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Everyone leaned in closer to the screen, but their features never changed.
“What the fuck is going on?” Homer bellowed. “I’m telling you; it was around eight when I went back to check on the noise. I know that because we had just watched an episode ofThe First 48show, and I had checked my phone to see the time. You said you were coming home sometime after eight, so I didn’t want to start another episode.” Homer glanced at Lock when he spoke. “I swear boss, I’m right.”
Lock stared at Homer for a long moment before he told Danny, “Play it again, but let it run longer. And start maybe an hour earlier.”
Danny punched the keys again, and when he had the image up, he leaned back and folded his arms.
Everyone leaned in again and watched the footage. I wondered if they were going to stand there for an hour just staring at the screen. Or if…
“Wait… can you rewind a little,” Ayana called out, pointing to Danny’s screen. Danny looked up at his boss and Lock nodded.
“Do it.”
Danny did what he was told and Ayana brightened and said, “Stop, now play it real time… and stop it right there.”
She leaned back against her chair, a satisfied grin on her face.
The guys looked at the screen then at her.
“What?” Danny asked.
“You don’t see it?” Ayana challenged, and the guys just stared blankly at her.
She rolled her eyes and growled. “For heaven’s sake you call yourselves detectives.” Ayana shifted her gaze over to me. “Sweetie, what color are the flowers on the back patio?”
All eyes fell to me.
“Blue,” I replied, confused she would ask me that.
Ayana pointed to the screen. “Do you see?”
Still, they stared at her blankly.
“Woman, have you lost it? We can see the flowers are blue.”
“Yeah, but they’re not blue after…” she leaned forward, and I assumed she pressed play. All of the guys stared at the screen in disbelief. Ayana added, “The white flowers made Phoebe sneeze like crazy, so she replaced the white flowers with blue ones the day we went to the mall. Remember,” she glanced up at Lester, “you went inside Home Depot to get something, and Phoebe went with you and headed to the flowers. They are still on the patio. So, if this footage is right—”
“Then how are the flowers white instead of blue,” Danny finished smiling. “Holy shit, the footage has been compromised.”
“Yeah, but how?” Lock pondered. “Wouldn’t you have detected someone hacking into the system? And how did they do it?”
I could feel my body start to heat up. I knew exactly how, but I didn’t say anything. Ayana, however, did.
“They looped over the live footage with an old recording. Sort of like what they did in the movie Speed. Remember the lady on the bus? Keanu told the people on the bus not to move, but this lady either picked up her purse and held it before they started taping, or she put it down. Whatever, my point is whoever did this didn’t know the flowers were a different color now. They probably used footage before she changed them.”
Rookie mistake, I said to myself, remembering that Garrett always made sure to record footage a few hoursbeforewe did our snatch and grab.
“Fuck me,” Lester mumbled.
CHAPTER13
PHOEBE
Everyone looked completely stunned. I couldn’t help the fear that began gliding along my spine. Could Garrett and Reed have something to do with this? Did they send these two goons to Lock’s house to grab me? No, that was so farfetched it was unreal. They would never do that. Mind you, they weren’t currently speaking to me, but that didn’t mean they would resort to kidnapping because they were mad that I didn’t choose them.
“Hold on,” Brady spoke up and everyone looked to him. He had found a seat next to me and looked from me to Ayana, back to his guys. “Remember the footage we found at the hotel? We only saw that figure at the door to Miss Gates’s hotel room. After that, there was nothing. Do you think the same thing happened? That someone looped the footage to hide them entering the hotel room or dragging those dead bodies into the room next door?”
“Shit!” exclaimed Ivey.
