“Thanks, Seb. I owe you one.”
“You don’t owe me shit. I’ll keep an eye on her. You just figure out who the fuck is threatening her.”
The tension in my chest eased the smallest bit, knowing that Scarlett wasn’t going to be alone for the afternoon.
The homey comfort-food smells hit me as soon as I opened the door. My stomach rumbled, clearly upset that I had skipped lunch. It hadn’t even crossed my mind while I was with Scarlett. I didn’t have time for food now either.
The server, Elizabeth, smiled at me as I stood at the breakfast counter waiting for Sheila. I gave her a polite nod, which somehow led to her looking me up and down shamelessly. I turned my attention back to the kitchen door, willing Sheila to come out to the front. It hadn’t been long since my separation from Juliet—we weren’t even technically divorced yet—but word had spread around town like wildfire that there was new meat on the market.
Finally, just the person I came to talk to opened the door from the kitchen and strolled out. Sheila would have probably been too busy to notice what was happening outside, but hopefully, she had cameras that faced that part of the lot.
“Hey, Sheila. Do you have a minute?” I asked.
“For you, Luke? Always.”
“Somewhere private.”
“Of course,” she said. Her eyes filled with concern as she led me to the back corner of the kitchen. “Is this a personal or work visit?”
Both. But I wasn’t going to tell her that. As of right now, I was keeping the details close to my chest. I just needed to know if Sheila had cameras that recorded and if she would allow me access to them… without a warrant.
“Unfortunately, I’m here on work business.” I pulled out my notepad and pen. “Sheila, did you see anyone or anything suspicious today between 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.?”
“Suspicious how?”
“Anything at all. Anyone that made you feel uncomfortable. Anyone loitering in the parking lot but never came inside.”
“Goodness, no. I don’t really pay much attention to the time during the day, but I didn’t notice anything suspicious at all,” she said. “Now that I think about it though, I think it was about that time that the ladies were here for breakfast. Maeve, Claire, and Scarlett. Maybe one of them saw something.”
“I’ll be sure to ask. Thanks, Sheila. Do you have cameras that face the exterior of the building?”
“I have one that faces the dumpster out back. I’ve had problems in the past with people filling my dumpster with their garbage—and I’m talking sofas and mattresses and whatnot, not a simple trash bag,” she explained.
Shit. The dumpster wasn’t anywhere near the side of the building where Scarlett said she parked. “Is that the only one?”
“And the one that faces the front entrance. I don’t need alot of security. Besides the issues at the dumpster, I haven’t needed to review the camera footage for anything.”
Hope blossomed in my chest. Depending on the angle, Scarlett’s car might be visible in the footage.
“Would I be able to take a look at the recordings from earlier today? I don’t have a warrant for them. I’m asking as a favor.”
Please say yes.
Please say yes.
“Of course you can. Come over here. The camera system is set up in a little broom closet though.” Her skeptical eyes took in my height, my broad shoulders, and large arms. “I’m not sure you’ll fit in there.”
I didn’t care if I had to army crawl into a crawl space. I just needed to see that footage.
“I’ll make it work. Thank you, Sheila.”
I tried to keep my expectations low until I saw the camera feed. It was possible that she didn’t capture the corner of the building, and this wouldn’t provide the lead I needed.
Sheila opened the door to a space that truly was as small as a closet. An ancient-looking PC sat on a shelf with an equally old tube-style monitor. Sheila wiggled the mouse to bring the computer back to life and entered a password. As soon as she got past the log-in prompt, two camera feeds filled the top two boxes of a four-box grid, leaving the bottom two boxes to show a connectivity error message.
Fuck yeah. The camera was mounted on a light pole facing the entryway door, but it also captured a good portion of the parking lot on that side of the building.
“Can you make that feed fill the screen?” I asked, pointing to the camera in the top left. “And take me back to 9:00 a.m. this morning?”
