Chapter 49
The interrogation room is silent.
Tess won’t break.
Why would she? She already knows she’s thought of everything. Washington imagines Tess crawling out of the Devil’s Staircase
sometime after midnight to finish her grim work: wiping away her fingerprints, rearranging gear, ensuring no trace of her
involvement remained. She’s already verified that every potential witness at the Devil’s Staircase is dead, and of course,
the dead can’t speak.
But . . .
Well, that’s the thing, isn’t it?
“You’re exactly right, Tess.” Washington leans into her chair and finally allows her tensed muscles to relax. “If we’d arrested
you without establishing probable cause, it would’ve violated your rights. I would’ve screwed up badly, maybe badly enough
that my boss would get his wish and send me off to the glue factory. And to be honest, I think you wanted to see an old lady
fall on her face.” She sets her pen down atop her notepad, perfectly balanced. “But you never considered the alternative,
did you?”
Tess stares back. She’s feigning confidence, but something in her senses a new danger. A shade of doubt inflects her voice.
“I . . . don’t understand.”
“Let’s revisit that day,” the detective says. “One last time.”