A few minutes later, a slim man in a gangster business suit approached. He looked like he got lost in the 1940s. If I’d been drinking anything, I might have shot it out my nose.
“Johnny, what can I help with?” Mr. Maliton directed the question at the guard, with a quick flick of a glance at the two of us.
“The ladies requested to see you, sir,” Johnny responded, keeping it simple. Smart.
Mr. Maliton looked like he wanted to say something more to Johnny, probably about the complete lack of information contained in that statement. He thought better of it, and addressed us instead.
“What can I help you ladies with?”
He nodded at Johnny, who moved away discretely.
Liz smiled at the security head. “We’d like to take a look at your security cameras,” she requested with complete confidence. Unfortunately, the bold approach failed.
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Mr. Maliton responded.
“Let’s start over,” she replied, sticking out her hand. “I’m Elizabeth Addison, with Entertainment Daily.” Although the security head accepted her offered hand, inwardly I cringed. I watched the screen drop over his eyes. She lost him and didn’t even know it yet.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Addison,” he politely stated. “You still can’t see the security footage. Company policy.”
Liz tried to ply her feminine wiles on the man, since playing the media card didn’t work. I tuned them both out. I needed a distraction for Liz so I could entrance Mr. Maliton. A glance around the casino floor found nothing that could help. Screw it.
“Mr. Maliton?” I directed the question squarely at the security head and watched as his eyes took on the familiar glazed expression.
“Yes?”
“We understand that it’s company policy, and we certainly wouldn’t want you to get in trouble,” I explained, hoping Liz wasn’t being impacted too much. My voice entranced anyone within earshot, to some degree.
“Thank you, I appreciate that,” he said in a monotone.
“But, we really need to see that security footage.”
He frowned, his training fighting the sound of my voice. He’d lose, so I waited.
“Okay.”
“Thank you.” I touched his arm and he smiled at me. I risked a glance at Liz, confirmed by her eyes that unfortunately, she’d been entranced too.
“Can we see them now?”
“Of course,” he agreed and walked away.
“Come on, Liz,” I said, and she followed along too.
Our little train made its way through the casino floor to a room off a short hallway. It looked like a scene out of a movie. A man sat before a bank of television screens, each of which clearly showed sections of the casino floor. The man appeared surprised to see Mr. Maliton at all, let alone trailed by two women. He jumped to his feet.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Maliton,” he spluttered.
“These ladies need to see some security footage, Rick.”
Rick gaped at Mr. Maliton and then us. “Sir?” As if maybe he didn’t hear him correctly.
“Please show them whatever they need.”
“But, sir?”
“Is something about what I’ve said unclear?” Mr. Maliton’s voice, despite still sounding soft and sleepy, registered with Rick.
“No, sir,” he replied smartly.
“Thank you, Mr. Maliton,” I said with a final touch of his arm. “We’ll take it from here.” Rick’s eyes bugged out at this exchange, especially when his boss nodded at us and walked out of the room.
“Hi, Rick,” I said with a little wave. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Liz give a small shake of her head now that the entrancement was broken. I resolutely did not look at her and focused on our new best friend, Rick.
“Thank you in advance for all your help.”
“Uh, sure. What do you need?” His thoughts were clearly telegraphed on his face: Who is this green-haired chick and why did my boss give her carte blanche? I managed not to laugh.
“We need to go back about a week,” I explained, showing him the time stamp on the image Chris gave us. “The camera that shows this angle, looking for the woman in the background.”
Rick stared back and forth between the image and his cameras, working out which one would show that view.
“Aha!” He pointed to a screen on his right. I compared the two and nodded my agreement. He spun in his chair to a computer behind him, began typing away.
“Give me a sec, and I’ll find that spot,” he called over his shoulder. I watched as images fast forwarded, rewound, while he looked for this exact moment. And then there she was. Our mystery woman. Rick saw her and hit pause.
“There’s your image. Now what?”
Liz, who seemed to have fully shaken off the entrancement, chimed in. “Let’s go backwards until she leaves frame, so we can see where she entered. We’ll track her movements.”
Rick nodded his understanding and we began what I thought would be a painstaking process of tracking the mystery woman throughout the casino. Except that it wasn’t, because we couldn’t.
“That’s weird,” Rick muttered. We re-watched.
The three of us could clearly see the woman in one frame, but she was absent on any frame prior. It was as if she had just popped into existence. And then she was in about twenty seconds of frame before she seemingly vanished again.
We watched this twenty second clip over and over; Rick even checked other cameras at that time, to see if she was in any other footage. She was not. We were baffled. The other two tried to figure out how she could appear and disappear like she seemed to.
“Camera failure,” was Rick’s explanation, though he didn’t sound like he really believed. And he shouldn’t. I knew he was wrong; this was enough additional confirmation for me that the mystery woman was a djinn.
The reason I was baffled right along with the other two was wanting to know why. Why was Juni/Twin Sister appearing at all?
