"I do...but what I don't understand is how."
"What do you mean? She talked. They punished her for talking."
"But you haven't filed the paperwork. There's no record that she said anything."
"What about the recordings?" Jade asked.
"They always take at least a week to get filed."
"So you're saying there's someone on the inside? Someone watching the tapes?"
"Maybe..." Derrick gripped the steering wheel tighter.
"What?" Jade asked.
"Have you talked to anyone about this case?"
"What?" She furrowed her brow.
"I mean, have you spoken with anyone within the department about our plans or our trip to the strip club."
"No...just Zac, I think."
Zac. Yes. It all made sense if it was Zac, didn't it?
He was so keen to work every angle of the case, to squeeze every little detail he could. And he'd know that he could use Jade for whatever he wanted. Knew she'd be vulnerable to him.
"What's going on?" She asked, her soft voice breaking him from his thoughts.
"Do you think it's possible Zac could be involved here?"
For a moment Jade was silent, then she said, "Zac? You mean like he killed her?"
"Possibly. Or maybe he told someone she informed. Maybe he's the gu
y on the inside. He's the newest in the group. It would make sense."
"But..." Jade looked blankly out at the road for a moment, then she said, "You know, I think this is about jealousy."
"Jealousy?" Derrick raised his eyebrows.
"Yeah, you're jealous of my feelings for Zac, so you're going to pin all this on him?"
"You have to be out of your fucking mind." He said it casually, but inside his stomach was roiling.
Her feelings for him? As in, her continued feelings for him? Like what they'd done had been nothing to her?
Was he still just a pawn in this ridiculous game she'd concocted? He'd thought...
But it didn't matter what he thought. That wasn't important right now. Right now, what mattered was justice.
"How crazy would I have to be in order to pin a murder on someone because I thought you had the hots for them?"
"That's not really the question at hand, is it?"
"I really think it is." He shot back.
"You know, I'm surprised at you. That you would react like this. If you have feelings for me, you can just come out and say them."