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A few minutes later, he exhaled deeply and went to let Melanie out of the bathroom. At least she’d followed orders and stayed put. Of course, if she’d stayed where he told her to at the cafe, then she’d probably be dead. It still bugged him that he’d misread the shooter’s intentions so completely. Though, that attempt was exactly what had made him suspect Darkshade. Unlike most of the professionals, Darkshade wasn’t afraid to change his MO depending on the target.
He rapped a knuckle on the door. “All done out here,” he said, feeling awkward about having locked her in the bathroom for twenty minutes.
When she emerged though, Melanie didn’t seem to mind.
She cleared her throat. “I have something you should see.”
Will was puzzled but stepped aside as she walked toward the bed and grabbed her bag. With a quick frown at the bag, she dropped it and began rummaging under the blankets.
A twinge of guilt flared, and Will crossed the room and pulled her laptop from a bag on the desk. “Looking for this?”
He saw the hurt and confusion in her eyes and quickly tried to diffuse them. “It’s my job, Melanie. I couldn’t unlock it. I figured before I sent it off to the team in Virginia I would ask nicely.”
“What a concept,” she said sarcastically. He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling.
She tugged the computer free from his hand and opened it. After typing in her password and clicking around a bit, she tilted the screen around so he had a better view.
Will watched the unfamiliar footage carefully. It started with a video of Hannah’s face, a look of surprise on it. Then, it panned toward President Walters walking into the hotel. This part he’d seen. Then came the shot and the hurried response of the agents near the president. After that was a wild scan of the area before returning to the Secret Service responding.
The edited version hadn’t included her face or the ending video of the entire loading dock.
“Why didn’t you share this?”
Melanie shrugged one shoulder. “I wanted the video to be clean and professional for the news station, so I cut it out. The camera was moving too fast, and that part of the video was all blurry and disjointed.”
“This is everything?” Will’s voice was steely.
She nodded silently, as though scared of what he’d say. He knew what he’d like to say. He’d like to chew her out for not sharing this ten hours ago. He wanted to ask her why he saw frustration and anger mixed in with her surprise at the president walking across the loading dock. Did she have a grudge against President Walters?
Her voice was soft when she spoke, interrupting his inner struggle to control his frustration.
“I thought maybe there was someone who could… you know, find something on the rest of the video.”
He nodded. “Maybe. I’ll send it to Stephen and Miranda right away and we’ll see what they get.”
She nodded and then gestured to the open computer. “There’s nothing else on here, but if you want to let your people in, it’s all yours.”
Will nodded and grabbed the laptop. He tried to ignore Melanie’s quiet, watchful eyes as he downloaded the full video to a flash drive so he could send it over the secure network. He wasn’t risking hooking her computer up to this awful motel’s Wi-Fi.
“Will? Can I ask you something?”
He grunted in response. Great, now he was acting like Tank. “Go right ahead.”
“Who do you work for?”
Will exhaled and considered his words carefully. A conversation like this was a minefield. He couldn’t share too much. But he also knew that Melanie deserved some answers.
“I work for an independent security agency.”
She frowned at him. “I don’t even know what that means, to be honest.”
He let a hint of a smile flicker. “Most people don’t. It just means we’re a company that handles security—bodyguarding, corporate espionage, hostage negotiations, and stuff like that.”
“So why are you involved in this?”
He pressed his lips together. “Melanie, I really wish I could tell you everything.” He knew as well as anyone why information had to remain confidential. “You know that I’m working directly for the President of the United States. Isn’t that enough?”
He watched the frustration on her face, but it quickly smoothed away.
