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“That’s not all,” Spike said from the kitchen, as he began plundering through my cabinets hunting for a cup. “We also found a burner phone. I’ll let you take a wild guess at whose name and number was listed in it. The only name and number for that matter.”
I swallowed hard.
Mine.
It was mine.
FUCK.
“Hold that thought,” I told them, my heart hammering as I raced back upstairs and inside my bedroom to grab the pages I’d printed out. Phoenix looked confused when I came back down with the small stack in my hands.
“What’s that?” he asked, and I glanced into the kitchen, finding Spike chugging down booze, his face scrunched in horror at the taste.
“Harley suspended me,” I muttered, “but thankfully, I was able to get to my office and snap pictures of the files and all the evidence we’d gathered before it was too late. I-uh, also talked to Amber and Delilah while you were searching Karl’s apartment. Delilah told me she’s never met Karl, and Amber backed Karl’s story. She said she hasn’t seen or spoken to him in over a month.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Spike asked as he came marching back inside the room, offering me a glare. “Do you have any idea what would’ve happened if—”
“I know, Spike, I know. Which is why I made both Amber and Delilah promise not to mention my little pop up to anyone, especially Harley. They’re both on board and know you’ll be back to question them again. And speaking of, when exactly are you planning to do that?”
“We already did.” Phoenix sat down on my couch and rubbed the heels of his palms against his eyes, expelling an exhausted breath. “That’s why it took us so long to get to you. And you’re right. Delilah says she doesn’t know him, and Amber did back everything Karl said.”
Spike planted himself beside Phoenix, pausing briefly to finish the last of the booze in his cup. He strenuously shook his head and then placed the empty plastic on my center table. “We went back to the precinct to question Karl about the masks and phone. As usual, he’s denying everything and swears it had to have been planted. Most of the evidence we had at first was nothing but circumstantial, but with the DNA match and now that we found the masks inside Karl’s apartment, proving Karl’s being framed is going to be extremely difficult.”
“If not impossible,” muttered Phoenix.
“Wait.” My heart sputtered as my gaze darted between them. “You think he’s innocent?”
“We do,” Spike answered, which frankly shocked the hell out of me. “But the problem is Harley.”
“What do you mean?”
“We tried to talk to her,” said Phoenix. “After we’d spoken with Amber. But that woman is—”
“Fucking intolerable,” scoffed Spike.
“Harley ordered us to stand down from investigating anything else until she could review every speckle of evidence on both cases. Thanks to her eavesdropping on us, she wants to make sure everything we’ve gathered is credible.”
“We didn’t have a choice but to listen to her,” Spike said much to all of our dismay. “She threatened to rat us out to the Cap and Chief if we didn’t.”
I blew out an overly flustered breath and then gently perched against the edge of my center table, moving Spike’s cup out of the way so I could place the pages I was still holding down.
“You said you found Delilah’s mask and the bull mask at Karl’s apartment, but what about the third mask?” Phoenix had once mentioned he had a theory about our perp carrying two masks to help evade detection.
“It wasn’t there,” Phoenix answered.
“You reviewed the footage I had Phoenix bring over to you, right?”
My eyes widened, and my face flushed as I glanced over at Phoenix who smiled knowingly at me.
Oh my God…
Shit!
“No,” I admitted, unable to hide the guilt as my cheeks began burning hotter. “I kind of got a little…distracted and completely forgot about it.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Spike’s eyes narrowed on Phoenix, who did nothing but grin bigger and flash him a teasing wink.
“When you get a chance, look at it. The guy talking to Amber isn’t wearing a bull mask. In fact, it’s not an animal mask at all. It’s hard to tell even with the footage enhanced, but Phoenix and I both agree that it looks like some type of masquerade mask.”
