Beneath the Surface
Page 15
The thought made him cringe.
He turned back to look at the rest of Leigh’s room. Trophies from her gymnastics years sat in one corner, mixed in with moments from her childhood, but the rest of the room spoke of a more mature woman.
The color palette, the arrangement of the furniture, the photographs on the mirror—everything reflected Leigh’s touch. One photograph caught his eye and he stepped closer to examine it.
He remembered that night—his and Kirk’s high school graduation. Mrs. Weston had been taking pictures of Kirk and Leigh, and he’d jumped in beside her at the last second.
In the picture, he had his arm around Leigh and they were all laughing. Why would she have this on her mirror?
The possibilities intrigued him, but he didn’t have time to linger with them. He finished walking through the house and returned outside to Leigh. “All clear.”
She smiled her thanks. “Are you in a hurry to get to work?”
The question startled him. The real answer was yes. “Um, no. I don’t guess so. Why?”
“Have you had breakfast?”
“No.” Where was she going with this?
“Me neither. And my dinner was interrupted last night. Let me fix us some breakfast before you go to work. It will only take a few minutes. It isn’t the Pancake Hut, but I make a mean omelet.”
“If you twist my arm . . .”
He followed her inside and didn’t argue when she refused to let him help. She was a whiz in the kitchen. And she wasn’t wrong about the omelet. It was fabulous. Bacon, tomatoes, some sautéed onions, goat cheese, and spinach. He was stuffed. He sipped a cup of coffee and took a final bite.
“That was fabulous,” he said.
“I hope I haven’t made you late for work.” Leigh nibbled at her omelet. For someone who’d been starving, she hadn’t eaten much.
“I cannot begin to tell you how much I do not care about that.”
Her laughter warmed him all the way through. She was stunning all the time, but when she laughed, she radiated joy. He couldn’t look away. She caught him staring at her and he held her gaze.
When she bit down on her lip he almost came out of his seat. At this rate, he would never make it through this case without doing something he shouldn’t. Did she feel this? Was she as drawn to him as he was to her?
His phone buzzed and the moment shattered. The regretful smile she gave him tempted him to ignore the phone.
“You’d better get that,” she said.
“Yeah.”
He forced himself to walk away from her. He glanced at the phone. Gabe. He’d texted him earlier and told him where he was. This had better be important.
“Parker,” Ryan said as he stepped onto Leigh’s deck. He’d always loved this view. Would love it more if it was safe for Leigh to sit out here with him and enjoy it. “Tell me you’ve got something.”
“Maybe,” Gabe said. “When I called the hospital this morning to give them a heads-up about the warrant we’re going to get for their footage from last night, they remembered they had some footage we’d requested from the cameras in the employee parking garages.”
“Glad they remembered,” Ryan said.
“Yeah. I’m not super impressed with the security guy we’ve been dealing with. Adam said the guy in charge is in Hawaii on his twenty-five-year wedding anniversary trip. He’ll be back later this week. When he gets back, we’re going to need to talk to him. In the meantime, I thought you’d want to take a look at this stuff for yourself.”
“Okay,” Ryan said. “Did it require a phone call in the middle of my breakfast?”
Gabe’s chuckle spoke volumes.
“Just for that, I’m not bringing you any cookies.”
“She made cookies?”
“Yep. She had cookie dough in the fridge and she’s sending more in. But I’m going to conveniently forget them on the counter.”
He disconnected the call in the middle of Gabe’s apology. He helped Leigh clean the kitchen and an hour later—armed with two dozen cookies—Ryan found Gabe at his desk.
“Cookies. Sweet.” Gabe grabbed one and stuffed it into his mouth. “Yo, Parker’s got grub,” he called out in a loud voice.
Ryan grabbed one before the vultures descended. Leigh had intended for him to share them, but he never promised to share all of them.
He settled in at his desk and pulled up a video file. More hospital security footage rolled on the screen. The team had been staring at hours of this stuff for days, looking for any sign of Leigh’s attacker.
“I’m not seeing anything yet,” Gabe said. “Still got a lot to go through though.”
This could prove to be another dead end. Or it could be the break they’d been waiting for. There was never a way to know until you put in the work.
Thirty minutes later, shadowy movement on the edge of the parking structure caught his eye.
“Check this out,” he said. Gabe stood behind Ryan’s seat. “Am I imagining things? Do you see that?” He pointed to the shadow on the edge of the screen. It moved along the wall and then disappeared.
“Play it again,” Gabe said.
He did.
“That’s weird. It’s too big to be a critter. But too far along the wall for it to be someone walking through. There’s no reason to be against that wall unless you’re staggering drunk or trying to avoid the cameras.”
“The time stamp works. We don’t have any footage of anyone at Leigh’s car, but we know it’s in there during this time.”
He continued to watch the footage. Fifteen cars came out of the garage over the next several hours. Then the shift change hit and the cars poured in and out of the garage.
“Let’s get this over to the forensics guys and see if they can enhance it. Maybe we can get a better view.”
