Double Cross

Chapter 20

IT STARTED OUT as a barely discernible flash, something almost subliminal in the static just before the second half of the tape began. Bree and I had been staring so much at what the killer wanted us to see, we hadn’t really looked anywhere else.

“Hold it a second,” I said.

I picked up the remote and rewound the tape a bit, then froze it.

“There,” I said to Bree. “See it?”

It was almost nothing. More like the suggestion of an image, almost too fast for the human eye or even the slow-motion feature on the VCR. A ghost is what it was. A clue. Left there on purpose?

“This tape’s been used before,” I said.

Bree was already putting on her shoes, which were size-ten black flats. “You know anyone at the Cyber Unit over at the Bureau?” she blurted out.

The police department relied heavily on the FBI for video-forensics assistance. I knew a few names over there, but it was now nine o’clock at night. That didn’t seem to matter to Bree, who was up out of her seat and pacing.

She finally picked up the phone herself. “Let me try Wendy Timmerman. She works late.”

I raised my eyebrows at her. “Wendy Timmerman works late? Someone’s been paying attention.”

Wendy was ostensibly an office manager for the department, but she was also something of a secret weapon for anyone who wanted to bend the rules a little without breaking the law. She knew everyone, and everyone, it seemed, owed her one kind of favor or another.

Plus, she had no life. She practically lived at her desk.

Sure enough, Wendy talked for a couple of minutes to Bree, then called back with a name and number.

“Jeffery Antrim,” Bree said, hanging up. “Lives over in Adams Morgan. Supposed to be a genius at this stuff. I guess he moonlights out of his apartment, but Wendy said bring him a six-pack, and we’ll be admitted to his lair in a flash. Hey-remind me to send Wendy some flowers.”

“Don’t bother,” I said. “She’ll call you when she wants a favor. It’ll be more than some flowers.”