As she slid her sidearm into her shoulder holster he got to his feet and examined her badge. He’d seen enough in his life to recognize its authenticity. “What’s going on?”

“I’m not at liberty to say—”

“Kristi’s missing,” he snapped. “I don’t know where the hell she is so don’t give me any federal crap. What the hell do you know?”

“I can’t tell you.”

He pulled his cell phone from his pocket. “Then you can explain yourself to Rick Bentz.”

“Stop it! You can’t intimidate me.”

“We don’t have any time.”

That seemed to get to her. She pushed a hank of black hair from her eyes, glanced at him, and mumbled something about a loss of protocol, but sat on the edge of the couch and said, “Tit for tat, McKnight. You spill everything you know, and we’ll work this together.” She held up a finger. “Just for now. I need clearance.”

“Deal.” He didn’t hesitate.

“I’ve been working this case for months, undercover, and then your girlfriend comes along and starts screwing everything up, jeopardizes and threatens everything I’ve been doing for half a year!”

“You had the camera in here?”

“It was already in place. Hiram, the so-called manager, used to watch it for fun. His own private girlie show.” She couldn’t hide the sneer in her voice. “Should’ve run him in, but once again, I was working things out. We discovered the camera after the Atwater girl went missing and left it up, just in case the killer returned.”

“You used Kristi as bait?”

“We did not put her in harm’s way,” Mai insisted.

“Nor did you warn her off.” Jay was furious, ready to throttle the little woman.

“Couldn’t blow our cover. You obviously discovered it, so I came back to adjust the books you put over the lens.”

“You came in through the window,” he guessed, and she nodded, a hint of a cold smile twisting her lips. “So where’s Kristi?”

“Don’t know. I thought she might be with you.”

“You didn’t have anyone following her?”

Mai met his gaze. “You don’t know where she went?”

He shook his head. “She mentioned going back to see Everyman, Father Mathias’s production—”

“I work on the crew,” she cut him off. “We know something is up with Mathias, but nothing we can prove, and no, Kristi, wasn’t at the performance tonight. We tape them.”

“You tape them?”

“With the administration’s approval.” She was stone-cold serious. “We don’t know everything about this guy, but we’re pretty sure he’s a whack job of the highest order.”

“But you don’t know who he is?”

“We’re working on it.”

“And you haven’t arrested Dominic Grotto?”

“He’s not our guy.”