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“Where’s the rest of it?” Flynn demanded.
Shah shrugged. “I have no idea. Someone seems to have gone in and erased the rest. I think they tried to erase it all but I managed to find this bit in the trash.”
“Who has access besides you?”
“No one. Or at least no one should. They’re not even supposed to know the cameras are there.” Shah leaned back in his chair. “Whoever erased it wasn’t doing it on location, by the way. The system was accessed remotely.”
“Fuck,” Flynn snarled. “What you’re telling me is it could be anyone?”
“Not anyone. Someone who is a kick-ass hacker or someone who is on the inside.”
That thought stopped Flynn cold. Someone on the inside. “That would explain a whole lot when it came to the video.”
“My thinking exactly. I’ve spent all morning trying to figure out how they got in and who it could be and all I can tell you is I’m pretty sure they have the passwords for the servers.”
Flynn knew nothing about this stuff. “Who would have access to that?”
“You mean across the whole network?” Shah asked.
“Walk me through it,” Flynn said as he steepled his fingers together.
“The Lock and Key Society runs its own network. We store some stuff virtually for each location and some we keep on servers. Video files are stored virtually.” He held up his hands before Flynn could say anything. “Yeah, I know. It should all be kept physically on the servers but then Archer would have to physically go to every location if he wanted to view video footage. That’s just not practical. We’ve made it as secure as electronically possible. And like I said, I don’t think it was hacked. I think someone was given the passwords and had access.”
Flynn shifted in his seat and then tapped his fingers under his chin. “So I’ll ask again. Who would have access?”
“To the whole system?” He raised his eyebrows. “Maybe a handful of people. All of them are in New York. And they work closely with Archer.”
Flynn stared blankly into space for a moment. That was not good news. He was going to have to tell Archer someone around him was betraying him. Heads would roll, possibly even literally. He let out a long breath. “Can you tell when this breach happened?”
“Right after Astrid went missing. It’s not a recent thing.”
Interesting. This whole puzzle was getting weirder and weirder. “Let’s move to last night. Do we have any video of Calli’s murder?”
Shah rubbed his head with both hands making his hair stand straight up. “At the risk of pissing you off and making you think I am entirely inept, the answer is no. Someone cut the power to the cameras around the stairs last night. All I could find is this.” He turned his laptop back around and started typing. Then he spun it once again so Flynn could see the screen.
It was the hallway upstairs. Not the second floor though. Must be the third. There were people walking but it was so dark all he could make out were shapes moving. “Can’t you get it any better than this?”
Shah shook his head. “The lights were off. The cameras still worked but with so little light they didn’t get much.” He leaned over and hit a few more buttons on the laptop. The video started over only this time there was sound. There were a few murmurs and then a woman giggled.Calli. The video ended. “Any idea who the man is?”
Shah shook his head. “That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out. I tried the process of elimination but too many of the members were still floating around. I can’t tell who went to their rooms and who didn’t once the lights went out in the upstairs hallways.”
Flynn played the video again, but it was no use. It just wasn’t clear enough to see who the man was and he didn’t speak loud enough to identify him by his voice. “Email it to me. I’ll send it to someone who might be able to lighten it up some.”
“Already done. Sent it to one of the Society’s IT guys in New York. He said he’d see what he could do.” Shah’s forehead creased. “I can still give it to you if you want.”
“No, that’s fine. It’s what I was going to do.” Flynn rubbed the heel of his hands on his eyes. He was annoyed but more, he was frustrated. This whole thing was just fucking weird. “Did you see or hear anything useful?” Flynn felt obligated to ask.
“Not a thing. After we finished up, I grabbed some food and then went to bed. I came out when I heard the commotion.”
This was not helpful. Flynn needed to formulate a game plan. That was the only way he was going to find out what the hell was going on.
“Do you know what Gina is doing?” He shot the question across the desk to see if Shah had any reaction. He needed to know if Shah was in on the secret or not.
His eyebrows drew downward in confusion. “Doing? You mean helping the members?”
“With the girls.”
Shah’s expression changed, became guarded. “Oh, that. Yes, I know.”
