the tape.
The tape played, revealing Dale as he bound their wrists and ankles and then as he raped her and then Josh, and finally ending with him slitting Josh’s throat and stabbing the knife into Sarah’s chest.
“No.”
Josh turned to Sarah with a look of shock and confusion. His face was pleading with Sarah for answers and she felt helpless and guilty because she had none to offer and somehow felt that she should have. Josh turned back to finish watching the tape.
“That sick fucking…” Josh’s teeth were clenched tight and his jaw muscles bulged as if he were trying to bite through something particularly tough. His hands were balled into fists and his shoulders were hunched. Veins and cords bulged in his forearms and biceps.
Detective Torres turned off the tape. Josh had turned red and his body was literally vibrating with hatred flowing through his blood like an electrical current. Sarah could almost feel her husband’s rage boiling in the room, raising the heat and humidity, a storm cloud crackling with fury. His lip had curled up into a snarl. His eyebrows were furrowed and his nostrils flared. She was concerned that he was going to have a nervous breakdown right there on the spot.
Josh continued staring at the TV long after the screen had gone black and Sarah continued staring at Josh. She put her arm around him and Josh pulled away, still staring at the screen. Gradually, his eyes drifted over to Dale and the rage that sparked in them was murderous. Sarah could see Josh breathing hard as he struggled to hold in his emotions like a drowning man trying to hold in his last gulps of oxygen before being sucked underwater. His eyes welled with tears even as he continued to bare his teeth in an angry grimace. Sarah was fairly certain that had Dale been in the same room with them there would not have been enough cops in the station to keep Josh off him. Even now, Sarah was worried that Josh was going to burst through the mirror and go after him.
“Josh? Are you okay? Josh?”
When Josh turned to look at her she barely recognized him. She had never seen that combination of emotions on his face before, anger, shame, revulsion, and fear all deforming his facial features into something hideous and frightening. Sarah knew that he was reliving the abuse he’d suffered as a child. It must have been terrible to see the same thing happening to him all over again, and this was so much worse. This was forcible rape. Despite his size and strength he had been victimized yet again. Sarah could not imagine what her husband was feeling. He looked at her as if she had just asked him to solve some impossibly complex mathematical equation.
“Are you okay?” Sarah repeated.
“No. I’m pretty fucking far from okay.”
Sarah pulled him tight, pulling his head down into the crook of her neck, inviting him to cry but knowing that he wouldn’t. His body was as tense and rigid as an iron bar. Sarah turned back to the interrogation room. She wanted to hear what Dale had to say after watching the tape. She wanted to hear his confession.
“The district attorney’s office is willing to make a deal in exchange for your confession.”
“I don’t see anyone from the DA’s office here. And why would they be willing to make a deal if they have this tape?” Mr. Severino asked.
“Ms. Yu from the DA’s office is on the other side of that mirror. If your client is willing to sign a confession, then I’ll bring her in here and we can make a deal. Otherwise, she stays right where she is.”
“But why the hell would she want to make a deal?”
Sarah watched as Dale leaned over and whispered something in his attorney’s ear. The triumphant grin never left his face. After Dale had finished whispering in his ear, his attorney nodded slightly, looking somewhat confused. Then he turned to the two detectives and smiled.
“My client wants you to play the rest of the tape. He also wants to see the hospital records from the couple he is accused of attacking, from the night of the alleged assault.”
The two detectives looked at each other. Sarah felt herself deflate. The bastard had them. She saw the confusion in the lawyer’s face turn to one of smug arrogance as he noted the hesitation in the two detectives. He was still not sure how or why but it was apparent that he now knew that the detectives were hiding something.
“I’m going to subpoena the tape anyway so you might as well show me now.”
Detective Lassiter muttered, “Shit!” and then sneered at Dale who was now sitting back in the metal chair with both hands laced behind his head, grinning obscenely.
Detective Torres turned the VCR back on, starting it from right before Dale’s murder. On the screen, Sarah watched the now-familiar scene of Dale slitting Josh’s throat, stabbing Sarah in the chest, rushing about, cleaning up the room, changing the sheets, moving the bodies, then kneeling over the bodies and bringing them both back to life.
Dale’s attorney was even more surprised and animated than Sarah herself had been when she’d first seen the tape.
“Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me! This is a fake? You faked this whole thing? I am going to have both of your badges. So, I think it’s safe to assume that there’s no emergency room report?”
“You know there isn’t,” Torres responded.
“Then, we’re done here. You go near my client again and you’re both going to wind up in front of an IAD review board.”
Mr. Severino stood up and gestured for Dale to follow him. Dale reached across the room and held out his wrists. Detective Lassiter looked at her partner and then over her shoulder at the mirror. Somehow the woman’s eyes found Sarah’s through the mirrored glass. Sarah could read the apology in her eyes along with the frustration. The detective turned back around and removed the cuffs from Dale’s wrists. Before Dale could pull away, she grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him close, whispering something into his ear. Dale’s eyes hardened, narrowed, his eyebrows furrowed. When he spoke it was through clenched teeth.
“Go ahead, just fucking try it.”
He turned and walked out the door with his lawyer, grinning all the way. Sarah watched the door close. Finally, she remembered Josh. He was still holding her but his body felt slack and loose.
“What the fuck was that? What the hell just happened? Was any of that real?”
“It was all real?”
“But he killed us. He killed both of us. Look!” Josh pulled his shirt collar down, revealing his smooth white throat.“There’s no fucking wound! There’s not even a scar! So what was that?”
“He killed us but he brought us back. He resurrected us both somehow.”
“Resurrected us? You mean Christ on the cross? That kind of resurrection? You’re kidding me, right?”
“That’s why I couldn’t remember anything. He’s been doing this the whole time, ever since that first night. He rapes me, kills me, and then brings me back.”
“Sarah? That’s crazy. That’s just crazy.”
“Then explain it, Josh! Explain what’s on that tape! Explain the bloody sheets. Explain his fingerprints in our house. Explain his semen inside of me!”
Josh began to calm down. He was staring at Sarah, still breathing hard, still looking confused. But he was convinced that she wasn’t lying, she hadn’t somehow manipulated the tape. She wasn’t crazy.
The assistant DA had been silent the entire time. When Detectives Lassiter and Torres walked in she broke her silence.
“What in the hell were you two trying to pull with that stunt?”
“That wasn’t a stunt, at least not on our part. This is the tape we took from the spy camera in their house. We didn’t alter it in any way.”
“Yes, but you knew what was on the tape. You knew it was a forgery.”
“We knew what was on it but we still don’t believe it’s a forgery.”
“So, you think maybe these two got stabbed to death and then just got up and walked away? Because if that’s what you’re saying, then I’m going to be speaking to your captain and recommending you both for a psych evaluation and an immediate suspension. So, which is it?”
“Well, how do you explain what you saw on that tape?”
“How about a fake knife, food coloring, and corn syrup? What are you both morons? You can see special effects like that in any freshman film-school class and you’re willing to risk your badges for it?”
“Excuse me, but fuck you! We didn’t fake that tape.” Sarah spoke up.
