“When’s the press conference supposed to be?”

“I don’t know.”

“Okay. Thanks for handling this. I’ll talk to you later. If you hear anything, and vice versa.”

“Sure thing. Later.”

They hung up. Taylor blew her breath out hard. Lawyers. They could always find a way to get into the fray.

She started to get up but her telephone rang again. The D.A.’s office. Uh-oh.

“This is Lieutenant Jackson.”

“Hey, it’s Julia Page. I see that we’re filing against Todd Wolff as we speak. The general sessions warrant was issued already and the judge is going to set the date for a preliminary hearing, see if there’s enough to take it to the grand jury. We’ll go for a quick hearing date. Do you have any more new evidence?”

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J.T. Ellison

Taylor resisted smacking herself in the forehead. Oh man, the videos. She completely forgot the five discs she’d brought back to the office.

“I might. We’ve got some new evidence to run. I think you’re moving a bit too quickly, don’t you? We don’t have this case sewn up by a long shot. It’s definitely not ready to get to the grand jury.”

“It’s a piece of cake. He’s accused of murdering his pregnant wife. You know how low the threshold for probable cause is in a preliminary hearing. They’ll bind him over to the grand jury in a heartbeat.”

“Wouldn’t you rather have all your ducks in a row first?”

“Slam dunk, Lieutenant. Complete slam dunk. Trust me. We’ll get him arraigned and you guys can present the rest of your evidence as it comes in.”

“Will he get bond?”

“Maybe. I don’t know who’s up today. If it’s Judge Harrison, no way, no how. But if it’s that new chick, Bottelli, she might just spring him. Either way, it’ll cost him an arm and a leg.”

“Fine. Whatever you want, Page. You’re the legal eagle here, not me. Just make sure it all sticks. I don’t want to be answering questions on the news about how we fucked this one up. I will drop the blame squarely in your lap.”

Page laughed, and not in an entirely unfriendly way.

“I know you will. I never doubted that for a minute. Bye.”

She was gone before Taylor could say goodbye herself. God, Page sounded like a tiger with a juicy hunk of steak. She could almost hear the girl growling in territorial fervor. Even the most jaded lawyers could get caught up in the glitz of a big murder case. Judas Kiss

217

Too much to do, too little time. The cabin, her feelings, the violation of knowing her naked body was on display for any stranger willing to pony up the cash would have to wait for a little bit. She needed to do some movie analysis.

“Marcus!” she yelled. He came to the door of her office. His dark hair was mussed, making her long for Baldwin. She stowed her feelings.

“Nothing yet, LT. We’re—”

“It’s not about that, puppy. I’ve got five items I took from the Wolff crime scene that need to be looked at. In the mood for some more movie screening?”

The look on his face actually made her laugh, which poured from her mouth like a waterfall. Oh, that felt better. She had a brief moment of peace, knowing it was all going to be okay. She wasn’t quite sure how, but she’d make it through. It wasn’t like she’d been responsible, or willing, for that matter.

“Don’t worry, they aren’t of me. I don’t think. The Wolffs have a rather sophisticated movie studio hidden in their basement, and I believe this is the by-product. Since we’re overwhelmed with smut today, let’s go see what they’ve been up to.”

Marcus had the good taste to look chagrined.

“Okay.”

“Hey, do me a favor? Order a pizza or something, I’m starving.”

“Sure thing. Pizza sounds good. I’ll meet you in the conference room in a minute.”

Taylor went into the conference room, popped the first of the five discs into the DVD player. She used the remote to fast forward to the first scene. Marcus came in, seated himself and nodded. She hit play. 218

J.T. Ellison

Unlike the grainy feed from the Selectnet.com Internet site, the television screen filled with a warm, soft light, the camera clearly focused on a bed. Taylor recognized the setting. It was the Wolffs’ basement, no doubt. The movie was certainly homemade, but the quality was fine and the camera operator obviously had some training. A music track, new age jazz, played unobtrusively in the background.

The camera panned in. There were two women on the bed, passionately kissing, writhing together. They were mostly naked, though one was wearing a bra without cups so her full breasts showed, jutting up at an absurd angle. The other had a jeweled belt around her waist and nothing else. Taylor started to look away, then saw a man enter the picture. Todd Wolff came to the bed. The women greeted him, taking off his clothes, begging him to join them.

“This is just plain old homemade porn.” Marcus was shaking his head

“With our murder suspect doing…jeez, what is he doing? Oh.” Wolff’s back was to the camera and he spanked one of the women with the palm of his hand, a loud slap. Taylor hit pause, swallowing her distaste. By God, she wasn’t a prude, but she was tired of watching people have sex.

Marcus took the remote from her hand, hit play, then fast forward. Wolff became a comic figure parroting the act of love, bucking and rolling around the bed with the two women. Marcus left the DVD running and turned to Taylor.

“It’s a nice setup. We need to find out if they’re distributing it, or using it for their own entertainment.”

“I assume we can arrest them if they’re distributing it?”

Judas Kiss

219

“Well, that depends. If it’s done without the knowledge of the participants, of course. But they look rather willing, and from your description of the scene, it would be hard for them to pretend they didn’t know exactly what they were doing. No, they might be making legitimate movies.” Now he turned red, but plowed ahead.

“Have you ever been to the Hustler store on Church Street?”

She gave him the most sardonic of grins. “I take this to mean you have?”

He gave her the same smile. “You’re telling me you haven’t?”

Taylor shook her head. “No. I’ve driven by it a million times, of course, but I’ve never had occasion to go in.”

“Well, I think a field trip might be in order. There’s a whole section of this kind of homemade stuff. Naughty Neighbors, Slutty Soccer Moms, that kind of material. There’s a big trade for it. Wolff might have been trying to break into the market.”

“I think I’ll let you do the background for this one.”

She looked at the screen again. “Maybe he’s just a sicko who likes to tape himself having sex with women other than his wife. No wonder she was having panic attacks. I would be too.”

She turned back to the television, and Marcus started to hand her the remote. Something caught his eye and he hit play, ending the fast forward.

“I will be damned,” he said.

“What?”

“I think we know who was operating the camera.”

“Back it up.” Taylor sat back in her chair heavily, watching. Marcus obliged her, hitting rewind, then play at the moment that caught his attention. 220

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Corinne Wolff danced around the lens of the camera. Her hair was done up in pigtails. She wore a Catholic schoolgirl plaid skirt and a lacy pink bra with the nipples cut out. Sucking suggestively on a lollipop, she danced in front of the camera, her husband and the two women watching appreciatively from the confines of the bed. Corinne did a slow striptease, easing out of the skirt, unhooking the bra, then worked her way to the edge of the bed. Todd reached for her, pulling her to the center, where mouths and hands surrounded her body until she disappeared beneath them. The shot faded to black, the music ended, and Corinne’s moans of ecstasy lingered until the credits rolled. After a brief fade to black, another scene queued and started running. This one was similar to the earlier shots.