“Oh my goodness!” I exclaimed when I finally saw it. The other two jumped at my exhalation.
“What?” Liz cried.
“Rick, back the video up ten seconds.” He complied. “There! Do you see him?” Rick and Liz followed my finger. Rick didn’t know who I was looking at, but Liz did.
“Is that Chad?”
“Yes,” I confirmed, staring at the dead lead in my film, looking very much alive. Our mystery woman was staring at him, and although her face was expressionless, it was clear he was her target.
“Rick,” I turned to our helpful security agent. “Can you make me a copy of this twenty seconds of coverage?”
“Of course,” he readily agreed. He was still obviously confused, but Mr. Maliton had made it super clear that we were to get whatever we wanted. I hid a smile.
“Thank you.”
I turned to Liz while he made the copy. “Now we have at least a visual connection between Chad and the mystery woman.”
“Is this where she first meets him?”
“That’s a good question. She doesn’t interact with him at all that we see, but it seems evident that she’s tracking him. Does that suggest to you that she was looking for him? Already knew him somehow?”
Liz followed my line of questions. “What if she already identified him somehow and now wanted to…what?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Let’s get a copy of this to Jacob. Maybe he and the FBI will know more.” I saw Rick’s ears perk up at those initials and I regretted stating that in front of him. Oh well, who was he gonna tell?
Rick handed me a flash drive. “Here’s the video.” I knew he was dying to ask questions, but he admirably restrained himself.
“Thank you very much, Rick,” I said. “You’ve been a big help.”
Liz and I left the security guard at his post, monitoring the camera feeds, and returned to my car.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Liz suggested going
back to the station to download the clip to her work computer, where we could then more easily share it with Selina and Jacob. I bit my tongue at what I was sure was her real reason: making sure she had a copy for herself.
“You aren’t going to air this yet, are you?” I finally just asked her.
“Not yet.”
I guessed that’d have to do. While I drove to the station, Liz texted Selina to inform her the video would be coming. Once we arrived at the station, I texted Jacob asking to meet.
“You know, you could just email him the video,” Liz teased after I told her who I was texting.
“I’d like the opportunity to talk to him,” I responded casually but she wasn’t buying.
“Just admit you like him and want to see him.”
We were sitting in her office now, door firmly closed. I took this time to analyze my fingernails, saw that a manicure would be nice. Had I ever gotten a manicure before? Surely, though honestly, I didn’t recall.
Liz laughed at my silence. “Fine, ignore me. That was pretty cool, what you did,” she changed the subject.
“What are you talking about?” I knew what she was talking about.
“Convincing the head of security to show us the security footage. How did you do that exactly?” She was still going for light and easy, but I heard the undercurrent.
“I just explained that we needed it,” I reminded her. “You were there. You heard me.”
“Yeah, I did,” she agreed, but when I glanced up from my nails, she was frowning. “It’s kind of fuzzy though.”
“Fuzzy? I don’t get it,” I stated the bold lie, but not really feeling guilty.
“Listening to your voice was quite musical. I never noticed that before.”
“Hmm, thanks?”
“It’s almost like—”
Our eyes met. “Like what?”
“I’m not sure.” Big smile blossomed; totally fake, but I was okay with that. “Never mind,” she finally stated, “at least we got what we needed.”
I breathed a slight sign of relief that she let it go. It wasn’t good that her antennae were up and twitching, but it was worth the risk.
Liz focused on her screen, transferring the video from the flash drive to her computer. While she finished that and sent the email to Selina, my phone pinged an incoming text. “Jacob?” she asked and I nodded.
“He says he can meet in an hour. Did you want to come?”
The universe heard my unspoken request when Liz shook her head no. “I’m going to wrap a few things up here, including sending this video to Chris for his input; maybe we can meet up later at your place for drinks and catch up on our progress?”
“Sure,” I agreed.
“I’ll see you tonight,” Liz commented with a quick glance at me.
Guess I’d been dismissed.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Jacob apparently convinced his higher ups that being in training while there was now a serial killer bouncing back and forth between LA and Las Vegas was not a good idea. He asked if we could meet at a fast-casual restaurant in Downtown Summerlin. They had a great pizza place there, so I readily agreed. Since I had an hour, I popped by my condo to transfer the video file to my laptop before heading to meet him.
I turned off of Sahara Ave onto a road that wrapped around the open-air shopping center behemoth. Luckily, my destination was a little off to the side, where there was usually ample close parking. I grabbed a spot and headed for the restaurant. Jacob was already sitting at a patio table. My heart skipped a beat. The sun reflected off his blond hair and I could see his broad shoulders straining the threads of his gray t-shirt.
Not to admit that Liz was right, but I really was glad that it was just me and Jacob at this meeting.
He looked up at the sound of my footsteps and smiled when he saw me.
“Hi, Ms. Fynn,” he said as he stood.
“Didn’t I ask you to call me Mia?”
“Hi, Mia.”
“Hi, Jacob.”
