“Great.”
“Should we watch it?”
“I have a feeling it’s going to take me a step closer to becoming a murderous psychopath, but yeah, I don’t see how I can’t watch it now that I know about it.”
“Should have never looked.”
“I was hoping she had like ten followers. I thought it might make me feel better.”
Radcliff hit play. The video started with still shots of various newspaper articles detailing Cartel killings on both sides of the border while Cassandra talked about a killer known as Viuda Negra.
“I guess her whole ‘newspapers aren’t a thing anymore’ line was bullshit,” Radcliff said as the camera lingered on the gory details of the crimes in the story.
“Yeah, I also noticed the only proof of this Viuda Negra person even existed is her say so. I’d bet she made her up.”
“I suppose I could ask around, but yeah, it sounds like fiction.”
The newspaper articles switched from cartel killing to the shootings Margot was involved in. Cassandra continued to narrate. She strongly rejected the ruling that these shootings were justified and claimed—without proof—that the police were covering up for Margot.
“Does she mean the same police who wanted to throw me in jail? Does she have any idea how hated I am with you guys?”
“I don’t hate you.”
“True, but you’re the exception and it wasn’t that long ago you were slapping bracelets on my wrists and hauling me in for questioning.”
“Fair.”
Cassandra went into Mal and his history as well before cutting to footage of Margot and Radcliff leaving county lockup together.
“Perhaps Margot Harris owes her freedom from prosecution to her rather cozy relationship to some of our local police. Here she is exiting county lockup with homicide detective Rick Radcliff. They have been seen socializing on more than one occasion and it’s not a stretch to say they have more than a professional relationship,” Cassie narrated as the footage showed the two of them walking along.
“I’d like to think we have more than a professional relationship,” Radcliff said.
“Me too; if not, you owe me some money.”
The video cut to Cassie asking Margot her question and Margot telling her, “If I wanted to hit you, there wouldn’t be a damn thing you could do to stop me.”
“She edited that part a bit,” Margot said. “It makes it sound worse than it was.”
Radcliff agreed.
“Twelve thousand people think I’m some sort of cartel assassin now.”
Radcliff shrugged. “Just because they watched it, doesn’t mean they believe it.”
“Let’s hope so. This is the kind of hassle I don’t need right now.”
Chapter 5
“You lied to me.”
“What? No, ‘Hey Phoebe, how's your day going’ or ‘I really like the way that convict orange jumpsuit you’re wearing brings out the color in your eyes’?”
Margot leaned across the table so she was face to face with Phoebe. “I don’t care about your day or your eyes. I’m trying to help you and I can’t if you lie to me. Especially when that lie gets me on the wrong side of a misunderstood businessman like Harry Lee.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean he’s not a very good alibi if he left you alone while the crime was being committed.”