“I don’t think that Andrew killed Ruby. I think that someone else did it for him. The killer used the same MO that Andrew used on his other victims. And Andrew made sure he had a solid, unbreakable alibi for when it happened.”
Walter was giving her his undivided attention.
“When I was in Reggie’s office three days ago, he had a letter opener on his desk. The same kind of letter opener I bought you for Christmas.” She paused a moment to make sure he was ready. “The letter opener isn’t on Reggie’s desk anymore. It’s not in his drawers.”
Walter looked down at the folder. “Show me.”
Leigh pulled out the crime scene photo. The blunt, sterling silver handle of the knife-like letter opener showed where a metal punch had imprinted T&CO MAKERS into the metal.
The hardness drained from Walter’s expression. He wasn’t seeing the letter opener. He wasn’t connecting the dots from Leigh’s story. He was seeing the woman he’d laughed with over backyard barbecues. The mother of his daughter’s friend. The parent he’d joked with at PTA meetings and school events. The person whose brutal, intimate death had been captured in the photograph Leigh held in front of his face.
His hand went to his head. Tears sprang into his eyes.
Leigh couldn’t take his anguish. She started crying, too. She hid the photograph from his sight. Of all the horrible violations of their marriage, this one felt the most brutal.
“You’re saying … you mean that he …” The sorrow on Walter’s face was unbearable. “Keely has a right to …”
“She has a right to know,” Leigh finished.
“I don’t …” Walter turned around. He looked at Reggie. “What are we going to do?”
Leigh reached down. She slipped the gun from his grasp. “You’re going to leave. I can’t let Maddy lose you, too. This is my responsibility. I’m the reason all of this happened. I want you to take my car and—”
“No.” Walter was looking down at his hands. He flexed his fingers. His knuckles were bleeding. Sweat still poured from his body. His DNA was all over the office, the Audi, the parking deck. “We have to think, Leigh.”
“There’s nothing to think about,” she said, because all that mattered was that Walter was as far from this as possible. “Please, baby, get in my car and—”
“We can use this,” he said. “It’s leverage.”
“No, we can’t let—” Leigh stopped mid-sentence. There was nothing to add to the can’t because she knew that he was right. They had kidnapped and tortured Reggie, but Reggie had murdered Ruby Heyer.
Mutually assured destruction.
“Let me talk to him,” Leigh said. “Okay?”
Walter hesitated, but he nodded.
Leigh stuck the folder under her arm. She walked back into the office.
Reggie heard her approach. He looked up with his one milky eye. He turned his head, glancing back at Walter standing in the doorway. Then he looked at Leigh again.
“This isn’t good cop/bad cop.” Leigh showed him the gun. “This is two people who’ve already kidnapped and beaten you. Do you think that murder is far behind?”
Reggie kept staring up at her, waiting.
“Where were you last night?”
Reggie said nothing.
“Did Andrew invite you to his wedding?” she asked. “Because you’re not in any of the photos that he showed the police. He documented everything with his phone. He has an unbreakable alibi.”
Reggie blinked again, but she could sense uncertainty. He didn’t know where this was going. She could almost see him running the calculations in his head—how much did they know, what were they going to do, what were the odds he could get out of this, how long would it take for Andrew to make them pay for hurting him?
Leigh took a page from Dante Carmichael’s book. She opened the folder and slapped down the crime scene photos across the desk with a flourish. Instead of holding back the close-up of Ruby’s scalp, she held back the one that showed the Tiffany letter opener.
She asked Reggie again, “Where were you last night?”
He looked at the photo array, then looked back at Leigh. His jaw was too loose for his mouth to close, but he grunted, “Who?”
“Who?” she repeated, because she hadn’t expected the question. “You don’t know the name of the woman that Andrew had you murder?”
Reggie blinked. He looked genuinely confused. “What?”