Page 34 of Simply Perfection
Trevor nodded. “I have no idea where the other stuff on the video came from. It seemed rather random to me.”
Frederick shook his head. “The images didn’t come from a single source, but they were hardly random. Every one of them showed a similar theme. Imprisonment, torture, and rape. The words at the end of the movie made it clear that someone feels they have ownership of you, and the images suggest that whoever is behind this feels that’s what you deserve for escaping.”
“This is what happens to pets that disobey their owners,” Trevor said under his breath.
“What was that, Mitchell?”
“There … there was a note under Mindy’s head when I found her. That’s what the note said.”
“Jesus,” Clay whispered.
“And you didn’t happen to think at the time it could be a clue?”
“No! I thought it was some deviant’s idea of a sick joke. Why would I possibly think it had anything to do with me? I haven’t escaped from anybody.”
“An old lover? A jilted potential lover?”
Trevor shook his head. “My relationships in the past never reached a level that would warrant this kind of obsession, and I’m not a man whore.”
“Maybe someone who wanted to get serious, and you walked away?” Clay asked.
Trevor thought hard about any of the men he’d seen in the last couple of years. A handful of one-night stands, and two short-term flings that ended mutually. He’d dated one guy for a couple of months, but brushed that off since the man had broken up with him, not the other way around.
“I want to see the video,” Clay said.
“You’re not active dutyyet,Phillips. I know Mitchell is your friend, but I can’t let anyone not connected with the case view evidence. You know that.”
Clay rolled his eyes, then stared down the Captain. “Are you kidding me?”
Frederick shrugged his shoulders. “Had to be said.”
“And now you’ve said it. So let’s see.”
Trevor’s head whipped back and forth as if here were watching a tennis match. It was a stand-off. Who would cave first? The down and dirty Southie detective, or the white shirt whose roots went deeper and branches reached parts of the city Trevor avoided like the bubonic plague?
“Mitchell, give me the copy. I’m going to view it again to get a better understanding of our perp. I’ll be down the hall.”
The captain walked out without another word. Seconds later, Clay moved to follow him, but stopped to look over his shoulder at Trevor.
“Are you coming?”
Trevor shook his head. He had no desire to watch that gruesome footage again. Clay looked as if he was about to say something, but then jogged down the hall toward the A/V suite.
“Mitchell! Where’s the on switch for all these gadgets?”
Trevor shook his head and smiled. He went back to his suite, cued up the video on the big screen and left without a word.
Several minutes later, Clay and the Captain came back into the office, where Trevor had waited. Clay walked right up to him and gathered Trevor in his arms. Trevor stiffened up for a few seconds, in part because he didn’t want to aggravate Clay’s injury and in part because he wasn’t used to such demonstrations of friendship from Logan’s partner. Logan was Trevor’s close friend. He’d always assumed that Clay put up with Trevor to make his partner happy.
“I can’t do much until I’m reinstated, but I promise to watch out for you. You realize Logan is going to flip his lid when I tell him, right?”
Trevor looked up at Clay and was momentarily taken back by the open and concerned expression. “Do you have to?”
Clay looked back, and his face told Trevor that he was nuts to think Clay would keep something like this from Logan.
“Damn it. He’s going to kill me,” Trevor said under his breath.
“Hey, this isn’t your fault. You know that, right?”
