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Everyone’s eyes grew as they stared at each other.
“Danny,” Lock began, leaning on Danny’s chair, but Danny was already typing as if he knew what his boss was about to say. Lock said it anyway. “Bring up the footage from the hotel. Let’s see if we can find something different about the footage.”
“Yup, I’m on it,” Danny replied, his eyes glued to his screen, his fingers moving in light speed. Lock stood behind him, arms folded against his chest. “Okay, here it is. I’ll rewind until we see the figure.”
I was itching to get up and see what everyone else saw, but I was glued to my seat, my fear causing my body to freeze up. Could Garrett and Reed be responsible for everything? I mean, this was Garrett’s thing. He did it every time we performedOperation Freedom. It’s why we’ve been so successful. But would he use it against me? No, I couldn’t believe that. So that meant someone else was doing it. Not that it was a hidden secret. Like Ayana said, they did it in the movies. But who would actually think up a thing like that? Normally, in movies, the bad guys would just cut the security feed. They wouldn’t loop over it.
“Yup, stop right there,” Ayana blurted, standing to her feet.
“What? I can’t see shit,” Danny griped.
“That’s because it’s very small. Look at the stripes on the wallpaper.”
“What about it?” Danny asked, leaning in close to his laptop as if that would somehow help his vision.
“The stripes are slightly off. It jerks too for just a second. Didn’t you see the Matrix? Remember when Neo saw the black cat, then another black cat? That’s what happened there. It’s indistinctive, but I saw it. Someone looped over this footage too.”
“Play it back, Danny, but go slow,” Lock told him and leaned in close. Danny did as he was told and after a few seconds Danny’s eyebrows shot to his forehead.
“Well, I’ll be damned.”
Ayana grinned from ear to ear.
“There it is. She’s right.” Lester affirmed, shaking his head.
“You must have eyesight like a hawk.” Brady commented, leaned forward and offered a fist bump to Ayana.
Ayana leaned forward and met his fist with her own.
“It’s this pregnancy, I swear,” she said. “My senses have been heightened like a superhero.”
As she went to sit back down, she damn near missed the chair. Brady stretched over to try and help her, and he knocked over a box that was sitting on the table.
“So much for superhero,” mused Sol.
“Shut up,” replied Ayana, and I heard her say something else, but I was no longer paying anyone attention. My eyes were focused on a picture of a woman that I had recognized. It was part of the spilled contents from the box.
I picked up the picture and found there were others underneath it. I glanced at them, spreading them out so I could see them all.Holy shit…I recognized a majority of them.
“Do you know them?”
I glanced to my right and found Lock standing close to me. His eyes were on me, studying me. I nodded.
“How?”
I swallowed hard and looked back at the pictures. I picked up one and recognized her as Sophie. I picked up another picture and remembered her too. I couldn’t quite place her name, but I remembered picking her up from her house and driving to some bus station in Oklahoma.
“Kitten…” I glanced up at Lock, his soft voice covering me like a warm blanket. “Tell me about these women. How do you know them?”
“I…” I cleared my voice and tried again. “I helped them.”
“They were victims of domestic violence?” he asked, and I nodded.
“Yes, well. I don’t know all of them, but some I remember. These two specifically.”
I looked at the box, then back at him.
“I didn’t know you worked missing person’s cases. I’m sure that’s what this is, right?” I asked, hopefulness bleeding through my voice.
