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“Look at the camera.One minute he’s sitting on the ground and the next covered in a blanket sleeping.You never see him get into bed.Which means the footage was tampered with.Are there cameras for inside the control room?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Pull them up.Same timeframes.”
They watched the guard on duty last night as he sat at his desk and got up from time to time to check on Lawry and go back to the control room.He had read, which wasn’t uncommon for night shifts like this, but he always kept an eye on the monitors until the morning shift came in.
If Jameson had to guess, he would say this guy didn’t have anything to do with the crime, but he was one of the last people to see Lawry alive, so he couldn’t rule anything out.
“Detective Weston,” a deputy called out coming into the room.
“Yes?” He turned to face him.
“I’m Deputy Mason Reeves.I was the night guard last night.” He held his hand out for Jameson to shake.“I was told you wanted to see me.”
Mason looked to be in his late twenties.He was at least a foot shorter than Jameson and much rounder.
“Thanks for coming back so quickly.” Jameson shook, noting his strong, firm handshake.The man didn’t seem nervous.A sign he was innocent.
“I don’t live far away, and I was still awake when I received the call to come back.Is everything alright?” Obviously when he’d been called in, no one had told him why.Good.Even if he didn’t look nervous now, Jameson wanted to see his reaction to Lawry’s death.
“Fine, I just need a word with you.”
“Of course.”
“Did you check on Lawry last night?” he asked, walking him back toward the body.If Mason was involved, Jameson didn’t want him seeing they were on to the footage tampering.
Mason’s eyebrows puckered in confusion, no doubt at the question.“Yes, sir, part of the rotation is to walk through the rooms every two hours and monitor from the control room otherwise.”
“Besides making your rounds, were you ever away from your post?”
“The occasional bathroom break.”
Enough time for Lawry to be murdered and the killer to get away with it scot-free.“Did you ever see anyone come down?”
“No, sir, it was just me last night.It was a quiet, uneventful night.That’s why I was shocked to get a call this morning to come back in for questioning.”
“This may sound strange, but was Lawry in this position all night?” He pointed to Lawry lying on his back.
Deputy Reeves stared at the body.His eyes widened in shock.Either he was a very accomplished liar or he genuinely didn’t know Lawry had been murdered.“He’s dead,” Mason said stating the obvious.
“Yes, and I’m trying to figure out who did it and when.”
Mason looked at him, fear in his eyes.“You think I did it?”
“You were one of the last to see him alive.I’m trying to get answers, not accuse anyone yet.Can you please answer the question?”
Mason looked back at the body.His face had gone pale.Jameson hoped he didn’t pass out.Jameson was no stranger to death, not that it was ever a pretty sight, but he’d learned to shut his emotions off when studying a scene.“No.He paced around for a while and settled near the bed.” So far his story was lining up with the footage.
“Do you recall when you took bathroom breaks?”
The guard looked thoughtful.“I took two.One was around twelve-forty and the other about five AM.”
“And he was like this after your first break?”
“Yes.”
“When did you do your first round after your first break?”
