She swallowed, moved infinitesimally away from him, then pulled her legs closer to her body and wrapped her arms around them. “He came home earlier than I’d expected. But how could he have known?”
Because he was evil, the devil, and he knew everything. In the dark, he could have seen the flashing lights on the DVD player. Maybe he had. Maybe he hadn’t cared. Maybe that had been his intention. Or maybe he saw an opportunity to best her, and he took it. A coldness settled into her bones.
“But why would he want me to have the disk? I found it in his house. It’s incriminating.”
Witt laughed. Low. Mirthless. Angry. “It isn’t worth a damn against him.”
“But—”
He raised his head and stared her down with those fathomless blue eyes. “It’s inadmissible. You stole it from his house. The only person who can link it to him now is you.”
“So I’ll testify—”
“Your testimony is tainted. You hate the man. There’s more than one person to testify how much. You’re such a fool.”
“But—”
“We needed a goddamn search warrant.” He sat up, rested his elbows on his knees, and half-turned to look at her over his shoulder. “Why didn’t you tell me what you were planning?”
“I ... ” She thought about telling him the truth, that she’d almost called him. “I didn’t want to get you in trouble.”
He snorted. “You didn’t trust me. Not as a cop, and sure as hell not as a man.”
She felt like slime. “It’s nothing personal.”
“No, I suppose not. You don’t really trust anyone. Except maybe your husband.”
No. Not even him.
“So, what brilliant insights do you have now that you’ve royally screwed up this whole fricking case?”
She didn’t take umbrage; instead, she cringed inside. He was right. Bud Traynor had played her for all she was worth, pulled her strings like a puppeteer. “He knew I’d get to him eventually. But why did he want me to have that video?”
“You just witnessed a murder. All the evidence is there. Maybe he wanted to incriminate someone else.”
“Fat lot it tells us. They wore costumes and masks, distorted their voices.”
“There’s a helluva lot of answers there if you know how to look for them.” He tugged on her hand, forcing her to look at him. “They were women, Max. Couldn’t you tell by the way they moved? Two women killed Tiffany. They knew her, and she knew them. She recognized them the first time they spoke. You could see it in her eyes. They let the guy at her, but it wasn’t enough. They went for her themselves. This wasn’t just a snuff film; it was a malicious murder. Some psychic you are.”
So mild. So cutting. She deserved it. He had reached the end of his rope with her. Or perhaps seeing the aftermath every day didn’t compare with seeing the actual murder.
If he needed to take it out on her, so be it. She had the shoulders to bear anything. “We can turn it over to your buddies handling the case. Let them work with it.”
“We can’t do that.”
She trembled at the harshness in his voice. “Why not?”
“It’s not my case. You stole the DVD. If I turn it over to my so-called buddies, I can’t answer for what happens to you.”
The answer to that was simple. “Then I’ll break back in, put it back, and you can get a search warrant for it.”
“Go near the man again, and I’ll have you arrested.”
She bristled at his dictatorial tone. “You don’t have to know anything about it till it’s over. I’ll call you when you can move in on him.”
He slumped forward, his head almost touching his knees. She couldn’t be sure whether he laughed or cried. “You wear me out. This isn’t Dragnet. There’s the little problem of probable cause. We can’t get a warrant without a reason.”
It was like beating her head against the wall. She knew it all, had seen Cameron battle against the law’s protection of criminals. And Bud Traynor knew it, too. God, he had played her. But why had Cameron fallen for it? “Well, we can’t just let these people get away with it.”
Witt raised his head and stared at her. “Is that what you really think I’m going to do?” He sounded offended, as if she’d attacked his honor.
Well, she had.
He pushed the open button. The tray slid out. “I’ll take this to a guy I know. He’s an audio wizard. He’ll clean it up, and hopefully we’ll recognize those voices. At least we’ll know who we’re dealing with. I’ll evaluate where to go from there, maybe figure a way to give it to the leads without implicating you.”
He turned to look at her, chips of ice in his blue eyes. “And Max, from now on, stay the hell away from Traynor. Your obsession is fucking up everything. That man will get away with murder. And not in spite of you, but because of you.”
*
Baffled blue fabric walls. The salty taste of semen in her mouth. Max gagged where Tiffany had only smiled and asked for more. She opened her eyes, stared up at the Wolfman, and knew she was dreaming again. Ruthlessly, she went with it, licked her lips as Tiffany had done, smiled and assumed control, the way Cameron had wanted her to.