Free The Killing Room by Richard Montanari

them wearing a pointed hood. Then they were gone.
    ‘And we never get another angle?’ Byrne asked.
    ‘Unfortunately no. The cam was set up to catch activity on the corner. We’re lucky to have this much.’
    ‘Can you run that back?’ Jessica asked.
    Bontrager rewound the recording, replayed it. He isolated the frame where the victim was most discernible.
    Jessica checked the date code. It was a week and a half old. ‘Wait. You’re saying he was in that basement for ten days ?’
    ‘It looks like it,’ Bontrager said. ‘I ran the recording forward, and no one goes in or out of that alley, except for that person in the hood, and then we only see the shadow.’ He pointed to the time code in the corner. ‘And always at the same time every night.’
    ‘Always around ten?’ Jessica asked.
    ‘Always around ten.’
    Jessica shuddered at the idea of being strapped to a chair for ten days, gagged and bound by barbed wire, in virtual darkness.
    Bontrager fast-forwarded through the recording for the next ten days. Every night, around 10 p.m., a figure would go up that alley, then emerge a few minutes later. It was impossible to see anything other than the shape of the pointed hood.
    ‘And this brings us to last night,’ Bontrager said.
    He hit the key. A few seconds later the figure entered theframe, stood for a moment, raising both hands, as if in benediction, then reached out and touched the lamp post, marking it in a slashing motion. This was the ‘ X ’ they had found.
    A moment later the figure walked off, frame right. Jessica looked at the time code. It was 10:10:54.
    ‘Is there any way to see this more clearly?’ she asked.
    ‘Well, not more clearly, but bigger,’ Bontrager said.
    He backed up the recording to the point when the hooded figure finished marking the pole. He hit a few more keys, and threw the image onto the huge monitor at the front of the room. He hit a button, and the recording began to progress one frame at a time. Bontrager got up, walked down the tiers, positioned himself next to the huge monitor.
    Onscreen, the hooded figure stood, hands raised. They could now see that the figure’s hands were white, but that may have been gloves.
    ‘I don’t suppose we could get this in any more detail,’ Byrne said.
    ‘No,’ Bontrager said. ‘I asked the techs. This was recorded at night, with low-level light. What we’re seeing here is about it.’
    ‘Can they get us a printout of this frame?’ Byrne asked.
    ‘ That they can do,’ Bontrager replied. He looked at his watch. ‘Maria and I are going to recanvass. It’s possible that someone might have had an angle from the other side of Amber Street.’
    While Byrne studied the image on the huge monitor, Bontrager walked back to the table, gathered his belongings. He lingered for a moment.
    ‘What is it, Josh?’ Jessica asked.
    ‘She’s really pretty.’ He turned, looked at Jessica, reddening by the second. ‘I said that out loud, didn’t I?’
    Jessica smiled. ‘I’m afraid so. You’re talking about Maria?’
    Bontrager nodded, swallowed hard.
    ‘Yes, she is,’ Jessica said.
    Bontrager lowered his voice. ‘Do you know if she’s, you know, seeing anyone?’
    Jessica knew that Maria Caruso had an on-again, off-again relationship with a lieutenant in the 23rd District. It was mostly off-again these days, if Jessica wasn’t mistaken. ‘I don’t think she is, Josh.’
    ‘I wonder what would happen if I asked her out.’
    ‘Worlds would definitely collide,’ Jessica said. ‘The heavens would fall, the seas would dry up. I don’t think we’d even get cable anymore.’
    ‘Okay, okay,’ Bontrager said. ‘Seriously. Do you think she would go out with me?’
    ‘Why wouldn’t she?’
    ‘Do you want the long list or the short list?’
    Jessica had to smile. Josh Bontrager was terminally shy.
    ‘I think it’s time to bust a move, detective. No time like the present, right?’
    Bontrager thought for a moment. ‘You’re