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Every time we mention the club, I can tell it puts Sonia on edge. Like there’s a hair trigger inside her that might send her right back into the memory, back into all that fear that she was trapped in her last moments.
The memory that she might die without telling me how she really felt.
Before I go, I lean down and kiss the crown of her head, avoiding the bandage covering her wound.
I am very much looking forward to a lifetime of kissing her like that.
I’m more than grateful when everyone launches right back into animated conversation as I leave the room.
As Carlisle leads me down the hall, I do my best to quell my temper.
Lourdes has already gotten an earful from me. More than an earful. The stone-faced head of security looked near to tears by the time I was done tearing into her.
It wasn’t fair, but I was upset at being told there were few clues as to what had happened. And knowing how good Lourdes is at her job, well…I just found it hard to believe that in the direst of times, she didn’t have answers for me.
Keep a calm head. For Sonia.
I find Lourdes pacing in the front hall, back and forth. She’s in her usual all black attire, including a black leather jacket and sunglasses propped up on her head.
“Mr. Lyons.” Her voice sounds as if it’s a novelty to see me in my own home.
I give her a curt nod. “Lourdes. Good to see you. This is unexpected.”
“I apologize for visiting you at your home, but given the circumstances, I wanted to give you the information we’ve found as soon as possible.” Her panther-like eyes are square in mine.
“Let’s take a seat, then, and discuss.” I gesture into the sitting room off the front hall, the one reserved for impromptu meetings and gatherings, not casual rest.
Lourdes follows me, taking a seat in a chair across from me while I sit on the white sofa, my ankle crossed over my knee.
“I want to apologize again for our lack of foresight on this issue.”
“It’s alright, Lourdes.” I say that only because I know it’s what Sonia would want me to say.
Shaking her head, Lourdes places her hands on her knees, knuckles turning white. “It’s inexcusable. The fact this resulted in Ms. Hill’s injury and has now incurred an obvious lack of trust from members is…well, all I can do is apologize.”
I pause. “You’re not losing your job, Lourdes.” I threatened it, sure. Which was not gracious of me.
Lourdes throat bobs up and down.
“Now, what is it you’ve come to show me?”
She reaches into her pocket and pulls out her phone, tapping and navigating as she speaks. “I’ve gone through the footage again and again to look for things the police might have missed, finding nothing but the repeating sixty frames that tricked our security officer on duty into thinking that no one was in the club, includingMs. Hill.”
The police are not good for much, but they were able to identify that somehow, there was the same clip being played on loop through the CCTV footage, a sample of a silent club. No one knew that Sonia was there, much less the intruders.
“However, I decided to do some backtracking myself while the police still try and figure things out and…well…” She holds out her phone to me, a video awaiting to be played. “This footage is from the late afternoon before the break in, sometime after all the members had left.”
I take it and tap the small triangle to watch.
The footage is still and silent at first. A view of the executive office hall.
“What is this?”
“Just watch.”
A few more seconds roll by. Then, there is sound. Grunting and the sounds of scraping metal. A face pops up on camera.
A face I know very well.
