Page 18 of Cheater


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Kit added locating the ex-wife to her growing to-do list.

“What about the medical records of your residents?” Connor asked. “You said that the surveillance camera system is located in the server room behind you. Where are the medical records kept?”

“Not on the premises. We use a vendor who maintains their own servers and our data to ensure that our systems are government compliant. The only systems stored on our own servers”—she pointed to the server room behind her—“are the security and surveillance system, internal email, and personnel records. We don’t even manage the payroll. We have a service that does that, too. Do you think we had a security breach?”

“Perhaps,” Connor said. “We’ll need to examine your server to see how the camera was tampered with. That means we’ll be shutting the server down until Forensics is finished.”

Evans’s mouth dropped open and Kit thought she saw true fear flicker in the woman’s eyes before she covered it with outrage. “You can’t just take our server! We need it to function!”

“You actually don’t,” Connor countered calmly. “You’ve just told us that all the patient files, the payroll, everything urgent is done on the servers of provider companies. Your patients’ care and your employees’ pay can continue without interruption.”

Evans’s cheeks flushed with angry color. “This is absurd,” she blustered. “I’m going to involve our attorneys. They’ll be speaking with your supervisor.”

“His name is Lieutenant Navarro,” Kit said helpfully. “Two Rs.”

Evans scowled and said nothing.

“We’ll also need a list of all your staff, volunteers, and anyone who has access to the facility,” Kit added.

Evans narrowed her eyes. “That’s all on the server.”

Connor smiled, but it wasn’t friendly. “I trust you’ll help us find the appropriate information on the server,” he said, his tone silky with an unspoken threat that was subtle yet very clear. “Since this is a murder investigation, I’m sure you’ll want to be cooperative.”

Evans swallowed hard, her expression visibly resetting into the professional mask she’d been wearing before Connor had dropped his server bomb. “Of course. We want to catch Mr. Frankie’s killer. You can count on our full cooperation.”

“Thank you,” Kit said sincerely, privately amused that Connor had taken on the role of bad cop. He didn’t play it often, but when he did, he did it well. “You mentioned internal email on your private server?”

“Yes. It’s mostly for personnel issues, announcements, and the planning of social events. We have a lot of social events here at Shady Oaks.”

And they’d need to look at those, too, Kit thought. They needed to find when the victim crossed paths with his killer. “Can you tell us when Mr. Frankie left the compound? Did he still drive?”

“He had a car and drove himself wherever he wanted to go. Records of the dates and times that he left the grounds are kept in the surveillance system. Every resident has to use their key card to get in and out of the doors.”

Connor glanced at Kit. “I hope those records haven’t been scrubbed as well.”

Kit nodded grimly. “How many entrances are there?” Please say there’s just the front door by the receptionist’s desk. But she knew they wouldn’t get that lucky.

“There are fifteen exterior doors that cover the nursing ward, the memory ward, the main lobby, and the residences. All require a key card for entry. Visitors have to sign in at the front desk, but residents have been known to sneak someone in.” Evans shrugged. “We don’t encourage this and there are fines if anyone’s caught doing it. But some of our residents have families that are very involved in monitoring their daily lives. The residents find it chafing, seeing as how they’ve been independent throughout their lives. So they sneak around.”

“But Mr. Frankie didn’t have that kind of family,” Kit murmured.

“No, he didn’t.”

“Is Mr. Frankie’s vehicle still in the parking lot?” Connor asked.

The victim’s pockets had been turned out, like he’d been searched and robbed, so it was likely that his keys were gone. The obvious search of his apartment pointed to a robbery of some kind.

“I don’t know,” Evans said. “Vehicle registration information is kept on the server as part of the security system. It also tracks the coming and going of the cars. We have a gated lot for residents. Each car has a UPC-style sticker that triggers the gate to lift. We track resident movements that way. Not actively, but if they don’t come back when they’re expected, we can put out a silver alert.”

So if more than just the camera feed was compromised, they’d lose a lot of important information. Dammit. They needed to track down both the head of security and the IT guy as quickly as possible.

But first, they needed to know who might have wanted to kill Frankie Flynn.

Kit settled her gaze on the director. “Miss Evans, where were you between ten a.m. on Sunday and ten a.m. this morning?”

Evans didn’t look upset by the question. “My mother is in a continuing care center in Temecula. I was with her all weekend and drove home this morning. I can give you the name of the hotel where I stayed and the contact at my mother’s facility. They can verify my whereabouts.”

“Why isn’t your mother here?” Connor asked.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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