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“Don’t push it, Payne,” Bowman says. “Thank your lucky stars that you’re not under arrest. At least for now.”

Scarlett balks. “Me? Why me?”

“Well, let’s see here,” Bowman says, shifting to face us. “You nearly ran down an innocent man—”

“Ran down? Seriously? Freddie almost ran us down,” Scarlett defends.

“You visited a jeweler known for fencing—”

“We were led to that store. We have the map.”

“The one with the invisible ink that you could’ve drawn under the guise of Sadistic Santa leading you there?” Bowman asks. “For all I know, you drew that snowflake.”

Scarlett’s jaw drops. “Sir, do you even hear yourself right now?”

Bowman gives her a look. “You also broke into a guest’s room without a warrant. We have you on camera.”

“We put in a request for a warrant,” she says.

“After you went in. I don’t even want to know what you were doing inside.”

Scarlett swallows and nods. “People were going to die, sir. The bomb and all. I couldn’t not do anything. We weren’t going to solve this by playing Santa’s games.”

“Hotel rooms are considered private spaces,” Bowman says. “I warned you about following the rules.”

“That was an exigent circumstance.”

Bowman grimaces. “That won’t be your call to make. Whatever you found or learned, we won’t be able to use in court.”

Scarlett straightens her shoulders. “Then at least we saved lives.”

“I take no satisfaction in this,” Bowman says earnestly.

“So then why is Lambros the one cuffed? Is it for speeding off-road through Central Park?” Scarlett asks.

Bowman squeezes his eyes shut. “You’re making this worse.”

“Then why?” She leans forward. “Walk me through it, sir.”

“The Icicle necklace, it’s been recovered,” Bowman finally says.

She perks up. “Okay, isn’t that good? The missing jewels have been found.”

He gives her a weary glance. “It was at Bonnie Jewelers. Lambros, your fingerprints are all over it.”

“How is that even possible?” I ask. “I haven’t seen it, let alone touched it, in over a year, when I turned it over to the FBI.”

“All I know is what the evidence is telling me,” Bowman says.

“What evidence?” I ask.

Bowman pulls out his phone where his notes must be. “Besides your fingerprints on the necklace and the wrapping paper from the toy store, we have footage of you both at the jewelry store. Bonnie herself said she was instructed to try to sell it.”

“Okay, so she was paid off to lie. Did she name Lambros?” Scarlett asks. “Because that would be lying to law enforcement.”

“She said a jewelry box was delivered to the store,” Bowman says. “And that a key would be delivered to open that box, initiating the process of selling the piece.”

“Key? We didn’t have a key,” I tell him.