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“It’s simple, really.” I watched wordlessly as he gathered up our menus and slid them toward the edge of the table for the waitress to retrieve on her way back. “I’ll forward you the rest of the footage if you need me to, but basically, we followed the timestamps and compared it with the sign-in sheet.”

“The club opens at 9pm and doesn’t close until 2am,” Hutch added, whispering, thank you to the waitress as she zoomed up and dropped off his to-go cups, sneaking him a folded piece of receipt paper with what was obviously her name and phone number jotted down on it. A strange heat sizzled across my cheeks when he cracked a smile at her advance. I hadn’t realized I was scowling until Detective Rhodes nudged my shoulder and asked if I was okay.

I cleared my throat and took another sip of water, shaking off whatever the hell that just was. “I’m fine.”

“Anyway,” Hutch continued, groaning as he took a large swallow from his large coffee. “It’s like Rhodes said, we followed the timestamps. Delilah walked in the door around 10:50pm. The tapes show her running out the front door around 11:10pm.”

“That’s twenty minutes,” I easily assessed. “That means Delilah was attacked just minutes after her arrival.”

“Correct,” his partner agreed. “Which also implies the assailant was already in the sanctum.”

“The list contains the names of every male in the building at the time of her attack,” Hutch continued. “Majority of the serving staff are female, except for the males who were bartending. None of the bartenders left their post, so that automatically marks them off the suspect list. The others we eliminated walked in minutes after Delilah fled the club.”

“Shit.”

I sat back in my corner, mildly displeased.

This was bad news.

I mean, it was good they were able to shorten the list some, but it still left us with a big whopping pile of nothing.

“Okay, so what about the others? Any leads there?”

“We’re still working on it,” said Detective Rhodes. “So far, we haven’t found anyone wearing a bull mask or anything related to that particular animal. We still have more footage to review, so don’t worry, we’ll find him. It’s just going to take a little more time.”

“Why don’t you let me help with that?” I offered, staring serenely between the two of them. “Honestly, I don’t mind. You still have to interview those other suspects, right?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Hutch told me. “We have it—”

“Actually,” Rhodes interrupted him with a raise of his hand, which had Hutch scoffing at him in utter annoyance before he took another giant swallow from his plastic coffee cup.

What the fuck was his problem?

“That would be a huge help. Thank you, Charlotte.”

Our food arrived and we discussed the dirty details while we ate. Even though Hutch seemed to have his foot up his ass over me assisting with the tapes, overall, I was pleased with the arrangement.

I then brought up Delilah’s interview, most specifically Delilah’s mask and the comment she made about the perp. It was a long shot, but we really needed to find that mask.

“Chances are Delilah is right and the guy took it, but it’s possible he could’ve tossed it, right?”

“It’s possible, yes,” Rhodes agreed. “We can check the dumpsters—”

“It’s too late for that,” Hutch pitched in as he wiped his mouth with a napkin, tossing it on top of his empty plate. “Trash pickup was yesterday. If the perp did toss it, it’s gone now.”

Damnit. That’s right. I completely forgot about that.

“Well, there’s still a chance it’s out there,” I said, trying to remain confident despite my sagging shoulders. “If we can find the perp, hopefully we’ll find the mask. If not, then that’s okay. All we need is the DNA match. I won’t lie though, I’m a bit concerned with what Delilah told us. What if this guy really was targeting someone else?”

“Let us worry about that while you focus on the security tapes,” Detective Rhodes said just before he stopped the waitress and handed over his debit card, turning back to face me when she was gone. “I’ll lend you our notes. They should be easy to follow. And oh, I have your copy of the list in my car. If you find anything, either call or send us a text.”

He slid out the booth. Hutch followed, and after throwing my purse strap over my shoulder and grabbing the file, I was on my feet and ambling toward the exit, ready to get to work.

nine

Spike

Iawoke later that evening feeling refreshed and eager to get the night started. After breakfast, Phoenix and I went back to the precinct to update Captain Burgess on our findings. Miraculously—and I blame it strictly on luck—after we informed him of our grand plan tonight, Cap let Phoenix and I take the rest of the day off to get some rest since Charlotte was helping analyze the security tapes. Currently, it was 8:30pm and there wasn’t so much as a text or miscall from Charlotte or Phoenix. I hadn’t long gotten out of the shower and had just finished putting my running shoes on.