Vikki Hill nodded. “It’s okay. We get it. I’ll take a look at the videos on the thumb drive, and I’ll send the one with Rooney to the bureau’s tech guys. Maybe they can amplify the sound or something.”

She glanced over at Joe DeCurtis. “How the hell would Rooney know where to find Tanya? And how—and why—would he show up back down here, following Letty and Maya around?”

“I’m wondering the same thing,” Joe said.

“We can’t get sidetracked by that right now,” the FBI agent said. “There’s no evidence Rooney was anywhere near Tanya’s apartment that day.”

She pointed at Letty. “Wingfield wants you ‘disappeared’ as he put it. This weekend. I’ve got to show him proof that you’re dead. And then he wants me, personally, to deliver Maya back to him.”

Letty crossed her arms over her chest. “Over my dead body.”

“That’s the idea,” Vikki agreed. “As far as Wingfield knows.”

Agent Hill placed her phone on the table and played the first phone conversation she’d recorded with Evan Wingfield.

Joe frowned when the conversation ended. “He doesn’t really commit to anything here. I’m not telling you how to do your job, but why cut him off, just as he’s starting to come around?”

“I needed to make him fish or cut bait,” Vikki said. “And sure enough, he did come around, not more than five minutes later.” She looked down at the phone again, and her face froze.

“Oh no. Tell me this did not happen.” She slapped her forehead with the palm of her hand and groaned. “Nooooooo.”

Joe and Letty waited, exchanging worried glances.

The FBI agent’s face reddened with embarrassment. “Jesus, what a rookie move! Right when Wingfield was calling back I got a text from you, Joe, and then the maid was knocking on the door and trying to leave towels, so I chased her away and got up to lock the door … and I was in such a hurry to pick up, I must have forgotten to push the friggin’ record button when he called back. There’s no excuse for this. And the worst thing is, when Wingfield called back, he actually did commit. He negotiated the price, agreed to fifty thousand and promised to wire a ten-thousand-dollar deposit to my bank account this afternoon. He explicitly said he wanted Letty ‘disappeared’ and said he wanted photographic proof that she was dead.”

Letty shuddered.

Vikki stood up and paced around the room. “I screwed up. That phone call directly ties him to the murder-for-hire plot. Now we got no proof. Jesus, what a fuckup!”

“Maybe not,” Joe said. “How did you leave it with him?”

“He was adamant that the job had to get done this weekend. I told him my guy needed more time, but he pushed back hard on that.”