That statement could mean a million different things, from what she’d witnessed, to how she’d run away and almost gotten caught red-handed.
“You … do?”
“Yes. I do, Augusta. I know about the photo.”
She felt her eyes widen.
Oh … fuck.
She tried not to make it obvious when she swallowed the spit in her mouth.
“Photo?” Even from her tone, she could tell that she was lying. “What photo?”
He chuckled darkly, sliding off of the bed and standing again. He paced slowly around the room, the shadows seeming to follow him.
“I-I’m not sure,” she went on. “What do you mean…”
“You took a photo when you were there, didn’t you?” He didn’t exactly pose this as a question but rather a pointed statement. “I talked to someone who was there that day.”
Augusta blinked again. “You talked to one of the murderers?”
Ray stopped pacing and turned to look at her over his shoulder. “What? No. Of course not. I would have a lot more blood on my clothes if I had.”
She sagged back against the chair. For as disgusting as that imagery was, it comforted her in a way. She didn’t know what it was about Ray, but for some reason, just the thought of him coming into contact with those sorts of people made her feel sick.
It wasn’t like she particularlycaredabout his well-being, necessarily … but …
She shook her head to herself. Her thoughts swam around so rapidly that it was hard to keep track of the why’s and how’s of her own arguments.
“What I meant to say,” Ray went on, “was that there was someone else there who witnessed everything.”
Augusta tilted her head. There was? Who? She hadn’t seen anyone else around her other than the two criminals and the dead man they were beating into a bloody mess.
“I don’t think there was …”
The sentence made her pause, though. There had to have been, though, right? How else would he know about the photo?
She clamped her mouth shut and looked up at him again, not wanting to keep giving things away when she didn’t need to. Maybe this was all a test in the end.
“There was a man there. Homeless. He saw the whole thing.”
“Oh …” Augusta bit the inside of her cheek. “I didn’t know.”
“He told me that he was well hidden. Even was going to pickpocket Jimmy after you all ran off, but then the place was swarming with cops immediately. Sounds like you three drew a lot of attention.”
Augusta wrinkled her nose at that. It was a bit taboo to steal from the dead, even if they weren’t someone you knew and you were in a desperate situation. Though she’d never been subjected to living on the streets, so maybe viewpoints changed.
“I see …”
“I’m going to need you to show me that photo.”
Augusta steeled her shoulders. “And if I don’t?”
A smirk slid slowly over Ray’s face. He turned, moving across the room slowly as if a predator was stalking their prey through the tall grasses of the Savannah. It made her swallow thickly, a weird heat settling into her stomach that she tried to ignore even as it slightly burned.
“I don’t think you want to say that to me.”
Augusta narrowed her eyes at him. “And why not?”