“He’s moved on. He and Tony are already on the next case. Jacobs and Diaz, too.” The detectives who interviewed me about Daniels’ death.
Burgess is still talking. “Stroke of luck all these murders got solved together. Three birds, one stone.” He points his finger and makes a noise like a gun firing. “And they had you in the frame for that body on your doorstep. Guess that makes this your lucky day.”
I feel like I’ve been beaten, and not in a good way. Burgess notices.
“Not sure why you look like someone canceled Christmas,” he grumbles.
“What about the video I found, the security video outside Martin Shipping.” The video showed Rex in body armor. “How do you explain that?”
“Must have been a gang member.”
“Did you talk to any of them? Do they fit the profile?”
“They’re all denying they had anything to do with it. But they’re being held without bail, and the DA’s on the case now. He’ll offer them a deal to turn on the rest, and one of ’em will take it. We’ll get our confession.”
A false confession, not that it will matter. Rex murdered three men, and the wrong people will go down for it. “This is so wrong.”
“Look, kid.” Burgess claps a meaty hand on my back. “Chief wants this case closed. We did it. Everyone’s celebrating. We’re all going out tonight. You wanna come?”
Even through my leather jacket, his touch makes my skin crawl. I jerk away from him.
“Have it your way.” He leaves, taking his BO with him and leaving me with my files and the ashes of my dying hope.
Rex isn’t just ten moves ahead. He’s controlled the whole board from day one while I stupidly thought I could beat him. Maybe I can, but this is checkmate.
24
Inara
I wander backto the evidence room in a daze. The board is a blank slate, waiting for the next big case.
“Wait.” I stop a grunt from packing up a box of evidence. “Where are you taking this?
“To storage for the DA to access before the court date.”
“Not yet. I need to check them for something.”
He shrugs and leaves the room.
I grab the clipboard with the list of stated evidence. There’s the blood-soaked shirt and the glass that held the liquid we tested, but no mention of the security tape. It should be filed with the evidence from Martin’s office.
Where’s the tape?
I know I took a screenshot of the filing number on the evidence label, so I pull it up and find the matching box.
There’s no tape. Besides the screenshot I took, there’s no paper trail to prove it was ever here.
The one piece of evidence I got, the video of Rex about to break into Martin Shipping to commit murder, is gone.
Rex allowed me to have it. And then he arranged for it to be lost.
I don’t know how long I spend looking through the boxes, painstakingly emptying each one. Finally, the grunts come back to take them away.
Just like that, the room is empty. It’s over.
But I refuse to admit defeat. It can’t end like this.
I have one move to make, one pawn to sacrifice.
