Page 59 of Puzzle for Two

Zach cleared his throat. “That’s not my voice.”

The voice was sort of similar. Huskier.

“That isabsolutelyyour voice,” Schneider insisted. “That’syou.”

“Whatever you want,” the man on the bed pleaded. “Don’t be mad. I’m sorry. I’ll be a good boy from now on. Let me prove it. Iwantto prove it. Please.Please, Alton. No more games. You’re right about me. About everything. Let me show you. It’s going to be how you want from now on. I just need you so much…”

Had Alton understood that when young men, like the one in the video, proclaimedI need you so much, it was Alton’s money and not Alton they were talking about?

Mesmerized, Zach watched as the man on the bed raised his hips and thrust his hand beneath the straining lace. The lace made small tearing sounds. The man began to groan.

Over the increasingly frantic sounds, Barrera said calmly, “He was going to terminate your contract, which meant you’d be ruined. You gave in to his ultimatums. It’s understandable. What’s the big deal about a pair of underwear? We get it. You wore the panties. You made the tape and sent the photos.” She shrugged. “We’re all grown-ups here.”

Schneider picked up the narrative. “But when push came to shove, you chickened out and he fired you. And you lost it. It wasn’t just about Beacher pulling his account. You knew he was going to use the photos and vid to humiliate you, ruin you. You had to stop him any way you could.”

Zach, still staring at the cell-phone video, shook his head. He glanced at Barrera. “You sent this to your crime lab, right?”

Barrera was frowning. Zach couldn’t help thinking she didn’t look nearly as convinced of his motives as Schneider sounded.

“You’re damn right,” Schneider cut in.

Zach shrugged. “Then it’s okay. You’re going to find out it’s not me on this video. And that this video never came from my phone.”

Barrera’s eyes lit. “Since you bring up the subject, are you willing to hand your cell phone over?”

“Yes.” Did he want to? No. But if they wanted his phone, they could probably get a warrant for it. The question of where the video came from made the confiscation of his cell almost a certainty.

Schneider and Barrera exchanged looks. Barrera held her hand out, and Zach handed over his phone.

“Password?”

Zach gave her his password. “Look,” he said. “If you want to polygraph me, if you want to take DNA, whatever it’s going to take to prove to you I didn’t kill my client, I’m happy to do. I’m not the guy on the video. I didn’t send photos. And Alton never threatened to fire me, by the way.”

“Bullshit.” Schneider sounded bored. “That’s you on that video, and we all know it.”

Barrera said, “Are you claiming that Beacher didn’t make sexual advances?”

“Maybe technically,” Zach admitted. “But the way he did it was so… It was clumsy and transactional. It didn’t feel—it was just awkward. And when I turned him down, he sulked. He didn’t threaten to fire me. He didn’t sayanything. But even if he had, we’d already earned—and cashed—the twelve grand. I didn’t want to lose his business, but it wouldn’t have been the end of the world. In fact, after Mrs. Beacher showed up at Pinch, Flint and I had begun to speculate about who the real intended victim was.”

“Meaning?” Barrera said.

Schneider repeated, “You andFlint?”

“We thought—obviously we were wrong—but we had started to wonder if Beacher was actually planning to kill his wife. It seemed, on paper anyway, like he had more motive than she did.”

There was a moment of silence while the detectives processed that.

“That’s what Flint thought? That Beacher was planning to kill his wife?” That, of course, was Schneider. Barrera was still thinking.

“Yes. We ended the evening undecided as to whether we should approach Mrs. Beacher or go to the—”

“Ended the evening,” Schneider echoed. “And where was this evening taking place?”

“At the office. My office. Davies Detective Agency. We were debriefing.”

“Oh yeah?Debriefingseems to be your thing.”

“Seriously,Schneider?” Barrera snapped.

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