The name elicited an immediate frown. “He’s busy, ma’am.”
Claire hadn’t expected this. “I need to leave this for him.” She pointed to the hard drive, wondering if it looked like a bomb. It sure as hell felt like one. “Maybe I can write a note explaining—”
“Lee, I got this.” Captain Mayhew was standing behind the glass. He waved for Claire to go to a side door. There was a buzzing sound, then the door opened. Instead of seeing just Mayhew, she found Mayhew and Adam Quinn.
“Claire.” Adam seemed tense. “I didn’t get that email.”
“I’m sorry.” Claire had no idea what he was talking about. “What email?”
“The work-in-progress file from Paul’s laptop.”
Paul’s laptop. God only knew what he had on the MacBook. “I don’t—”
“Just get it to me.” Adam walked past her and out the door.
She stared at his back long after he’d gone. She didn’t understand why he seemed so angry.
Mayhew told Claire, “Guy does not like being in a police station.”
Claire suppressed the first response that came to mind: Who the hell does?
Mayhew said, “We’re talking to everybody who has a key to your house.”
Claire had forgotten Adam was on the list. He and his wife Sheila lived five streets over. He checked on the house when Claire and Paul were out of the country.
Mayhew asked, “What can I do you for, Mrs. Scott?”
“I have something you need to see.” She started to lift the hard drive.
“I got that.” Obviously, he wasn’t expecting the box to be so heavy. He almost dropped it. “Whoa. What is this thing?”
“It’s a hard drive.” Claire felt herself getting flustered. “It was my husband’s. I mean, my husband—”
“Let’s go back to my office.”
Claire tried to pull herself together as she followed him down a long corridor with closed doors on each side. She recognized the open area for processing prisoners. Then there was another long corridor, then they were in an open office space. There were no cubicles, just five desks with five men all hunched over their computers. Two rolling whiteboards were at the front of the room. All were filled with photographs and scribbled notes that were too far away to make out.
Mayhew stopped outside his office door. “After you.”
Claire sat down. Mayhew put the drive on his desk, then took a seat.
She stared at him. More to the point, she stared at his mustache so that she wouldn’t have to look him in the eye.
He asked, “Do you want something to drink? Water? Coke?”
“No, thank you.” Claire couldn’t drag this out any longer. “There are movies on that drive of women being tortured and murdered.”
Mayhew paused for a moment. Slowly, he sat back in his chair. He rested his elbows on the arms, folded his hands together in front of his stomach. “Okay.”
“I found them on my husband’s computer. Well, hooked up to my husband’s computer. An external hard drive that I found—” She stopped to catch her breath. He didn’t need to know the lengths Paul had gone to in order to hide the movies. He just needed to know that they were there. Claire pointed to the hard drive. “That has movies that my husband watched of two different women being tortured and killed.”
The words hung between them. Claire could hear how awful they sounded.
She said, “I’m sorry. I just found them. I’m still …” She didn’t know what she still was. Shaken? Grieving? Furious? Terrified? Alone?
“Just a sec.” Mayhew picked up the phone and punched in an extension. “Harve, I need you in here.”
Before Claire could open her mouth again, another man came into the room. He was a shorter, wider version of Mayhew but with the same type of shaggy mustache.
Mayhew said, “Detective Harvey Falke, this is Mrs. Claire Scott.”
Harvey gave Claire a nod.
Mayhew said, “Hook this up for me, will ya?”
Harvey looked at the back of the drive, then he looked at the back of Mayhew’s computer. He opened one of the desk drawers. There was a tangle of cables inside. He fished out the one he needed.
Mayhew asked Claire, “Sure you don’t want some water? Coffee?”
Claire shook her head. She was scared that he wasn’t taking her seriously. She was also scared that he was. They were down the rabbit hole now. There was no turning back.
Harvey made quick work of the connections. He leaned past Mayhew and started typing on the keyboard.
Claire looked around the room. Mayhew posed in the requisite framed photos of him shaking hands with city officials. A