“It was dark. It was night. She could have been mistaken,” Gabe replied.

Ruby frowned. Gabe so badly wanted to wrap up this case, every insidious suspect they came across seemed like the right one.

“I want to be sure,” Ruby said, “Vallejo likes to play games and we've run into a lot of false leads. I want to look at everything again.”

“Fine, look at everything. I can't stop you, but I think you're being paranoid.”

“I'd rather be paranoid than reckless,” Ruby said.

Anytime anyone disagreed with her she felt a need to get all of the relevant information out there, to somehow change their mind and have proof.

Ruby wondered if she could get that from Gabe. Maybe she wanted him to stay the same, to be the person she had always known. Maybe she wanted him to be completely, unquestionably honest with her.

“Let me ask you this. Do you think Reuben's capable of doing this?” Gabe asked.

“I think she's willing, but that doesn't mean she did it,” Ruby said. “It just means she wishes she did.”

But Ruby didn't get the impression that Reuben would mimic Vallejo without reason.

“Do whatever you want. I'm going to stay here and pry a confession out of her,” Gabe said.

If that was what he wanted to do, Ruby wouldn't stop him. Dragging him back into their war room would only mean listening to him doubt her while she tried to work.

“Good luck with that, Asher, I'm sure it'll pan out,” Ruby snapped back. The tiredness was getting to her, the exhaustion, the stress, the helplessness of being three steps behind at every turn.

Gabe froze, giving her a long, steady look.

“Asher?” he repeated back to her.

Ruby's heart dropped into her stomach. She hadn't even noticed what she was saying. It just came out.

“Are you okay, Ruby?” Gabe asked, real concern clouding his face. Ruby swallowed hard, trying to come up with any explanation at all.

“I haven't slept,” she said simply, as if that were reason enough for the slip up.

Marcia Reuben really had gotten under her skin. There was no way Ruby could go back in that room.

“Vallejo's always had the drop on us,” Ruby said. “I'm not falling for it this time.”

She stepped back, turning away from Gabe. There was no way he would believe her now, not when she was in this state of mind. There was no arguing left to do.

The devil was in the details and Ruby would have to examine them herself.

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

The boxes and boxes of Vallejo’s case files were a wall and Ruby had hit it.

Much of the information was put into databases, but Ruby needed to see everything at once. She needed to handle the evidence and reports and remember what it was like to be there.