“I wouldn’t hold your breath,” Gabe said. “Whoever this is, they are out of the camera view.”
“I don’t disagree, but we still need to try. We might get more info on build, clothing, something we could use to match them to other camera views.”
“Sounds good, but there’s one big problem. Forensics is backed up two weeks at least.”
“We might not have two weeks.”
Ryan poked his head out of the homicide office and scanned the desks in the main office. “Adam. Could you come here a minute?”
Adam held up one finger. After a few keystrokes, he grabbed his ever-present tablet and maneuvered through the maze of desks. He stuck out his hand. “Parker. How’s it going? You get my notes about my interview with Leigh?”
“Yeah. I did. Thanks for doing that.”
“No problem.”
“You got a minute?”
“Anything for the homicide division.”
Ryan led him into the office he shared with Gabe, Anissa, and the rest of the homicide investigators.
Gabe hopped up from his desk when he saw Adam. “Campbell. What’s up, man?”
“No idea,” Adam said as he took the chair Ryan pulled out for him.
“We need a favor,” Ryan said.
“We?” Gabe protested. “Don’t be using up my favors, man. This one’s on you.”
Adam laughed. It was a long-running joke. His parents had not been happy with his decision to join the sheriff’s office, especially when they realized he’d be spending at least two years in the Uniform Patrol Division. Without his knowledge, they’d tried to call in a bunch of favors in an attempt to get him moved into an investigative division early.
At the time, Ryan was a property crimes investigator and had gotten to know Adam when he joined the dive team. At first he wasn’t too sure about a guy he’d assumed would be a spoiled brat playing cop, but he’d been impressed with his intensity during training and they became friends.
Ryan had been the one to tell Adam what his family was doing. Adam blew his top and put a stop to it. He’d handled it as well as could be expected, but from then on Ryan had teased him about calling in favors.
“How well do you know that forensics professor at the university?”
“Do you mean Dr. Fleming?”
“Yeah.”
“Well enough. Why?”
“Tell me about her.”
Adam gave him a questioning look, but answered. “Her PhD is in computer forensics and cybersecurity. Not many people have PhDs in that field. She’s the one we call if we have a computer our forensic techs can’t get into or if we are trying to get information off a hard drive someone dropped in their bathtub to keep us from being able to use it as evidence. When we need someone to analyze computer files in a hurry, she’s been quick to help. But she’s also an all-around computer genius, and she has access to top of the line equipment in her labs. She and some of the other professors in the department do a lot of volunteer work with groups that hunt down cyber predators, and they are working on more efficient ways to analyze video surveillance with the hope of sharing the technology with law enforcement agencies all over the country.”
Wow. Brains and a big heart. Ryan could see why Adam was impressed by the professor. “She sounds great, but I have to ask this. How much does she charge?”
“Why?”
“I’m wondering if she’d be willing to help us out with more video surveillance stuff. We have the video feeds we need analyzed, but the forensics guys are at least a couple of weeks behind and I don’t want to wait that long.”
“I thought she was already on board to look at the lake stuff,” Adam said.
“Yeah, but this is about Leigh Weston’s brakes.”
“Oh. Then you’ll have to get it approved first, but Sabrina’s not trying to get rich off the sheriff’s department,” he said. “Her department consults with law enforcement agencies all over the country, but she gives us priority. Says if she can’t help keep her own community safe, then she doesn’t have any business helping anyone else.”
“Is she pretty?” Gabe asked.
Adam’s eyes flashed. “She is,” he said. “And not your type.”
“Oh, I see how it is,” Gabe said. “I want to meet her.”
“She doesn’t usually come to the office,” Adam said. “Sorry.”
Gabe didn’t attempt to hide his amusement.
For his part, Ryan didn’t care if Adam had a crush on the professor. What he cared about was whether or not she could review their video.
“If the captain approves it, will you introduce me to her? I’d like to get her to take a look at some files.”
“Sure thing. I’ll give her a call and see what her schedule looks like.”
“Thanks.”
After Adam left, Gabe leaned back in his chair. “I don’t think Adam wants me to meet the lovely Dr. Fleming.”
“I agree, but I don’t care.”
An hour later, he’d gotten easy approval from the captain to have Dr. Fleming look at the video, and Adam had sent her the files.
He started hunting down the cars that had come out of the garage and matching them to their owners. His next step was to get a list of every car that had come out during the shift change. If this guy was smart enough to stay out of sight of the cameras, he would have been smart enough to wait on the shift change to leave. Anyone coming out of the garage could be Leigh’s attacker. Or none of them could be.
People thought being a homicide investigator was glamorous. But staring at security footage until your eyes crossed was anything but glamorous.
Two hours later, Ryan leaned back in his seat when someone knocked on the office door.
Adam poked his head in. “You got a minute?”
“Sure. What’s up?”
Adam pulled open the door further and ushered in a woman—her dark-rimmed glasses gave her a studious air, her superhero T-shirt made him think she’d fit right in at a Comic-Con.
But her eyes told him she’d come here with something to say.
“Dr. Fleming, I presume?” He stood and reached for her hand. Her grip was firm and businesslike.
