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“If it wasn’t for that squirrel, I wouldn’t have caught anything going on across the street,” Adrianna said. “The motion tracker stops just past the sidewalk.”
Cody was about to ask if he’d missed the activity she was referring to when he saw movement at the Sykes house. Someone came out from the back corner of the house and stood by the passenger door of Devin Sykes’s SUV. From what Cody could tell at that distance, it was a woman, but he couldn’t see enough features to recognize her. Lucia, however, leaned in and squinted at the image.
“Is that…?” she said quietly, as if talking to herself.
Devin Sykes came out from the back of the house, wearing what looked to be the dark suit he’d been found in. He rounded the back of the SUV to the driver’s side, and both of them got into the vehicle. The SUV backed out and headed down the street and out of frame.
The squirrel continued to scavenge for food in Adrianna Compton’s yard.
“That’s it,” Adrianna said. “That’s all I saw of him.”
“Who was with him?” Lucia wondered. “It looked like a woman. Did you recognize her?”
“No, I didn’t,” Adrianna said. “And the picture’s not very clear. The cameras are more for close focus work than distance.”
She played the video again, and they all leaned in a little closer. Cody wasn’t able to make out any more details about the other passenger. When Devin walked around the car and got into the driver’s seat, Cody’s gut clenched tight. This video could be the last anyone saw of him, outside of his killer.
“What about prior to that?” Cody said. He gave Lucia a look when she glared at him. “Oh, come on, you know it had to be asked.”
“I was about to ask it, thank you,” Lucia said with a sneer. She turned back to Adrianna. “Did the camera capture anyone approaching the house before Mr. Sykes appeared?”
“I didn’t really look,” Adrianna said. “I just saw him get into his car with that other person, so I called you as soon as I could.”
“Can we check and see?” Lucia asked.
“Yeah, sure. Let me see if the camera activated before then. Just give me a minute.” Adrianna clicked a few links and squinted. Finally, she found what she was looking for, and a video started to play. It was earlier than the previous video, five thirty a.m. according to the timestamp, before sunrise. She clicked a small button and the video sped up a bit, showing a possum wandering across the lawn, the green tint of the night vision setting making it look practically radioactive.
“Nothing there,” Adrianna said, checking the next video clip.
This clip was from six twenty-five a.m., and the sky was starting to lighten in the distance. A woman walked past on the sidewalk on Adrianna’s side of the block, triggering the camera. She stopped at the edge of the yard and looked across the street at the Sykes house a moment. With a look in either direction, the woman crossed the street and went up the Sykes driveway, disappearing around the back of the house.
The video ended.
“What the hell?” Lucia said, her voice almost a whisper. “Can you run that again?”
“Did you recognize her?” Cody asked.
“I’m not sure yet.”
Lucia had Adrianna play the video again. When the woman was in the middle of the frame, she asked her to pause it. Leaning in past Adrianna, Lucia squinted at the screen. Adrianna looked across Lucia’s back at Cody, and he made a face and shrugged.
“It can’t be,” Lucia said to herself. “No.”
“Who is it?” Adrianna asked.
“Yeah, who is it?” Cody said.
Lucia straightened up and looked at him, her expression unreadable.
“I’m not certain.” She looked at Adrianna. “Can you download these files or email them to me or something?”
“Yeah, sure, I can save them off and email them to you as mp4 files.”
Lucia gave Adrianna her sheriff’s department email address, thanked her for her help, and led the way out of the house.
“You going to tell me what you’re thinking?” Cody asked as he followed her to the car.
Lucia didn’t answer him. She opened the driver’s door and got in behind the wheel. Cody huffed impatiently and got in on the passenger side.
