Katie came down the stairs quietly. She glanced down the hall at the foot of the stairs. The door to Walter's study was closed, but she could see the light on behind it, under the door. Walter had come home from the office and gone straight to his study, where he had remained ever since. He had skipped dinner and declined to sit with the children in the family room. He had barely even answered them when they said their goodnights through the door.

She wanted to knock and ask if he was okay, if there were anything she could do for him. But the one time she had approached the door, he had told her—in a somewhat angry tone—to go away. She frowned, unsure of what to do.

Bill came from the kitchen, a can of beer in hand. He nodded at Katie. "He still in there?"

"Yes." She wrung her hands. "Did he say anything to you?"

"No." Bill shook his head. "I had just dropped you lot off here, when Chesterfield called me and said I should come drive Walter home."

"Did Adrian tell you anything?" Katie glanced at the door again and frowned. "What was on that flash drive?"

"I don't know." Bill said. "But he held onto that thing the whole way home. Never said a word."

"That's so—" She was interrupted by the doorbell. She and Bill both looked at each other. "Are you expecting someone?"

Bill shook his head. "I'll get it."

She followed him down the hall. Bill opened the door and Marcus Jones, dressed in jeans and a maroon polo, stood on the doorstep.

"I need to speak with Walter." Jones said as he stepped inside without invitation. "He called me. Said he had something to show me that would prove his innocence."

Katie's eyes widened. "What do you mean? How?"

"How indeed?" Jones nodded toward the study. "He down there?"

"Yes. I'll let him know—" She started, but Officer Jones was already walking toward the door. "Wait!"

Jones knocked on the door and walked in, all in the same movement. Katie and Bill followed. The officer looked down at Walter, slumped at his desk. "Why am I here at 11 o'clock at night on my day off, Walter?"

Walter looked up from his laptop. His face was a study of misery. A half empty bottle waited next to a crystal rocks glass. He frowned deeply. "Someone left a package at my office today that contained some very interesting video."

"Well, congratulations." Jones crossed his arms. "What's that got to do with me?"

Walter stood unsteadily. "Surveillance video from the murder scenes."

Katie gasped.

"What?" Jones shook his head. "Impossible."

"Is it?" Walter challenged. He seemed to gain a little sobriety with his anger. "I have the surveillance video of the murders. All of them."

Jones frowned. "Walter, that's impossible. I told you, that footage doesn't exist."

Katie turned to the officer, sided with Walter. "There are closed circuit cameras all over this city. Businesses, schools, restaurants... I've seen them."

"I know, Miss Gallagher." Jones was growing a little angry. "Don't you think I would have checked for surveillance videos? There were none."

"Even some homes have doorbell cameras." Bill chimed in. "Doesn't all that stuff get uploaded to the cloud?"

"There was no video." Officer Jones maintained. His anger was giving way to confusion. "Walter, believe me. I checked. It had all been erased."

"How could it have been erased?" Katie frowned. "All those different cameras?"

"Exactly!" Jones protested. "Every one. It was all snowy screen, blank."

"Well then." Walter sat down hard and took a long drink. He motioned to his laptop as he tapped the touchpad. "You might be interested in seeing this, then."

The three of them moved around behind Walter's chair for a better look as the video started to play. Walter took another drink. "I warn you. It's difficult to watch."

They watched the grainy black and white video. It was from a store camera. Across the street, a woman walked to a car and looked around, as if she expected someone to be there and was surprised that they weren't. She looked at her watch, then looked around again. When he saw the woman, Marcus Jones moved closer to the screen.

"Who's that?" Katie asked.

"Diedre." The three men answered at the same time.

They watched as Diedre dug into her purse, most likely looking for her phone.

"What is that?" Marcus pointed to a dark figure approaching.

"Watch." Walter shook his head and slugged another drink.

They all watched as the dark figure approached. It was blocked from the woman's view by the car, and it got quite close before she even looked up. Then something strange began to happen. The person bent over on all fours.

"Oh my God!" Katie gasped. She instinctively knew what was happening, what was going to happen. "It's a—"

"Is that a person?" Marcus Jones watched intensely. "Or an ani—"

He and Katie both recoiled in horror as the figure leaped over the hood of the car and onto Mrs. Barrington. Diedre was thrown to the ground and viciously mauled. Her efforts to fight off her attacker were futile, until she lay still on the ground next to the car. A dark puddle appeared and quickly widened under her. The figure then straightened, and appeared to be a naked, bloody, woman.

