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Exaggerated confusion on my face, I looked from him to the girl. “Oh. You’re saying youdon’tknow her?” I played up the fakeness in my voice so he’d catch on. He gave me an annoyed look and I pulled the tablet back. “Well, that’s a relief then, if it wasn’t you who robbed the store and beat the girl to death with a golf club. Do you know why that’s such a relief?”
Claude didn’t answer. I smiled at him, pulling up another file, but not showing him yet. “Ascillon has the death penalty. Not a lot of worlds ascribe to that level of justice anymore, but Ascillon is old school. And that girl? She might have looked twenty-one, but she was only seventeen.”
Fear flashed across his face again and his blink rate tripled. I glanced over my shoulder at Jordan. “Do you happen to know how many death penalty convictions on Ascillon are for the murder of minors?”
“Ninety percent of death penalty convictions are for the death of a minor.”
I whistled. “That’s a pretty high number.” Then I winked at Claude and shrugged. “But hey, you could live for years on appeals alone.”
“Actually,” Jordan spoke again, satisfaction in his voice, “the limit for appeals is one year. They don’t let you drag it out. The government feels like that defeats the purpose. You might put it off for a couple of months, but certainly not years.”
Claude was looking between us both now, and his whole body had gone still. He was trying to figure out where we were going with this, and especially what evidence we had. I played it out a little longer before dropping my ace in the hole.
“But you don’t have to worry, do you Claude? You didn’t kill that girl. I bet you weren’t even in the store that night, were you?”
“That’s right. I wasn’t even there. I didn’t kill that girl. You have the wrong guy.”
“Right.” I flipped the tablet around so he could see it. “So that’snotyou on the security camera?”
The tablet played the recording on file of the girl’s murder. The owner had installed hidden security cameras to monitor employee behavior and had caught the whole incident on tape. I pointed to where a figure was repeatedly hitting the poor girl with a golf club while two others looked on.
“That guy right there? That’s not you?” I lifted an eyebrow at him as raw fear replaced all other emotion on his face. “That’s a crystal-clear shot of you right there. I’m betting you have no alibi and no other plausible explanation. Maybe a long-lost twin? Oh, no, your birth records show otherwise. But I’m sure you have a reasonable explanation for why you killed that girl.”
I winked at him again and turned the tablet off. I stood up and glanced at Jordan. He motioned towards the door, and I nodded.
“Wait, what?” Claude seemed confused by our actions. “You’re leaving?”
I paused and glanced back at him, hoping he’d fall right into my trap. “Well, I don’t think I need to address any of your other warrants. Ascillon will have priority. Even over the attempted murder of Kit Matheson.” He swallowed, hard. I shrugged and turned my back on him. “I guess you’re on your own.”
Jordan opened the door and gestured for me to exit first. I took a step forward and Claude rose from his seat, scraping the chair noisily against the floor. “Wait! You aren’t going to offer me a deal?”
“You want a deal?” I glared at him over my shoulder. “You killed a seventeen-year-old girl in cold-blood, for no reason. What could you possibly have that might be worth her life?”
Claude licked his lips, obviously scrambling now. He knew we had him. There was no walking away from this one, especially not with Santiago dead. He wouldn’t be able to leverage Claude out or spring him from prison. I’d bet with Santiago’s crew arrested his list of friends was extremely short.
“You want to know about the attempted assassination of High Chancellor Barrows? I have information about that.”
Jordan laughed. “We know who tried to assassinate him. Santiago. He’s dead. Agent Carter killed him herself.”
I winced, wondering if mentioning I was the one who killed Santiago would make Claude distance himself from me, but he didn’t miss a beat. Obviously, he didn’t care for Santiago as much as I had assumed. “Yeah, but he was hired to kill him. It wasn’t Santiago’s plan.”
I smirked. “The Conglomeration hired Santiago. We know that.”
Claude rolled his eyes. “That was a lie he told everyone to keep the heat off the real boss.”
Bingo.I faced him. “Who hired him?”
He pressed his lips together, and something inside me deflated. “You don’t know, do you?”
A pained look settled on his face. I sighed and looked at the floor. I’d really hoped this would be the break we’d been looking for. I scuffed my shoe against the floor. “Snails!”
Jordan gave my shoulder a light squeeze. I shook my head, aggravated, and turned for the door.
“Wait!” Claude seemed desperate and I paused. “Look, I don’t know who hired Santiago. He refused to tell anyone. A few of us knew it wasn’t the Conglomeration, that he was putting that out there on behalf of the real boss.”
No one knew. That was worse news. It almost made me regret killing him.Almost.I rubbed my forehead for a long moment. “Santiago certainly was crafty.”
Jordan seemed aggravated too. “He didn’t tell anyone. That was smart.”
