The VCR made a clacking sound. It had rewound to the beginning of the tape and shut off.
Teddy pressed Play.
An image filled the screen. It was a hallway in the building, but not the one outside the Ace Detective Agency. Teddy could make out the office number 810.
Teddy held down the fast forward button and the images jumped across the screen. At least they would have, if anything had been happening. The scene was just an empty hallway.
Teddy stopped the tape, hit fast forward again, and wound ahead. After several seconds he stopped the tape and pressed Play. The image was the same.
Teddy kept running the tape forward until static filled the screen. He ejected the tape and saw that it had stopped right about in the middle. It was rewound slightly farther than the other tapes from the machine.
Using the tape as a guide, he rewound another tape slightly past that spot. Another view from the building appeared, this one from a back staircase. Teddy located the spot where the image became static. It was exactly the same place as on the other tape. Teddy tried another tape with the same results.
That confirmed the hypothesis. The killer would not appear on any of the tapes. Nor would he. The killer hadn’t just disabled the camera on the third floor, he’d cut the main feed before going in.
Teddy couldn’t help but feel a grudging admiration.
This guy was good.
28
Mason Kimble leaned back in his desk chair, luxuriating in his power. “Pass me a bubble-wrap mailer, will you?”
Gerard Cardigan got up and went to the short bookshelf that served as the company mail station. He took a mailer off the pile and brought it back for Mason. “Do you have a special delivery for our friend?”
“I do.”
“How much of the video are you going to send her?”
Mason smiled. “I’m not sending her the video.”
“Oh? What are you sending her?”
“You know perfectly well what I’m sending her. You knew as soon as I asked you to hang on to it.”
“I suspected. I didn’t know for sure.”
“Now you do.”
“She won’t know what it is.”
“It doesn’t matter. It will frighten her.”
“That it will,” Gerard said. “Do you want me to drop it off in the morning?”
Mason smiled. “Why wait?”
29
The doorbell rang at two AM. Tessa heard it and hopped out of bed. She had been tossing and turning all night, keyed up from Teddy’s news and his caution to her.
Ben slept through the bell. It was a single chime, discreet, tasteful, nearly inaudible. Ben had complained about it, saying they’d miss someone because they couldn’t hear the door. Tessa said that would never happen. Ben had pointed out, how would she possibly know?
Tessa peered out the window to see who it was. She prayed it wouldn’t be a man she didn’t know. If it was, she couldn’t let him in, but she was terrified of what would happen if she didn’t.
There was no one there.
Somehow, that was even more frightening.
Tessa eased the door open a crack, prepared to slam it if someone was lurking in the shadows, but no one was. She opened the door wider, hoping against hope there wouldn’t be a padded mailer on her doorstep. There was. She snatched it up and swayed for a moment, afraid to bring it in the house and afraid to leave it out in the open. What could it be this time? Somehow she just knew it would be worse. It was heavier, if that meant anything.
She took it into the kitchen and switched the light on.
Tessa reached into the mailer and pulled out the cold metal object.
It was a gun.
* * *
—
Teddy groped for his cell phone and clicked it on. “Somebody better be dead, or someone will be.”
“I’m sorry,” Tessa whispered urgently. “I need your help.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m at home.”
“Then you’re safe. I’ll talk to you in the morning.”
“No, wait! Someone delivered a gun to my front door!”
“When?”
“Just now. The doorbell rang. I went to the door, and on the porch was a bubble-wrap mailer. I think it’s the murder weapon.”
“What makes you think that?”
“It’s been fired recently.”
“What do you know about guns?”
“Back home I used to target-shoot on a private estate. The gun is a revolver. It’s fully loaded, but there’s an empty shell in one of the chambers.”
“Shit.”
“What should I do?”
“Is Ben up?”
“He slept right through the doorbell. Nothing wakes him.”
“Hang on. I’ll be right there.”
“You can’t come by at two in the morning.”
“I’m not coming in. I’ll be there in ten minutes. Be watching out the window. When you see the car, leave the mailer with the gun inside on the stoop.”
Teddy hurriedly pulled on some clothes. He grabbed his keys and wallet, slipped on a pair of sneakers, and hopped in the car. He observed the speed laws on his way. That time of night a lone car speeding would attract attention.
Ben and Tessa lived in a Hollywood home with an inordinate amount of lawn. Teddy left the car on the street and sprinted up the drive in his unlaced sneakers. He saw the front door open, and a shadowy figure place the mailer on the stoop.
Teddy picked up the mailer with the gun and slipped off the path into the darkness. He stood stock-still, listening for a sound but heard none. He worked his way quickly around the perimeter of the property to the street.
No one seemed to be watching his car, but that didn’t mean someone wasn’t. There was no help for that now. Teddy got in, started the engine, and pulled away. He drove the speed limit all the way home.
He parked in his driveway, hurried up the walk, and went inside. It was a relief to get home, but he didn’t relax until he’d locked the gun in his safe.
30
A local newscast reported the murder of private detective Ace Vargas. Teddy had planned on ignoring the case altogether, but that was before he was in possession of a recently fired gun that was likely the murder weapon.