"Oh my God!" Katie put her hand over her mouth, frightened and revulsed. "Turn it off, Walter."

The figure stooped over the body, tore flesh with her hand and brought it to her mouth.

"I've seen enough." Marcus Jones drew back, too. "Turn it off."

"Awful." Bill murmured, transfixed to the screen. "Monstrous."

The video continued, with Diedre lying dead on the ground and the naked woman eating her body.

"Turn it off!" Katie turned away from the screen. Tears burned her eyes, closed her throat. "Please!"

"You see? It wasn't me." Walter was crying too. "I could never hurt Diedre. I loved her."

They were all stunned and horrified. Bill reached out and touched the stop feature. "That was... bad."

The room was silent several minutes, outside of Walter's sobs and their own breathing. Then Katie turned to Officer Jones. She stabbed his chest with her finger. "You see, Officer Jones? This clearly wasn't Mr. Barrington. It was a woman! You've been wasting time, chasing your own personal vendetta when the killer is... The killer is still..."

She put her face in her hands and sobbed. That video was the most horrible, most terrifying thing she had ever seen in her life. She had no doubt she would remember it for as long as she lived.

"There was no video." Marcus Jones repeated, as if he couldn't believe what he had just seen. "That's a woman. But what's wrong with her? She looks..."

"Like an animal." Walter finished. "She killed my Diedre with her bare hands. She killed her. Ate her. My poor, sweet Diedre."

"She ate her." Katie whispered. "That was so terrifying, so..."

"Yeah." Bill said quietly. "I think so, too."

"You know this woman, Walter?" Officer Jones was obviously still shaken by the video.

"If I knew who it was I would... I would..." Walter struggled to contain his anger. He shook his head and frowned bitterly. "I don't know her. But in subsequent videos, you can see her face very clearly."

Katie gasped. "There are more?"

Walter nodded. "Yes. At least one for every murder."

"And it's the same woman?" Bill asked Walter. He sent a meaningful glance toward Katie. "You're sure?"

Walter wiped tears from his face with the palm of his hand. "Oh, I'm sure. I've watched this video about a thousand times."

Marcus Jones reached out and took the flash drive from the computer. "Walter, where did you say you got this?"

"My assistant found it in the mailbox with the regular mail." Walter took another long drink. He handed the envelope to the police officer. "But there was no postage. Someone must have hand delivered it."

Marcus Jones turned the package over in his hands, examining it. He frowned deeply. "I'm disturbed by everything I've seen. But the thing that's got me thinking is... why would the person give you this video? Why didn't they bring this evidence to me?"

"How dare you!" Walter slammed his glass down on the table. "Are you seriously still implicating me in my own wife's murder?"

"Yeah!" Bill turned to the officer. "Why did you say there was no video when there's really lots of footage?"

"There was no footage." Jones protested. "Whoever sent this to you, they must have hacked the cameras."

"Hacked?" Katie crossed her arms angrily. "What I'm thinking is that you've been harassing Mr. Barrington when you had the murderer on video all along."

"Walter, I assure you. I tried to pull surveillance video. You can check the court records. Those searches were granted." Jones shook his head. "I looked at the feeds. There was no video to pull."

"Then what about this video?" Walter's face hardened. "How do you explain this video?"

"That's what I mean. All the footage had been erased." Marcus Jones frowned. "We need to figure out where this video came from, because that person is definitely involved in the murder."

Walter put his head down on the desk and began sobbing again. "But why? Why kill my poor Diedre?"

"I'm going to find out." Marcus Jones' face softened slightly. "Try and get some rest, Walter. I'll send someone to your office tomorrow to get a statement from your assistant."

As the officer left, Katie put her hand on Walter's shoulders. They moved slightly with his sobbing. "Come on, Walter. Let's get you upstairs."

"No." He sat up and took a fortifying breath. His face was still wet with tears, and his eyes were wild and red, but he seemed like he was pulling himself together. His gaze rested on the wooden wolf statue his wife had given him. It seemed to give him a little peace. "I think I'm going to stay down here for a while."