We stood staring at each other with matching grins. Like teenagers. I broke the moment first.
“You ready to head inside?”
He indicated I should go first, though he was careful to open the pizzeria door for me. I ducked under his arm and he followed me. We made idle chit chat about traffic and the weather as we placed our orders. He paid for my food, despite my stating it wasn’t necessary. This wasn’t a date, I reminded myself, though I didn’t say that to Jacob.
We sat at an outside table for more privacy and to enjoy the beautiful sunny day. I handed him the flash drive with the video.
“I figured you might want the original copy,” I said by way of explanation for not simply emailing it. Not terribly logical, since it was already a copy, but Jacob didn’t challenge my statement.
“Thanks. Can you tell me more about what’s on it?”
All I had texted was that I had a video showing the possible murderer. I skipped the background information involving Chris. “We saw a clip of a woman on an iPhone video from someone who had been on vacation here. We figured out where that video was taken and went there. We then found security footage—” Here Jacob lifted one eyebrow. I continued.
“Footage that showed that same location and time. And there she was. More importantly, there was Chad.”
Jacob whistled low in appreciation. “You actually found a video showing this unidentified woman and the murder vic?”
I nodded, inordinately proud of myself. “Yes, it clearly shows her looking at him.”
“Really? That’s interesting. I’ll watch the video in a second, but since you seem to have deliberately not mentioned it, where did you get this video?” He was smirking, so I knew he was teasing, but I tensed and he noticed.
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
I shook my head. “Nothing, sorry. The video is from the Golden Nugget.”
Now both of his eyebrows shot up. “You successfully got security footage from a casino? Without a search warrant? What did you? Bribe them?” He was still joking, but there was definitely an edge.
“Of course not!” I exclaimed. “Although honestly, I wouldn’t have had a problem doing that,” I admitted. “I just asked nicely.”
“Okay.” He stared at me while I strove for a carefully neutral expression. He sighed. “I’ll accept that.”
“I thought maybe between the department’s and the FBI’s resources, you guys could do more with the video. The date and time on it correspond to shortly before the murder. It seems highly unlikely that it’s not connected.”
“Based on your description, I would tend to agree. Okay, let’s fire it up.”
Jacob remained silent while he watched the twenty second clip on my laptop. He hit play several more times. I was acutely aware of the heat of his body so close to mine as we leaned in toward the screen.
“Is this it?” he finally asked, confusion apparent in his voice.
“What do you mean? Yes, that’s it.” I pointed at the screen.
“Where does she come from and where does she go?” He asked this slowly.
I sighed. “Oh, that. Yeah, we don’t know.”
“You don’t know? Did your source not check the other cameras?”
“Yes! He did. I was standing right there when he did. She’s not on any of the other cameras.”
“That’s not possible.”
Not if you’re not human. “Security guy said there must have been a camera malfunction.”
Jacob stared at me for a moment.
“More like a system malfunction.”
“That’s possible too,” I conceded, hating lying to him. But what was I going to say? She was a djinn who popped in and out of our dimension. Not a chance.
“What are you thinking?”
“What?”
“Just now, I saw the wheels in your brain turning,” he explained. “What were you thinking?”
Um. I tried for
a version of the truth. “I’m trying to figure out why she was there.”
“And you think this is Juni’s sister, not Juni, even though no body was ever found?” He asked but really this was a dismissive statement.
“I do,” I answered.
“Why?”
Now what did I say? “I just think that since the first murder victim was so adamant that Juni was in his car and nobody’s seen her since that night—”
“Except possibly on this video,” he interrupted.
“It seems more likely that it would be somebody connected to her,” I continued as though he didn’t speak.
“And somehow decided there must be a sister. Apparently, a twin sister,” he amended with a gesture at the video paused on the mystery woman. “How did you come across this information?”
“Sources,” I stated firmly. “Sources that I will not be providing to you, so please don’t ask again.”
Jacob looked taken aback by my tone but didn’t push. “Since you provided the initial direction, I feel comfortable telling you that so far we have not been able to identify this woman further. Therefore, we have not been able to identify any family members, twin or otherwise.” He paused to take in my reaction. “Therefore,” he repeated, “it appears you have better sources than Metro or the FBI.”
I heard the exasperation in his voice and wished I could help him. “I’m sorry I can’t help more,” I said instead.
We stared at each other. He started to say something several times but didn’t. I waited. I didn’t know what else to tell him that didn’t put my kind at risk. I was however disappointed to hear his report. Liz and I were going to have to solve this ourselves. Without Liz learning the real truth. I sighed before I could stop myself.
Jacob misinterpreted the sigh. “No, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to pressure you. I understand protecting sources. I just want to solve this before anyone else gets hurt.” The naked worry I saw in his eyes threatened my resolve, but I held steady.
I reached out to cover his hand with my own. The familiar zap of electricity brought smiles to both our faces. “I guess that’s going to keep happening.” I chuckled but didn’t move my hand, nor did he withdraw his.
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