Chapter 32 #3
“But we have this.” Jules held up what looked like an old video tape, ensconced in one of those hard plastic cases. “Security footage from the Estate from the same year as the hit-and-run. We can use it to compare and confirm.”
“And again, I do believe I laughed at you when you took that off the shelf,” Sam admitted.
“That’ll teach me. Well, probably not.” He used his phone to search for.
.. “There’s a company in Burbank, pretty close to the estate, that’ll make the transfer from VHS to something we can actually watch.
Let’s add that to our list for first thing tomorrow. ”
“Or,” Robin said, “we can watch it right now on Jane’s VCR.”
Both Sam and Jules turned to look at him as he rolled his chair over to the built-in cabinet in the corner of the room. He opened the bottom door to reveal every type of media playback device under the sun.
“Jane still has a VCR,” Jules said as Robin powered up the system and used the remote to turn on the TV. “That’s... not entirely unexpected.”
Robin told Sam, “She does a lot of historical research—” many of the films his sister wrote and produced were historical dramas “—and sometimes old footage is in older formats. She even has a Betamax player.” Robin made a gimme motion for the tape.
Jules popped open the case and handed it over. Robin inserted it into the slot and pushed play and...
The TV displayed ragged lines of mostly noise.
“Well, shit,” Sam said.
“Have faith. Remember tracking?” Robin asked. “I was finessing the tracking on shitty video tapes back when I was four.” He made an adjustment to the tape player and...
Blurry and way too pixelated security footage appeared on the screen, from what looked to be that very same video camera positioned probably up along the roofline of Devonshire Place’s garage.
“This screen is too large for this poor little low-res video,” Robin said as he found the remote and selected the picture-in-a-picture option for the VCR’s input, which made the image from the tape much smaller.
They all leaned in toward the TV to get a better look.
And yes, the driveway was in much better focus now, with the timestamp showing the date and the time in a military format.
At the very bottom of the video frame.
“Boom,” Robin said again.
“And suddenly paying Gavin LaCrosse for some cheap and easy video editing—and years of hush money—adds a little what to at least one of the fucks,” Jules mused. He smiled at Robin. “Thank you.”
“I really like it when you let me help,” Robin admitted, smiling back at him.
“I really like that you want to help,” Jules said.
“Oh for christsake,” Sam said. “Will you just kiss him already? He wants you to kiss him, and you definitely want to kiss him, too, so kiss him. Jesus, Cassidy, I’ll turn around if you really need me to, but you know, this is one of the perks you get by not working for the FB-fucking-I.”
Jules was laughing as he stepped toward Robin and yeah, kissed him.
It was almost unbearably sweet, just as it had been the first and last time Jules had kissed him here in this very same room.
And just like that other time, Robin felt himself melt into Jules. He wrapped his arms around this man who was his heart and soul as Sam continued his rant.
“If Lys was here, I’d kiss the shit out of her—simply because we’re that much closer to being done with this motherfucking ball-breaker of this fucking stupid case that I hate the living fucking shit out of. Oh shit, I mean, shoot, I mean...” He cleared his throat.. “Hey, Bill.”
Uh-oh. Robin pulled back to see that yes, indeed his tiny nephew Billy had opened the conference room door and was standing there, wide-eyed.
“You said a bad word.” Billy was looking at Sam as if he were the devil incarnate.
Robin started to leap to Sam’s rescue, but the former SEAL was already on top of it, getting down on the floor to be on Billy’s level.
“I apologize,” Sam said. “I didn’t see you there, and yeah, I said some grown up words that, well, Ash doesn’t like it, either, if I slip and say them. So, I am truly sorry.”
“Mama says don’t say hate,” Billy told Sam with that dead seriousness that little kids could deliver with complete sincerity. “Say I don’t like that instead. Hate is stupid.” He gasped. “But don’t say stupid.”
“Got it,” Sam said, trying to not laugh, but unable to keep a smile from slipping out. “Your mama’s pretty smart.”
“Did she send you here with a message for us?” Robin was pretty certain he knew the answer to that.
Billy nodded. “Food’s here,” he said.
“Wow, great, thank you for telling us that, but... did you... maybe forget and just open the door without knocking?” Robin asked the little boy.
Billy looked startled and then quickly backed up a few steps to knock—a tad too late.
“Hmm,” Robin said. “Hard to hear that. Can you try knocking a little more loudly?” He went to the door to show the kid.
Billy tried, but then stopped, holding his hand in close to his chest, his face tightening. “Ow.”
“Okay,” Robin said quickly. “Well, don’t do that then. How about instead of knocking with your hand you knock with your voice?” He raised his voice. “Knock knock!”
“Knock knock,” Billy bellowed back.
“There we go,” Robin said as across the room Jules started to laugh. “Okay, now go run back to tell your mom that we’ll be right there.”
Billy dashed off as Robin straightened back up.
“Sorry,” Sam said. “I’ve gotten so used to policing the language I use around Ash and Haley—Alyssa calls it code-switching, because I am kinda good at instantly shutting that stuff off, but I wasn’t thinking that Bill might be underfoot.”
“Don’t say hate,” Jules pointed out. “I think all the f-bombs went right over his head.”
“Yeah, that’s all well and good,” Sam shot back, “until he tells his mother he doesn’t like his—” he looked out the door to make sure the little boy really was gone and lowered his voice anyway “—fucking sandwich.”
“Yeah, that would not go down well,” Robin agreed.
“When you get a chance,” Jules told Sam. “Tonight before it gets too late... I think it’s time to call Milt Junior on Mick O’Rourke’s phone.”
Sam turned to look at him. “You think?”
“I do.”
“If we’re right about this doctored video,” Sam pointed out, “Milt the Junior absolutely was a victim of his father. But that still doesn’t mean Emily’s not currently his victim.”
“I hear you,” Jules said. “But so far all we’ve apparently been doing is shaking what I’m pretty sure is Harper’s tree. Let’s see what happens when we shake Mick’s.”
Sam nodded. “Fair enough. I’ll make that call right now.
” As he headed for the door, he nodded to Robin.
“I’ll let Jules be the one to kiss you again, but nice work.
Not just with the video, which was pretty freaking great, but with Billy, too.
You’d be a good father.” He looked back at Jules. “He’d actually be a great father.”
“Pretty sure he knows that,” Robin said. “Pretty sure that’s not the problem.”
“Yeah, I know, it’s this fucking dumpster fire of a world,” Sam said.
As he headed toward the bathroom, where he could lock the door and drop f-bombs to his heart’s delight, they could hear him already on his phone and leaving a message for Mick.
“Hey, Milt or Mick or whatever the fuck you want us to call you...”
Jules laughed as the door closed behind him. “Apparently his idea of shaking the tree is with hurricane force winds.”
“Navy SEAL,” Robin pointed out.
“It’s refreshing,” Jules said. “Working with Sam.”
“That’s good,” Robin said.
“And you’re no idiot, either.”
“I love it when you start with the sexy talk,” Robin said. “Feel free to kiss me, any time.”
And Jules—his husband and partner, the love of his life—did.