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She had been in trouble—or she was supposed to have been facing the risk of my killing her as a loose end connected to this rumor that Gregori was killed.
Now, with her claiming the cops were involved, I wasn’t sure what to think.
“Can you access this video?” I asked her.
“You mean if I go to work?”
I shook my head. “You’re not going back there.”
She frowned. “Because of those… men at my apartment?”
I nodded. “You are a witness to something that someone clearly wants to hide or control. I found those men following you when you left your shift.”
She frowned. “So… you were following me already?”
We’re not diving into that now.
“Can you access the video?” I asked again.
“Remotely?” She blinked. “I… I could. The firewalls are secure, but I helped work on them so I can get in.” I gestured for Viktor to get a laptop inside.
He got up and went to grab one from my office.
She kept talking, maybe to avoid the awkwardness she felt, but I wasn’t going to ask her to stop. With her explanation about how she went to college for a general computer science degree and had wanted to work with non-profits to improve their website and financial security, she painted the picture of being someone who would know their way around on a computer or server system.
With the laptop in front of her, she didn’t hesitate to log in and find the video. Seated next to her now so I could watch, I tried to focus on the black-and-white images that played. It was a short video, and it matched exactly what she described.
“Do… do you know any of them?” she asked. “I notice there’s no license plate to see. I looked at other cameras for this time, and none of them show any identifying clues either.”
Even if we did recognize the men, we wouldn’t tell her. I shook my head. “No. We don’t know who they are.”
We asked her more questions, being as thorough as possible. Her nervousness remained but she answered it all.
If she told anyone about the video. If anyone knew that she’d been on those feeds then, which she said they did since they could log who had which views live. If there was anything important to know about her coworkers and this Owen asshole who was her boss, which she said there wasn’t.
We also asked about that property and who owned it, and she provided the address but admitted ignorance past that. And we asked if anything else like this had ever happened, which it hadn’t.
Brady burst out onto the patio area with Paloma smiling and bringing a dish of cookies. “Mama!” He skidded to a stop as he noticed the serious atmosphere. “Oh. Sorry.” He backed up toward Paloma, as if he knew he wasn’t wanted around.
“Oh, no, Brady. Go on. Go share these with your mama.” She smiled at him, already besotted. “Mr. Volkov has a couple of visitors.”
We got up and headed to meet with Maksim, who’d come to discuss the case with us. As soon as Louisa got into that server and copied the videos, we’d sent it to Trojan, one of our remote hackers.
Maksim had Trojan on a video call to go over what he could to supplement Louisa’s story. Viktor, Alexei, and I joined Maksim in a study.
“She’s definitely a critical witness,” Trojan said, “but whether this is a ploy or the real thing, I’m not sure. I’ve analyzed the video and it seems like there is a substantial weight in the bag, but no clue who could be in it.”
“What about facial recognition of the men?” I asked.
“Nothing. And the cop’s badge is a made-up number,” he replied.
“So, it’s not a cop?” Alexei asked.
“Does it matter if it was a cop, though?” Viktor asked. “We already know many agencies are bought.”
“The chatter that I’m picking up on, and that my team is getting hits on, is that this could be Gregori. That he was killed and moved. That would corroborate with what Rico Johnson claimed, but he’s also been rumored to be missing. It could be his body.”
I sighed, wishing this could just all be over. “If that fucker fakes his death again…”
