She honestly could believe that Vallejo was actually enjoying his time alone. It would be just like him to act as though he was above all the other prisoners. They all had committed crimes and gotten caught but in his mind, he had done it better.

There was a long pause over the phone. The fact that it was so late did not help sell her casualness. Woodward wasn’t a stupid man. He would know something was pressing, but Ruby did not necessarily need to let him know why.

“Well, Agent Hunter, I am not the behavioral analyst in this situation,” Woodward said. “I can’t imagine he gets up to a great deal. How about I send you some footage and you can decide for yourself how he’s feeling about the whole thing.”

Ruby’s heart nearly stopped. Video footage was more than she possibly could have hoped for.

“That would be excellent, Mr. Woodward,” Ruby said, keeping her voice even and professional despite her excitement, “I’m so glad to hear you’re keeping such close tabs. I’m sure your documentation will be prime evidence for studies in the future.”

“Of course, I am always willing to work with the FBI,” Woodward replied, “though… you understand this is not typically how sharing information works. It’s quite late, isn’t it, Agent.”

Ruby swallowed back some of her pride. It really was too easy. A catch should not have surprised her.

“I understand,” she replied solemnly.

“Consider this a simple favor,” Woodward said, “and maybe one day I will ask one of you.”

“That seems fair.”

Ruby could practically hear Woodward’s smile through the phone.

“Glad we could come to this agreement, Agent. I’ll send something over immediately.”’

Ruby ended their call in a daze. She strode back into the building, freshly exhilarated with adrenaline. There was no guarantee a video would contain a clue, but it had to be better than listening to Marcia Reuben run her mouth about nothing.

Halfway back to the war room, the e-mail notification came through on her phone. Ruby rushed to her computer, sliding in front of it to open the attachment on the larger screen.

Just as Woodward promised, there was the grainy image of Vallejo, alone.

It was strange to watch him methodically pace the small room. There was no way to know his thoughts but guess, based on his body language. There wasn’t any audio, but Ruby got the impression there was nothing to hear anyway.

He sat down, appearing to stare at the walls for some time. Ruby fast-forwarded through the length of the recording, keeping an eye out for an anomaly in Vallejo’s behavior. He seemed almost relaxed, as if he knew he was in control.

Then she found it.