident, in fact, she was getting a twisted feeling in her gut. It might be best to get Tony away from Brad, just in case this went sideways.

“Actually, Tony,” she began. “I’d like a coffee…”

“Okay.” Tony went to get up, but Brad quickly moved down the couch and put a firm grip on Tony’s arm.

“What are you do—” The question died on Tony’s lips as Brad pulled a syringe from his pocket.

Amanda held up a hand. “You don’t want to do this, Brad. This isn’t who you are.” Bringing Tony may have been a really bad idea, but she wanted Brad to initially be set at ease, so he’d talk. She figured having Tony there would help with that.

“How the hell do you know who I am?” His voice was high and full of panic.

“You’re not a killer.” She put it out there with as much kindness as she could muster, speaking the lie and doing her best to make it sound truthful.

“You don’t know that.” He grimaced and swallowed roughly. His eyes were darting about the room. “And he deserves to die. He came in and took over everything. He was just standing by while Mom was determined to sell her company.”

“She wanted to spend more time with you,” she said.

“No.” He snapped his mouth shut. “She cared more about Leo than me. Always had.”

Amanda played through the scenario in her mind. Brad Slater had access to the New Belle offices and had recently been there. It wasn’t a far reach to see him going into Harold’s office, printing the threat against Tony, and then slipping it into Tony’s drawer. He could have done it after Scarlett left the office for the day or had vacated her seat for some other reason.

“She loved you, Brad,” Tony said. Even facing a threat against his life, he was the picture of calm, even empathy for Brad.

“No. Don’t talk to me!” Brad shouted.

“Put the needle down now, Brad. Everything will be okay,” Amanda said evenly, hoping to de-escalate the tense situation.

“Mom didn’t really care about me or Leo! She wasn’t interested in selling to spend more time with us. That’s bullshit.” Sadness danced across his features and darkened his eyes.

“That’s exactly what she wanted,” Tony said, drawing away with a wince. The tip of the syringe must have pierced his flesh.

“Shut up, just shut up.”

He was a young man, barely older than a child, and he obviously felt so abandoned by his mother. “Where did you get the pentobarbital, Brad? Why kill your own mother?”

Tears fell down his face, and the sudden shift in emotion threw off Amanda’s equilibrium.

“Did you take it from Paws and Claws?” Tony asked him.

“No, I didn’t take it from Beth’s clinic,” Brad spat.

“Did Rachel steal it from MedStar for you?” Amanda said.

Brad’s eyes snapped to hers, his jaw tight, challenging her. She’d rise to the occasion.

“Stacy Sharp, Rachel’s mother, is a nurse at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. Did Rachel steal some pentobarbital for you, so you could kill your mother and Eve Kelley?”

“This is a nightmare,” Tony cried out.

“You don’t know anything,” Brad seethed.

“Did you feel betrayed that your mother was selling the business?” she asked.

“She was never there for me. Never. That damn company of hers always took priority. But now she was going to stop to have time for Leo?” His face shadowed and contorted with grief.

“She ran a multimillion-dollar company and provided for you,” Tony said, and Amanda gave him a subtle shake of her head to keep quiet.

“Money isn’t the most important thing,” Brad said, barely above the level of a whisper.

“What is, then?” Amanda was fishing and had a feeling what the true motivation was the more the boy spoke.

“How is it fair that Leo would have a full-time mom while I didn’t?” His eyes narrowed, full of rage. “I’m here on spring break, and what does she do? She takes off to some stupid cabin.”

Amanda was piecing it together: this was about a young man who had felt abandoned by his mother. “Did you go to the cabin?”

“You can’t prove that.”

“You wear Ithan shoes, size eleven, right? I saw them on you the other day when you were heading out with Rachel and Leo.”

“So?”

“You left prints in the mud outside the cabin window. You stood out there and watched while your mother died.”

Brad released his grip on Tony, and Tony stood.

“You did kill her!” Tony hurled that at Brad, disgust and rage twisting his face.

Brad began to cry in earnest. “I just wanted her to notice me—to see I even existed.”

“She loved you, Brad,” Amanda said. “She was looking at your picture when she died.”