Page 36 of Defending Love
The room no longer contained beds, dressers, bedside stands, or any furniture that would suggest it was a room where one was to sleep. The window was covered with a dark blanket over the blinds. Long desks lined three of the walls. Each desk contained at least two large monitors and multiple keyboards. There were two tall chairs on wheels and black boxes, I didn’t recognize.
“What are those?”
“Scramblers.” He shrugged as he removed his suit coat, revealing the holster strapped to his shoulder. “That’s not their technical name, but it describes what they do. They make it more difficult for anyone to hack into our system or to have the ability to track our online movements.”
I nodded. “EMI.”
“In conjunction with interference technology. If,” Eli continued, “the perp or even the police realize what we have going here, they could try to get access to our data.”
“Like what happened with my parents’ doorbell?”
“Yes and no.” He removed his tie and opened his collar. “With your parents’ doorbell, whoever took the boxes of journals stopped the doorbell from recognizing movement, thus stopping recording and notifications. In the case of anyone discovering our location, their goal would be to intercept our transmissions, searches, and data. We don’t intend to share our information until we can prove who’s guilty.”
One of the screens caught my attention. I walked closer. “Is that the street camera from near the restaurant where Dad was shot?” It was as if a continuous slideshow of still pictures was playing.
Eli came closer and pointed to the corner of the screen where the time stamp continued to change. “Yes. We’ve gone back to three months before the shooting all the way to present. This program is searching for repeat license plates, makes of cars, anything that recurs.”
“It’s a popular location. I’m sure even Mom and Dad went there multiple times in that period of time.”
“Once the program has the database of recurring items, it analyzes each one individually. Our working theory is that the shooter disappeared into someone’s car during the chaos. Witnesses have been questioned and currently, no one claims to have seen him. However, given the time of day, there’s no other reasonable explanation for his disappearance.”
“That disputes your lone-wolf theory.”
“Only if the person was planted and not also a victim.”
My gaze went back to the screen. “Can you cross-reference the recurring cars or people with those people who have a connection to Sinclair Pharmaceuticals?”
Eli’s green stare met mine. “We’d like to. Larry is working with your brother for that information. We need that database.” His eyes widened. “Can you get it?”
“Johnathon and Ella are working on that right now. My theory is that the shooter could be a disgruntled employee or consumer of Sinclair products.”
Eli nodded. “We’ve had the same thought. The employee connection is easier to explore. Finding everyone who has ever taken a Sinclair -produced pharmaceutical is a huge undertaking.” He pointed at the screen. “Often perpetrators do at least one dry run. There’s a good chance that the shooter was at this location one or multiple times before encountering your father.”
“He was carrying a sign, as if panhandling.”
“Your mother can’t recall exactly what the sign said. Jack didn’t see it. And coincidentally, panhandling is illegal in the Villages,” Eli said.
“I didn’t know that.”
“It’s not illegal in the state of Florida, but it is within the community. Pretending to be a panhandler was a bold move. The shooter risked law enforcement intervention.”
My forehead furrowed. “Then why do it?”
“Jack thinks it was to hide his weapon.”
I pointed to Eli’s holster. “There are other ways to hide a weapon.”
“It’s a working theory.”
“Could the police have the sign?” I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t started asking these questions earlier. I could have asked the same things of Melinda. If I were to analyze the conundrum, I’d say I was in too much shock and buried in grief to look at the shooting from an objective point of view.
“No, they don’t. It’s disappeared with the suspect.” Eli looked down at his watch. “It’s getting late. You wanted to change clothes?”
“How long will you need to work up here?”
“Most of the night.”
I sighed. “Okay. Do you have time to meet me downstairs in ten minutes for dinner and going through Dad’s stuff?”
