Lee started to rise from his chair.
She gripped his arm. “Wait, please wait.” The thought of being left
alone just then was paralyzing.
He sat back down and waited expectantly.
“How much do I have to tell you before you’ll help me?”
“Depends on what sort of help you want. I’m not doing anything against
the law.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to.”
“Then you’ve got no problem, other than somebody wanting to kill
you.”
Faith took a nervous sip of her tea while Lee watched her.
“If they know who you are from the video, should we be just sitting
here?” she asked.
“I messed with the tape. Ran my magnet over it.”
Faith looked at him, a glint of hope in her eyes. “You think you were
able to erase it?”
“I can’t tell for sure. I’m not an expert in that stuff.”
“But at the very least it might take some time for them to reconstruct
it?”
“That’s what I’m hoping. But were not exactly dealing with the Camp
Fire girls here. The recording equipment also had a security system
built in. Chances are if the police try to force the tape out, it
might selfdestruct. Personally, I’d give the forty-seven bucks I have
in the bank if that did happen. I’m a man who likes his privacy. But
you still need to fill me in.”
Faith didn’t say anything. She just stared at him, like he had just
made an unwanted pass at her.
Lee cocked his head at her. “I tell you what. I’m the detective,
okay? I’ll make some deductions and you tell me if I’m right or not,
how’s that?” When Faith still said nothing, he continued. “The
cameras I saw were only in the living room. And the table, chairs,
coffee and stuff were set up in the living room only. Now, I tripped
the laser or whatever it was going in. That apparently set off the
cameras.”
“I guess that would make sense,” Faith said.
“No, it doesn’t. I had the access code to the alarm system,” said
Lee.
“So?”
“So I put in the code and disarmed the security system. So why have
the trip device still operating? The way it was set up, even when the
guy you were with disarmed the security system, he would still have
engaged the cameras. Why would he want to record himself?”
Faith looked deeply confused. “I don’t know.”
“Hello, so they’d have you on film without you knowing it. Now the
out-of-the-way place with the CIA-level security in place, the Feds,
the cameras and taping equipment, all point to one thing.” Lee paused
as he thought about exactly how he was going to phrase this. “They
brought you there to interrogate you. But maybe they’re not sure of
your level of cooperation, or they think somebody might try to pop you,
so they film the interrogations just in case you turn up missing later
on.”
Faith looked at him with a resigned smile. “Terribly prescient of
them, don’t you think? The ‘turning up missing’ thing.”
Lee stood and stared out the window as he thought things through.
Something very important had just occurred to him. Something that he
should have thought about a lot sooner. And even though he didn’t know
the woman, he was feeling kind of crappy about what he had to say.
“I’ve got some bad news for you.”
Faith looked startled. “What do you mean?”
“You’re under interrogation by the FBI. Presumably you’re also in
their protective custody. One of their guys gets popped protecting you
and I probably wounded the guy who killed him. The Feds have my face
on their tape.” He paused for a moment. “I’ve got to turn you in.”
Faith jumped up. “You can’t do that! You can’t! You said you’d help
me.”
“If I don’t, then I’m looking at some serious time in a place where
guys get way too friendly with other guys. At the very least I lose my
PI license. I’m sure if I knew you better I’d feel even worse about
doing this, but at the end of the day I’m not sure even my grandma
would be worth that much trouble.” He slipped on his jacket. “Who’s