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Oh my God. How could they sound so clinical and un-bothered by those sounds?
“But she has long, straight, dark hair like Melody Fairfield,” Mr. Stempy argued.
“There’s no way to know it’s really her,” the detective stated firmly.
Mr. Stempy jabbed a finger back toward the screen. “She’s on top, though, just like Hilliard and Miss Prescott claimed, which Miss Fairfield completely denies happened.”
The two men frowned at each other just as Melody really started wailing, and Beckett gave a shout of pleasure.
Oh, hell, please open up and swallow me now, world.
“Wha…?” Both men frowned when the frame moved, going blurry and then the screen became completely dark.
“I thought I’d only taken a quick picture,” I explained, my face all hot and flushy. “So I shoved the phone back into my pocket about as soon as I got it into focus.”
Stempy held up a hand when I began to lower the phone. “Wait, the video’s still going, though. Maybe we can hear—”
Before he could even finish his hope, a muffled female voice called, “Oh my God, that was so good. I can’t believe I, Melody Fairfield, finally caught the elusive Beckett Hilliard. And holy shit, Jana was so right about you. You fuck like a goddamn animal.”
Beckett’s answer was a faint groan as if he were in pain, and then the video finally ran out of steam and shut off.
I lifted my face, no longer so mortified, because I was too busy sharing a shocked glance with Detective Rice and Mr. Stempy. All three of our mouths had fallen open, none of us quite able to believe what we’d just heard.
“Okay, maybe it was Melody Fairfield with Beckett Hilliard in the video,” Detective Rice finally allowed, “But who’s to say this video was taken on the night of the…”
His words faded off, as I pointed to the date and exact time, along with the town’s name, posted above the video.
He blinked, then cleared his throat and said, “I’m going to need you to forward that video to me, please.”
Beckett’s lawyer nodded. “Me too.”
It wasn’t until after I’d left them, made it to my car and started the engine that I realized I’d just shared a sex tape I’d filmed with two complete strangers.
Life was so weird.
Chapter 9
BAILEY
“So, did you tell them?”
I pulled my lap blanket more firmly over me and grabbed another handful of potato chips—my comfort food. Across the room, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off played on the television. It’d been a good escape for all of an hour until Tess had come barreling up the stairs, out of breath, her red hair flying out behind her and her cheeks pink from the outdoors cold.
“Yes,” I muttered before cramming more Doritos into my mouth. “It’s done.”
“So…?” She dropped her book bag to the floor and spread her arms, waiting for me to elaborate.
I lifted and eyebrow and crunched noisily. “So…what?”
“Oh my God, Bailey? So what happened? Did you free him? Are you okay? Did they make you feel dirty and wrong? I kept worrying the whole day that they’d make you feel like the one who did something bad. I totally should’ve gone with you. I can’t believe you—”
“Holy jeez!” I said to hush her. “It went fine. They were really cool, and I actually feel better about it now.”
Tess glanced at the movie, where Ferris was currently singing Twist and Shout on a parade float, then her gaze ran over the blanket wrapped around me to the nearly empty bag on my lap. She knew I didn’t feel totally better yet.
“Okay, fine.” I sighed. Sometimes it sucked to have such an intuitive friend. “I have no idea what’s happened to the case. I don’t know if they freed him instantly, or not? I just…They took my report and then sent the little woman on her way, and it’s killing me that I don’t know how anything went down from there.”
“Well, obviously, they released him, right?” Tess seemed so certain of her statement until she focused on my face. Then her lips parted and her head swayed back and forth with denial. “Right?”