“You must be Investigator Parker.”
“It’s Ryan, but yes.”
She had a lovely smile. “And it’s Sabrina.”
Gabe bounded around the desks, hand outstretched. “Gabe Chavez,” he said, his teeth flashing white against his dark brown skin.
Standing behind Sabrina, Adam skewered Gabe with a look that said, “What are you doing?” and “Back off” at the same time.
It took all Ryan’s willpower not to laugh. “Sabrina,” he said as he steered her away from Gabe, “what brings you to the sheriff’s office this fine Monday afternoon?”
“I was in the area and thought I would come in and introduce myself. Also, I don’t have much yet, but I was able to take a look at your video footage earlier and I have something that might be useful for you.”
“Don’t keep us in suspense, Doc,” Gabe said.
She grinned at Gabe. Adam glared. “You won’t be able to ID anybody off this, but it might help you rule out some people. Your shadow is between five foot eight and five foot eleven.”
Seriously?
“That is . . .” He really wanted to say “useless,” but that wouldn’t earn him any brownie points. And she was supposed to be the best.
“Check your email,” she said. “I sent you the enhanced file.”
Sabrina waited at his shoulder as he opened the file. “May I?” She gestured to the mouse on the desk.
“Be my guest.”
She had the section she wanted pulled up in seconds. “Look here.” Ryan watched the shadow. It was definitely a person and not an animal.
“Is he wearing a hat?”
“This individual is wearing a hat. Can’t make out what’s on it, but it’s similar to a baseball cap.”
The forensics folks were always very careful not to say anything definite, but that was their job. It looked like a baseball cap to him.
“This person is either heavyset or wearing some heavy clothing. Hard to say for sure.”
He could see that. Looked like a jacket of some sort, but that could be intentional to disguise a smaller build.
“But here’s the spot I want you to see. I spoke with a colleague of mine and we ran a few calculations, looking at the lighting, comparing things we could measure. Shadows are tricky because someone can appear tall or short depending on the angle of the light. But I’d be surprised if this person is over five-eleven. I think they are closer to five-ten but definitely not over five-eleven or shorter than five-eight.”
Five-ten?
“What if they are hunched over?”
“I took that into account,” she said. “Looking at the shape of the shadow and the angle of the hat and then the legs, there’s not much room for hunching.”
“Thank you,” Ryan said. “I appreciate this.”
“No problem. We have a team working on an experimental program to improve video enhancements, and they were thrilled to test it out. They are going to see if they can get it cleaned up further. If they do, you’ll be the first to know.” She looked at Adam. “I hate to run,” she said, “but I’m due in class in twenty minutes.”
“I’ll walk you down,” Adam said.
“She is even prettier than I was expecting,” Gabe said after the two had walked away. “Did you see Adam’s response? He was about ready to climb over this desk.” Gabe rubbed his hands together. “I am going to have so much fun with this.”
“You shouldn’t flirt with her like that,” Ryan said.
“Like what? I was just talking to her.”
There was no point in arguing. Gabe flirted without realizing it. But to be fair, he was always respectful toward women. And he didn’t date a lot, even though he could. Most women seemed to find him very attractive.
“Adam can’t keep m
e from talking to her,” Gabe said. “And I have a case that could use her expertise . . .”
“Why don’t we get back to the case in front of us,” Ryan said.
“Fine.” Gabe returned to his seat. “She said shorter than five-eleven? Taller than five-eight? That eliminates a lot of people.”
“It definitely gives us a way to rank our suspects,” Ryan said. “Not that I don’t trust her, but I don’t want to make any assumptions that will come back to bite us later.”
“So we’re looking for a guy between five-eight and five-eleven?”
“No,” Ryan said. “We’re looking at anyone in that range. Male or female.”
“You think a girl cut Leigh’s brake lines?”
“Are you saying a girl couldn’t?”
“No. Of course not. But you have to admit the MO does make a male more likely.”
“I don’t disagree. But I want to be sure we don’t rule anything out until we have evidence to back up the decision.”
“Okay. We’ll rank our suspects by height and focus on the men and women taller than five-eight and shorter than five-eleven, with special mentions for those coming in at five-ten.”
“Right.”
Gabe groaned. “That narrows things down.” The sarcasm was thick.
Ryan couldn’t disagree. This was going to take forever.
For the next several hours, he cross-referenced driving records and personnel records and looked at faces and watched people go in and out of the hospital.
And it could all be for nothing.
They were literally chasing a shadow.
Leigh’s phone rang at twenty after five. Ryan was on his way.
She sprinkled fresh parsley over a pot of chicken and dumplings. Her mom had made this dish at least twice a month. It was the very definition of comfort food.
After the past few days, she needed some comfort. She’d slept until two this afternoon and then gotten up and cleaned up the mess in the dining room. The table had been a total loss and the firefighters had been kind enough to remove it from the house. But everything still smelled like smoke—even though she’d thrown caution to the wind and opened all the windows and gotten a nice breeze through the house for most of the afternoon.