“Are you next?” Stryker asked.
“Next for what?” Slash asked.
“Getting married,” Emerson exclaimed.
Rather than blow them off, she said, “I won’t say no when he asks.”
They both smiled so big, she laughed. “Stryker, you ready to work?”
“Born ready, baby,” he replied as he pulled his long hair into a man-bun.
“I hate to kick you two out—” Emerson said.
Stryker’s expression fell. “You want us to leave?”
Emerson laughed. “I’m kicking you out of my office, babe. Just my office. I’ll see you for lunch.”
They relocated to Slash’s office. She set down Karen’s laptop, then watched as he removed the hard drive, attached a cable, and plugged it into the laptop’s USB port.
She opened her own laptop, logged in and started working. She had twelve cases she’d sidelined, so she dove in and got busy.
Minutes turned into an hour before Stryker spoke. “Is this the only computer at the club?”
“The only one I ever saw,” she replied.
“There’s nothing,” he said.
“What do you meannothing?”
“Woodside kept no lists,” he said. “No one to track.”
“What about the members?”
“I can see member’s profiles, but they set up online accounts, paid through the app.”
“What about videos from the surveillance cameras?” Slash asked. “There were nine cameras total, two pointed at each stage, and one in the dressing room. None in the bar area, but they could have been hidden.”
“There’s nothing on this laptop that gives me access toanysurveillance equipment,” Stryker explained. “It’s either cloud based, or it has its own, dedicated server. What you’re looking for isn’t here. There’s nothing in the history that shows she checked surveillance because the surveillance doesn’t exist. Not on this laptop.”
“For fuck’s sake,” she bit out. “Karen told a detective that the cameras don’t work.”
“Either she’s telling the truth or theydowork, but she doesn’t have access to them.”
Dammit.
“Thanks for trying,” she said. “And thank you for helping us catch the arsonist. You’re a damn good hacker, Stryker Truman.”
He shot her a smile. “Anytime.”
After Stryker left her office, she worked until it was time for training. Ready to blow off steam, she packed up and drove to BLACK OPS.
But she couldn’t shake the frustration that followed. If Karen didn’t have access to those cameras, then who did?
Carrera
Monday night,after Slash went upstairs to get ready for bed, Carrera sat on the sofa next to his grandmother.
“Since you’re the secret keeper, I wanted you to be the first to know I’m asking Amanda May to marry me.”
