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He takes a step back, giving me space. It feels as if I’m in a trance, opening something that I shouldn’t, something that will change everything. I move the mouse to hover over the folder, click it twice. Inside, dozens of photograph tiles are stored, labeled with the same number the camera originally tagged them with.
I select them all, click ‘Open’.
The images pop up one at a time, the newest taking the place of the previous on screen. Even though they pop up quickly, I can’t unsee them. Catherine emaciated and unconscious in a bed, her hair brushed back from her forehead, her arms at her sides showing lines of angry stitches. Antoinette lying on the bed with her while she sleeps. There’s a close-up of her arms. Another of her bruises. Some of her sitting up in a chair, looking sick and terrified.
“I can’t look at this,” Sade says, turning away when the last image to open, frozen on the screen, is of Catherine’s fresh burn scar, red and angry, its tail notched between her breasts.
Mani taps the screen. “Bingo.”
He’s probably figured out that I know about the scar already, so I don’t admit to it. I say, “It’s circumstantial.”
He stares at me for a long moment. “Iknowthat.” He waves his hands impatiently. “But we can re-submit thewarrant.” He points at the picture of the scar. “This. This is enough to get a warrant!”
“No. I’m done waiting. We go now.” The decision is instant, but for the first time in forty-eight hours, I have something to use and I’m not going to let the opportunity slip through my fingers. “We have Sascha under surveillance. We have him bugged. We need to-”
“Flush him,” Mani says, seeing where I’m going.
“Exactly.”
Mani taps the computer screen impatiently, sending the monitor into an anxious back and forth. “If we take this to the Mousetrap with questions and apply some pressure. Maybeimplythat we’re getting a warrant signed…”
“Print it.” I push to a stand, not wasting any more time. “Let’s go.”
“Wait!” Sade holds out both her arms as if she’s trying to physically stop us from passing. “We can’t just go in there, guns blazing! What if he spooks?”
Mani and I look at one another, surprised that she’s objecting. “That’s the point,Sade,” he says, his voice filled with sibling-like frustration. “If he knows where Catherine is and we come knocking with this,” Mani yanks the photograph out of the printer tray, “he’s going to panic and try and move her.”
“Men!” Sade shouts, turning a few heads to turn our way. “What if he kills her? What if she’s not there?”
“This!” Mani yells back. “This is why women can’t be cops!”
Sade gasps.
Raising my hand, I call for silence. “Sade’s right.”
“Thank you!” She glowers at Mani.
“Have obvious surveillance on every street corner outside the Mousetrap. Marked cars. Lights on. Uniformed officers.”
“You think he won’t move her if he knows we’re watching?”
“Ifshe’s there,” I look at Sade to remind her that I understand the chance we’re taking, “he won’t risk it. But he might say something about it when we leave.” I think through everything that needs to be in place. “Make sure GHU know we’re going in. Make sure they’re listening. Have backup on standby.”
Sade nods. “And if she’s not there?”
“I don’t know,” I reply quietly. “But Sascha doesn’t know that we suspect him of taking Cat, which means he was probably lax. Her car was found on the same street, which points to the Mousetrap. And if you kidnap someone in broad daylight, you move them as little as possible during the day. You wait for night.”
“It’s a risk.”
“It’s a calculated one,” I counter. “One I can’t ignore.” I check my weapon, nod to Mani to follow, and leave Sade to organize the rest.
As we move towards the police cruiser, I debrief Mani. “Sascha doesn’t know our involvement with the girls outside of Lizzie’s case. He’ll think we’re following up on an MP because of her connection to Lizzie.”
“Yeah. So, we play dumb?”
“Start out that way. Keep bringing up the similarities between the snakes. I’ll observe, jump in if I need to.”
“Okay.”
